#30 Snail’s House Alien Pop II + Alien Pop III Near the start of 2019, Yasutaka Nakata shared the theme song he composed for an anime series about Virtual YouTubers, sporting vocals delivered by the digital influences themselves. It sounded a lot like Nakata trying to mimic the innocent bleeping of Snail’s House. Consider it…
One of the failings of Japanese hip-hop in recent years, in my opinion, is a failure to develop a sound all their own. Most of the big hits — even the super fun ones! — are pretty much imitating American production. Which, hey flattery really is a compliment (and, hey, this isn’t just a Japan…
Earlier this year, Tokyo’s Yoshino Yoshikawa traveled to Seoul to play alongside the city’s Subbeat crew, a set of producers creating plenty of great music very much worth your time. Didn’t take long for the two sides to meet again, on the collective’s just-released compilation album Kitties #1. I would have bent my self out…
Yoshino Yoshikawa isn’t as interested in the cute side of Japanese music as he once was, but the producer does have a history of exploring the kawaii. The Cats EP collects songs centered around the titular, furry creature, which have been released primarily over SoundCloud over the last few years. And yeah…they all deal with…
#20 Cicada Formula It’s easy to recreate the past, as no shortage of Japanese bands borrowing from ’80s city pop and ’90s acid jazz have shown in recent years (and, really, globally…this is all Daft Punk’s fault). Cicada’s earliest work slid in nicely to this safe but oftentimes overly familiar space. But Formula decided to…