Tag: indie rock

japanese music you should be listening to – part 2

0.8syooogeki – Arishima Machine Gun
translated as “0.8 Seconds and a Crash” the band released 5 albums between 2009 and 2017

Midori – Doping☆Noise Noise Kiss
prog/jazz/noise/punk quartet Midori are a genre all to themselves. Manic and yet cohesive. They released 3 albums before lead Mariko Goto went solo as seems to happen to many japanese bands.

Jun Togawa – Suki Suki Daisuki
1980s avant garde new waver Jun Togawa is kinda sorta like the japanese Kate Bush, but so much weirder. Between her solo works and collaborations and her bands Yapoos and Guernica, she paints a very broad canvas of diverse musical colors and poetically profound and disturbing lyrics. The song represented here is a manically happy love song about a Yandere girl, the kind of psychopath who’s love for you may end in murder. (youll want to turn captions on for the english lyrics!)

Fra-Foa – aojiroi tsuki (pale blue moon)
On the periphery of the japanese late 90s indie rock boom, Fra-Foa were amongst the heaviest and most dynamic grunge-inspired bands. With a massive sound and near psychotic vocals from frontwoman Chisako Mikami, they were a powerhouse small club band but never achieved great fame but released two superb albums before Chisako went solo. The video here is her singing about her deceased brother and the intense emotion is breathtaking.

japanese music you should be listening to – part 1

Kinoko Teikoku – Spring and Carnage
in-your-face indie rock, technically labelled as shoegaze group but much more down to earth in my opinion. The bands name translates as “Mushroom Kingdom”.
move the video around using your phone for 360 degree view

Lovely Summer-chan – Part-Time Robot   (in 360 degree video!)
The pseudonym and solo project of of Aika Imaizumi, ex-vocalist for shoegaze band For Tracy Hyde, She self produces as a one-woman band.

She In The Haze – Doubt
considered rising stars in the late 2010s, this band who also shoot their own videos and do their own production, did a european tour to some acclaim but then mostly disappeared

Esrevnoc – Bijin
riding the japanese indie rock boom, this major label girl-rock power trio encapsulated the fun 1990s sound