Dive to Blue: A Brief Look into L'Arc~en~Ciel's Roots in 5 Songs

Exploring the musical influences behind one of the biggest bands in Japan

This feature is part of This Side of Japan issue #65. You can return to the main newsletter here.

L’Arc~en~Ciel has been a band that I’ve long struggled to hear its music as something other than itself. Their works deal with the rock idiom, a product of a classic singer-guitar-bass-drums formation, but to my ears, they don’t neatly resemble records put out by bands who model a certain subgenre popular among the Western music canon. Punk, for example, explained more of their visual aesthetics during their late ‘90s period, if that, than their guitar-playing; they indulged in too many solos to confuse them in the lineage of bands who defined the CBGB scene. Glam is in their roots, though their display of the style didn’t look exactly like the homages happening in the U.K. during the same decade.

I’ve mostly seen other enthusiasts settle for the tag of visual-kei to categorize the music of L’Arc. But that presents a whole different issue: visual-kei, too, has been challenging for me to pick apart in reference to things other than itself. I definitely lack the knowledge of the scene’s music to hear it and pick it apart in detail. For a novice, though, I think visual kei on record also seems more a feeling than any specific sound. That melodramatic emoting in the vocals, for instance, can let even the most adjacent of J-rock to echo some V-kei in it: the music of TK from Ling Tosite Sigure isn’t V-kei, though from the way he sings, I also sometimes dare to claim it’s not not V-kei. And for me, L’Arc after the albums ark and ray is more of the genre in feeling.

This past year or so, I’ve made it a personal undertaking to learn more about L’Arc in hopes to hear their music for their influences. My work for this was already cut out actually to some capacity when my research on the music of Ippu-Do as well as Luna Sea’s SUGIZO for this very newsletter led me back to the British New Wave. It turns out, like SUGIZO, L’Arc’s vocalist hyde loved the music of David Sylvian, whose former band Japan helped bring on the British New Wave—a scene that echoes in the music of many bands formative to ‘90s visual kei like Luna Sea and eventually L’Arc~en~Ciel.

It’s been rewarding to have my personal research on older Japanese music take me back to Western rock bands who I’ve not thought about since, well, I began trying to brush up more on Japanese music history. I get to listen to the works in the Western rock canon in another light. I actually had little interest in ‘70s glam and ‘80s British New Wave until I learned about how it impacted my favorite Japanese artists. As I tried to learn more about L’Arc’s music, I also got to hear bands like The Cure, Dead or Alive and Duran Duran with fresh ears. Experiences like this honestly keeps me going and commit to more deep dives as research for this newsletter.

Spoiler alert: this issue looks back on a L’Arc single as the Oricon flashback. I don’t want to go too far off tangent in that section, and so I decided to reserve space here to talk about what I learned while trying to decipher the influence behind the music of L’Arc in general so far. I wanted to talk about what kind of bands L’Arc reminds me of, and who their songs got me to revisit. For these selections, I heavily refer to this radio show from 2014 hosted by hyde, where he chose songs from British New Wave that he saw as his creative roots. This is more a hint to better understand their music than anything definitive; I understand it represents hyde’s input more than anyone else in the band. But I found this deep dive fun, and so I hope it’s as fun reading through it.

“Forbidden Colours” by David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto [Virgin, 1983]

I’ve already been guided to the music of Japan and David Sylvian from two previous deep dives in research of the discography of SUGIZO as well as Ippu-Do’s Masami Tsuchiya, artists of whom are both in proximity to the roots of visual kei. And so it was personally fulfilling for hyde to bring up Sylvian’s name once more as a favorite in his 2014 My Playlist radio show.

Interestingly, Sylvian’s former band Japan didn’t lure hyde in as much as Sylvian’s solo works. The selections by the singer of L’Arc featured more bedazzled, post-disco picks like Duran Duran on the same radio show, and the choices check out hearing the guitar tones in a single like “Lies and Truth” or “DIVE TO BLUE”: Maybe the rhythm section, too, wasn’t as passionate about Mick Karn’s swampy bass lines. Hyde also chose “Forbidden Colours” out of Sylvian’s catalog more so the audience can find it familiar, and what more can you ask for that than a version of the Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence theme with vocals? The mention of Sylvian alone, though, provided a good start to return to the New Wave and pin it as an influence percolating in the rock of L’arc~en~Ciel.

