Rice (styled as rice) are a Japanese

visual kei is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Som ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed by ex-

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

members Yuki and Hiro. Like Raphael, a lot of rice's music is in the rock

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

although instead of

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

is a much more prominent instrument in their work. The band, although not as visual as they used to be in Raphael, still keep a very distinct fashion from that of a lot of other bands.

Band members

Yuki Sakurai:

Lead vocalist The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

, main

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

, main

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

ist (occasionally). Kazuhiro "Hiro" Murata:

Backing vocalist A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

ist,

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Although technically not members of the band, many session instrumentalists have contributed both to album recordings and live shows including Hiroshi Egami (guitar), Fumiaki Nishiyama (bass), Toshihiko Nagayama (cello) and Ayumi Hashimoto (cello). Something that is common on a lot of Rice releases is the inclusion of the same song, "Air", on a number of releases. "Air" is a song with no lyrics; it consists of a vocal melody, a cello melody and a percussion accompaniment. It appears on every album and single they have released, re-recorded each time, with the exception of "はるか" (Haruka), "刑事ヒロンボ" (Keizi Hironbo) and "There is…". In October 2012, Rice announced that they will be going on an indefinite hiatus. They will be performing their last show before their hiatus at the Akasaka Blitz on December 25. They resumed activities in late 2013, however, and released their comeback single, "僕はここに居る" (Boku wa Koko ni Iru), that December.

Discography

Albums

*''Love Rain'' (ラブレイン) 2002-07-24 Oricon Style Weekly Album Top Position: 89www.oricon.co.jp
''Rice Weekly Album Ranking'' retrieved February 19, 2011 *''Rame'' (ラメ) 2004-11-01 *''Trial 0406'' 2007-01-31 *''六極 Sympathy'' (六極シンパシー) 2009-10-21 Oricon Style Weekly Album Top Position: 110 *''Niel'' (2010-10-06) Oricon Style Weekly Album Top Position: 100 *''Shizuku'' (2014-11-01)

Singles

*"Angerudie" (アンゲルディエ) 2001-07-25 *"Kurogane" (鐡) 2001-10-31 *"Haruka" (はるか) 2002-10-23 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 68www.oricon.co.jp
''Rice Weekly Single Ranking'' retrieved February 19, 2011 *"F (Forte)" (f～フォルテ～) (f~forte~) 2005-03-08 *"Mei" (芽生) 2005-05-05 *"Keizi Hironbo" (刑事ヒロンボ) 2004-12-28 *"There is..." 2006 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 156 *"Brave Story" 2008-09-03 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 121 *"Heart is Always" 2008-03-26 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 106 *"Lovers" 2010-03-10 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 35 *"Sing You" 2010-04-14 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 28 *"Cicada" 2010-08-04 Oricon Style Weekly Single Top Position: 59 *"Rin" 2011-04-16 *"Ito" 2012-04-14 *"Akashia" 2012-06-06 *"Fake Star" 2012-10-24 *"Boku wa koko ni iru" 2013-12-25 *"Nobara" 2014-04-02 *"Kotoba ni dekinai" 2014-07-30 *"Asterisk/Never" 2015-07-15 *"Mirai" 2018-12-26

Promotional CD

*兎に角（ウサギニツノ） (Usagi ni Tsuno) (2003-07-16) *FCイベント“春の好き間”参加記念 (FC Event “Haru no Tsuki Aida” Sanka Kinen) (2004–07) *2005年カレンダーおまけ (2005 Toshi karenda-omake) (2004-12-28) *2006年カレンダーおまけ (2006 Toshi karenda-omake) (2005-12-28) *2007年カレンダーおまけ (2007 Toshi karenda-omake) (2006-12-27)

Video

*辻 (Tsuji) (2004-12-28)

DVD

*ricelive /∞ Lv:9rice vs 刑事ヒロンボ (Keizi Hironbo) ～respect it cool sounds evolution～ (2005-09-07)

References

External links

Official Site
(Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice Visual kei musical groups Japanese rock music groups