Haruka Tominaga, Formerly Of Especia, Is Now HALLCA, Shares “Milky Way”

Haruka Tominaga, Formerly Of Especia, Is Now HALLCA, Shares “Milky Way”

It would be a little silly to give Especia unearned influencer points for the state of Japanese pop music today…but the now-defunct group were way out ahead on the current city-pop-revival that has carved out space in the mainstream. And unlike a lot of the Tumblr-esque recycled moods of bands now scoring theme songs and…

Make Believe Melodies’ Best Japanese Albums 2016: Honorable Mentions And Notable Releases

Make Believe Melodies’ Best Japanese Albums 2016: Honorable Mentions And Notable Releases

Half of this entry should be relatively self-explanatory — these are albums that, for various reasons, just missed our final cut. All of them are worth your listening time, and them falling just outside of the top 30 really shows just how much good music came out of Japan. The other, though, is a bit…