…from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). Listen to it on Spotify.

“You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” by Dead or Alive [Epic, 1984]

“Pete Burns looked so cool, I copied his style,” hyde said about the frontman of Dead or Alive after he shared the band’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).” “I copied the hair, but his voice was what I couldn’t imitate. How he sings, there’s nothing like it. If I can change my voice into anyone’s, I would pick his.”

Long before I tried to pick apart the influences behind the music of L’arc~en~Ciel, I was always curious of how hyde settled on his distinct vocal style that also defines the vocal style typically attached to his era of visual kei. That unique over-enunciating and bellowing of syllables that go well with the melodramatic emoting the music calls for. When a deep dive on Luna Sea’s discography got me going back to the British New Wave, everything clicked when returning to Pete Burns’s voice on “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).” Add that to his looks that seem so analogous to the flamboyant looks of visual kei, and it’s a no brainer seeing how Dead or Alive feeds into the creative roots of L’Arc’s music.

…from Youthquake (1985). Listen to it on Spotify.

“Why Can’t I Be You?” by The Cure [Fiction, 1987]

Besides a listing on the Influences section of the band’s Wikipedia entry, I don’t have official leads for The Cure being a piece for the L’arc~en~Ciel puzzle. But the subject matter of L’Arc’s singles before “HEAVEN’S DRIVE” does tap into a similar area of interest as Robert Smith’s goth pop¹. Like Smith’s, hyde’s lyrics for the best of his early singles dig from this deep well of unrequited desire to love but also to be loved. The chorus of “flower” exhibits this to a T, with him wanting to smother them with his love, and he’d rather hang to dry if all else fails.

As for why “Why Can’t I Be You?” of all songs, its horn section in particular comes to mind whenever I hear the horns playing behind the chorus of “HEAVEN’S DRIVE.” That’s about it. Though, the quintessential New Wave song like “Just Like Heaven” doesn’t seem too far-fetched as a possible inclusion in hyde’s playlist of favorite ‘80s British songs.

…from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987). Listen to it on Spotify.

“SECRET ROMANCE” by ZI:KILL [GHOST DISK, 1989]

In a interview with Real Sound, DIR EN GREY’s Kyo shared how he had been a fan of L’Arc’s yukihiro since the latter’s time as a drummer for ZI:KILL. Yukihiro’s time there was short, only from 1989 to 1990, but he was part of two albums, CLOSE DANCE and DESERT TOWN. Though it’s hard to say if much of ZI:KILL directly carries into L’Arc’s music, the band still provides hints of how influences from goth and New Wave went into visual kei at large as the subgenre evolved. “SECRET ROMANCE” for one can be better traced sound-wise to, say, Echo and the Bunnymen than any thrash-metal bands in the lineage of X JAPAN.

…from CLOSE DANCE (1989).

“Blurry Eyes” by L’Arc~en~Ciel [Ki/oon, 1994]

It’s funny now to think that L’Arc’s debut album Tierra sounded singular in sound and style to me, especially when its lead single, “Blurry Eyes,” has the band so clearly wearing their influences on their sleeves. Just look at hyde in the music video: After hearing him about how he idolized Pete Burns of Dead or Alive when he was a teen, it’s obvious what kind of aesthetic he’s going for with his looks but also his vocal style. Sound-wise, too, “Blurry Eyes” looks at the flashy, post-glam side of post-punk: it reminds you of how BUCK-TICK fits into the visual-kei conversation with their own rendering of New Wave. L’Arc has adopted their own looks by the time they closed the ‘90s with their twin albums ark and ray, but their early days reveal a whole new perspective to what they would do later.

…from Tierra (1994). Listen to it on Spotify.

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1. The Cure stood more as a probable influence in visual kei in the context of Plastic Tree, whose “Zetsubou No Oka” brought me back to “Close to Me.” The songs initially felt close in music choice but the subject matter of the former song began to echo what was sung in the latter.