Here’s my personal view on these sort of lists, at least as someone operating an English-language blog about music from a country that mostly gets overlooked by English-language media/listeners — it doesn’t even matter whether I view year-end lists as a portal for discovery or as some attempt at canon building, because for the bulk…
Tofubeats doesn’t really bother introducing himself on Lost Decade, his first original album out on a major label. He’s been kicking around the Japanese music scene since 2006, grabbing attention for his indie-level beats and his work with mainstream J-Pop idol groups like Lyrical School (formerly sex-toy-sponsored Tengal6) and 9nine. Even though this will be…
Call And Response Record’s new compilation album Dancing After 1 AM didn’t need a hook to grab our attention. The 18-track album (full disclosure: released by our friend Ian Martin) features new songs from some of the best rock artists going in Japan. She Talks Silence contribute a shadowy guitar number, while The Mornings jerky…
Not sure whether I’m proud or sorta embarrassed about this one…ahhhh who am I kidding, it’s both. As the review lays out, tengal6 is a pop group sponsored by a male-adult-toy company, which leads to all sorts of gross thoughts and inevitable sexual innuendo. Thing is, this isn’t some piss-take at the expense of tengal6…
And Putting Love Away, the new EP from Tokyo’s Canopies And Drapes, takes its name from a line in Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Bustle In A House.” That work, a brief eight-line poem, deals with grieving following a death, ending with the lines “And putting Love away/We shall not want to use again/Until Eternity -.”…