Look, I’m watching the second half of this Japan-Colombia World Cup game and it is stupid stressful, here is a new song from Osaka’s Soleil Soleil, it’s good. Back to sitting all scrunched up like seeing if Japan can score two goals….
We’re firmly in a post-netlabel world. Everything is “internet music” now, and the idea of online as a potential alternative to existing lanes of music has vanished as major players crowd up what seemed like new alternatives. Sure, corners remain for artists to develop their own world, but they are getting blotted out by the…
Really, it’s marketing that can’t be beat — if you make instruments, why not have musicians come in and make original songs using your top-of-the-line gear? Korg has done just that, and one of the folks they’ve called up is Minami Kitasono, who went ahead and made as loving a tribute to ’80s Japanese fusion/funk…
Tokyo’s Peanut Butters description on SoundCloud reads “We like The Drums.” A simple statement and one that puts them in league with, well, dozens of other bands in the capital. While that affection comes through in other songs by them, “Kuso Poem” embraces a different vibe en route to some indie-pop sweetness. They deploy some…
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has been 2012’s most interesting J-Pop star so far for a bunch of reasons – her vibrant music videos, the fact she reached the top of the American electronic iTunes charts with her debut album, her Yasutaka-Nakata-produced debut Pamyu Pamyu Revolution being one of the best Japanese albums of the year. Mostly…
Two new videos for two of 2015’s better songs from Japanese artists. Above, you can watch the colorful, hypnotic clip for Cuushe’s “Tie.” Meanwhile, Noah’s “Flaw,” which came out yesterday, got a music video too, directed by Takafumi Tsuchiya (who has worked with Perfume). Watch it here.
Sometimes you just need a blast of something familiar. Dronjo Kept By 4’s “Radio Her” is indie-pop simplicity at its most stripped down — what starts out as downright sloppy quickly turns in to a nifty guitar dash that just keeps on plunging ahead. And overhead comes some head-down singing, adding extra texture to what…