The scene best summing up the 2010 Nara Street Style Music festival happened early in the afternoon, inside the event’s strangest venue, a hotel. In the hallway between a foyer, a banquet hall and what appeared to be a wedding area (all three serving as stages), the nightmare-inducing Nara mascot Sentokun danced about and mugged…
Port Entropy marks a huge moment in the career of Shugo Tokumaru. I don’t mean in America, where the whimsical pop maker’s fourth album will likely see release sometime in 2011, leading to every review of said LP to rightfully bemoan his ignored status in the States…though, Pitchfork, just bless him with a “Best New…
Despite what the band wants you to think via their moniker, Africaemo sounds neither like they hail from Africa or like emo music. Geographically, this four-piece draws inspiration from two islands – England and their native Japan, specifically the NME-hyped “indie-dance” outfits of the prior mixed with the more unique voices of the latter. The…
I ventured out to Osaka’s Fandango live house on a warm Saturday afternoon to see an opening band. The risks involved in going to a concert just for the undercard go deep – chance of wasting money, hating the other bands slotted above the one you actually wanted to see, in the case of Fandango…
The big buzz surrounding De De Mouse’s latest album A Journey To Freedom has nothing to do with the music inside, but rather the artwork on the outside. The cover, featuring four fantasy-role-play-meets-steampunk youth playing instruments as they walk in front of some weird double-mooned world, comes courtesy of Final Fantasy art designer Akihiko Yoshida….