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…
New year, same great feature. Here’s the first Music Alliance Pact post of 2013, and representing Japan this month is Tokyo’s OKLobby and their mesmerizing track “Fireworks.” Listen to it…and a whole bunch of other great songs from around the globe (Dragon Inn 3, nice!) below. Click the play button icon to listen to individual…
If every artist has to have a “sakura song” – a single (usually) that comes out around the time the cherry blossoms bloom and EVERYTHING CHANGES (school graduation, company reshuffling) – might as well not make it suck. Most J-pop artists stick to tepid ballads for this season, so thank goodness we have Kyary Pamyu…
Rapunzel8083は良い意味で今の日本のトレンド、シーンを無視した独自の音世界を追求していると思います。新曲Miró Jazzでは彼の以前の作品からのサンプルを集めたものになっています。中には昨今のYouTubeヒットの”Charlie Bit My Finger – Again!”も含まれており、Rapunzel8083の遊び心がみれます。 又彼の作品の多くには著名な画家へのオマージュともとれる言葉遊びが含まれており、以前の作品にはサルバドール ダリを思わせるDalí Jazzそして今回の作品にはミロの名前が冠されており彼のアートに対する思いが作品になっているのかもしれません。色々な側面から見える彼のオリジナリティーは素晴らしい物がありこの独自の世界を是非試聴してみてください。リンクは以下から.
If you happen to be in Tokyo Monday night (maybe some of you are, I don’t know!) and have no plans for Tuesday, which is a national holiday, you should go to this event at Unit. It features a lot of artists Make Believe Melodies, and should be lots of fun. Say hi to me!…
Bedroom-whizz Shugo Tokumaru has released his first glimpse of the follow-up to 2010’s Port Entropy in the form of new single “Decorate.” For those expecting his whimsical, toy-instrument heavy music to morph into something new by now, prepare to be let down because “Decorate” is another solid example of his playroom pop. Tokumaru’s usual assortment of bells, woodwinds and acoustic guitar dominates this song, and at one point he even works in the sound of an alarm clock ringing off. Also intact – the same sense of wonder the majority of Tokumaru’s tracks possess. Listen above. You can buy the single in stores now, and if you do, you also will get the chance to hear Tokumaru’s take on The Buggles’ MTV-launching “Video Killed The Radio Star.” I don’t know what the single version sounds like, but watch Shugo deliver a cutesy live cover below.
Oh Vanilla Beans, how you perplex me. As this idol duo do every time they put out a new single or album, I am left staring at my computer screen like I’m trying to decipher CIA code, trying to figure out whether they are J-Pop prankster geniuses or just so far down the rabbit hole…
Can I just post ; __ ; over and over again? Anyway…Flau’s Noah has a new album out in June and here is the single for it, “Flaw,” and if you have ever walked through a forest or driven a car across a lonely highway or generally done anything alone while feeling intense things, then…
If you like heartfelt longing coated in a bunch of synths, Give Me Wallets are the group for you. They have a new album on the horizon, and “In My Dreams” gives a good preview of what to expect. It`s sparkly and bright, the group giving very little room for silence, every second full of…
After a few years kicking around on independent labels, duo Chelmico have arrived on a major label. It’s a logical step up for a group who have done as good a job merging pop with rap over the last few years, and new album Power out August 8 comes at a time when a lot…
Perhaps in an effort to counter Uniqlo’s line of doofy music t-shirts, the GAP has recruited a handful of younger, vaguely “in” Japanese artists for a new campaign. Up until this week, they had gotten Awesome City Club,* Happy and Never Young Beach to model clothes and play music, an alright line-up but not one…
Editor’s Note: Hello, long time no see! After a break from blogging due to family issues, I’m starting up, though it might still be infrequent. Thanks for your continued support. Hiroshima juke producer CRZKNY has been political since the very start of the decade, kicking back at Japan’s nuclear power industry and the government in…