Controlled Karaoke: An Intro To Japanese Roots Music
Japan Probe posted a small write-up about Japanese roots music. It’s a nice little introduction to the type of music (one I’m woefully ignorant of, so this is especially great), so give it a read.
Japan Probe posted a small write-up about Japanese roots music. It’s a nice little introduction to the type of music (one I’m woefully ignorant of, so this is especially great), so give it a read.
Tokyo label Trekkie Trax has teamed up with Mad Decent sub-label Good Enuff for a compilation celebrating the Japanese netlabel. This isn’t the first time these two entities have criss-crossed, and many of the artists here have also been featured on Good Enuff. The best moments come from the artists who seem most out of…
About a month ago, I went out on a Monday night to catch Tokyo indie-pop group BOYISH. One of the acts before them were a duo named Colorado Coronado, a band whose name I had seen before on SoundCloud, but had always filed away as “probably more indie-pop.” The past six months have been so…
End of June means a steady stream of “best of the year…so far!” lists, but don’t expect one from me around these parts (because this already exists). Yet one album that has come on strong for me as July looms over the horizon is one I expected to enjoy when it was announced…MCPero’s MCPero No…
It has been a great year for retro-leaning acts in Japan. Sloppy Joe put 80s-era indie-pop into a big ol’ bear hug on their excellent debut album, while Friends smothered 60s beach pop under waves of distortion. Joining them in 2011…the unexcitedly named Traffic Light. Behind that very bland name, though, exist some very lovely…
The sheer size of Avex — the Japanese music/entertainment label — guarantees a few interesting ideas tucked away. Even though the face of the label is anchored by heavyweights such as Ayumi Hamasaki (neve rmind her steadily sinking stock), various EXILE groups and a sack full of K-Pop acts, Avex has spent a lot of…
Alright, go ahead and don’t dwell on the image above. Shintaro Katagiri seems to be a big fan of EarthBound, but new track “Airplane” sounds nothing like video game background music. Katagiri saves his game file to go out on a Saturday night (errrr, metaphorically) – “Airplane” is guided by neon streaks of keyboard that…