Programming Note: It’s Silver Week in Japan, and I’ll be in the countryside for the next three days! This either means less posts or more, all depends on Internet connection. Moscow Club’s second album, Outfit Of The Day, comes out next week, and here’s the third taste of it. “Carven” is the most refined number…
Whisper-style rapping has been a bit of a trend among women MCs in Japan, highlighted by Bonjour Suzuki and Izumi Makura. Maybe it is a work-around of something MCpero told me last year, when she pointed out it is tough to be forceful like male rappers in Japan. Whatever the reason, it has resulted in…
Consider this the opposite of the last post featured on the blog…that number went super short, while the songs on producer Amps’ new EP keep twisting and turning like one of those rides with sharp turns and cardboard cutouts that move out of the way. Tomboy’s title track sums it up — it’s a rollicking…
Today, Seiho’s new album Collapse comes out globally via LA label Leaving Records. It’s a big moment for an artist who, five years ago, was playing sets in small underground clubs in Osaka and launching his own record imprint. Yet Collapse isn’t a stab at crowd pleasing dance, but rather an album jumping from energetic…
[looks at calendar] Oh hey, nice. Indie-pop outfit Luby Sparks are the latest up-tempo group charging through ennui to get the call up to a bigger label. They just released their debut album via Space Shower Music, and shared the title track. “Thursday” zooms ahead, featuring a slightly fuzzed guitar melody which adds some force…
Smany’s latest album To Lie Latent isn’t quite a new release. Rather, it features a lot of glances back at the wispy electronic singer/songwriter’s history. Some songs are simply brought back, while others — such as “2113,” originally released in 2014 via Bunkai-Kei Records — get updated and played around with. It’s a personal favorite…
Tokyo’s Ningen OK are a group that demand to be seen live. I lucked my way into seeing them this past weekend, knowing nothing about them, but leaving thinking this duo put on one of the better live sets I’ve seen recently. They play surrounded by what appear to be homemade white pyramids. Guitarist Takurou Yamashita stands in front of a board littered with effects pedals, while Ken-ichi Sakaguchi looms over a drum kit which he soon hammers away at. They play very precise, wordless rock that always seems an inch away from tumbling into chaos, but always manages to hold together. Between songs, Sakaguchi leans towards a Vocoder and creates trippy segues featuring his robo-tized voice. Then they launch off again. It’s captivating stuff.
Their music manages to still sound good away from a live house – “Taion No Yukue” highlights Ningen OK’s precision-centric nature while also introducing elements of chaos (listen to that radio feedback). Listen to that below. It comes off their recently released first album of the same name, which is also probably full of good moments. Still, Ningen OK seem like a live band first, one that you should certainly make time for. Bookmark this page.
This year, Tokyo’s Moscow Club have been balancing precariously between electronic goodness and cheesy gloop. They haven’t abandoned the indie-pop sound that grabbed some attention last year – see the lovely “Radio Vietnam” – but their 2012 output has relied heavily on synths and keyboards, the band conjuring up a spacey, 80’s new wave vibe…
Indie-pop outfit Fandaze have a new EP called Balloon Songs out on October 26, and here is a peek at what to expect. A quick, not particularly strong Google search indicates there are no other indie-pop songs to be named “Kinda Sad,” which is surprising since that (or, I guess, kinda happy) would be the…
As mainstream Japanese music continues to revolve around only a handful of pop-leaning acts – the biggest sales all come courtesy of groups with a “48” in their name or a boy group from Johnny’s – underground artists who will never have a shot at breaking through into the Oricon world have turned to the…
Man, these four sure have grown in over a year. Back in 2012, they were just another indie-pop band in a very crowded field. Now, they are one of the few to break through and land on a decently known indie label (Second Royal) and their music has gotten tighter and better. They have a…
Editor’s Note: A lot of great music came out over the weekend so we will probably be playing catch up for a bit around here. This EP’s opening track seems like it is going to be Picnic Women business as usual – the juke producer grabs Adina Howard’s 1988 song “T-Shirt & Panties” and footworks…
