''Basilisk'' is the second album by Japanese rock band

D'erlanger D'erlanger (stylized as D'ERLANGER) is a Japanese rock band from Kyoto Prefecture, formed in 1983 by guitarist Cipher and bassist Seela. While they originally played speed and power metal, after recruiting drummer Tetsu and vocalist Kyo they s ...

, released on March 7, 1990. It was their first on a major record label, reached number 5 on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon Albu ...

, and charted for 8 weeks. It was also their last album before they disbanded at the end of the year. Although they have since reunited and released '' Lazzaro'' in 2007.

History

Kyo recalled being surprised when, after arriving to start recording the album, the producer brought out a computer. He had never used one to record before. ''Basilisk'' was remastered, along with ''

La Vie En Rose "La Vie en rose" (; ) is the signature song of popular French singer Édith Piaf, written in 1945, popularized in 1946, and released as a single in 1947. The song became very popular in the US in 1950, when seven versions reached the ''Billboard ...

'', and released on April 21, 1995. It, along with the rest of the band's albums, was remastered and released again on April 18, 2007. The arrangement for all tracks is credited to D'erlanger, except "Hurt" which is credited to Dahlia, "So..." which is credited to D'erlanger and Jimmy of

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, and "Bara Iro no Jinsei" which is credited to D'erlanger and Dahlia. "Bara Iro no Jinsei" is a re-worked version of the title track from ''La Vie En Rose'', and "I Can't Live Without You" was originally on their first album as well. The single version of "Darlin'" is slightly different than the album's. The single "Lullaby -1990-" includes part of "Moon and the Memories", titled "Moon and the Memories 2", as a b-side. Incomplete versions of "Darlin'" and "Crime and Punishment" appear on D'erlanger's 2007 greatest hits album ''Pandora''. Their 2010 self-cover album ''A Fabulous Thing in Rose'' includes new re-recordings of "Incarnation of Eroticism", "Sad Song", "So...", "Moon and the Memories", and "Darlin'" For 2017's ''D'erlanger Tribute Album ~Stairway to Heaven~'', "After Image" was covered by

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featuring Kyo, "Darlin'" by

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, "Moon and the Memories" by Dezert, and "So..." by

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Reception

Jamie Cansdale of ''

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'' included ''Basilisk'' on a 2021 list of 13 essential

Japanese rock , sometimes abbreviated to , is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called Group Sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy End ...

and

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albums. He wrote that with "shades of

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goth euphoria" and Kyo's

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

-esque vocals, its "velveteen hymns engulfed a generation with a burgeoning erogenous intensity the scene has seldom seen since."

Track listing

Personnel

D'erlanger *Kyo – vocals *Cipher – guitar *Seela – bass *Tetsu – drums Other * Yoshiko Kawakita – voice on track 1 * Hoppy Kamiyama – keyboards on tracks 8 & 10 * Hiroaki Sugawara – co-producer * Shinobu Narita – co-producer * Yoshiaki Ushizawa – mastering * Daisuke Nakayama – engineer * Michio Nakakoshi – engineer

References

{{Authority control 1990 albums D'erlanger albums