Japanese Music

[themagician]

Discuss and share Japanese music!

I'll start with some of my favorites:

Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

These guys can't make a bad song. I recommend starting with their "Thee Greatest Hits" album, 32 songs of greatness.



ROSSO

Three solid albums.



The Blondie Plastic Wagon

The rest of the album is quite soft compared to these two songs, but their first album Buffalo Boogies is a little rougher.



Blankey Jet City

Pretty much all of their albums sound the same But worth a listen if you like the sound.

[joachimt]

Nice to see you back again, magician!!

[bal3x]

[Armoreska]

That doesn't sound very interesting to me.
I've actually been wondering if there are any other Japanese artists/bands I might like besides the 4-5 electronic ones I know: Yellow Magic Orchestra/Ryuichi Sakamoto, Boom Boom Satellites, Ken Ishii and Towa Tei from Deee-Lite. Thus far Japan has been disappointing in music department

[Noirville]

BLANKEY JET CITY is great. I love their debut "Red Guitar and the Truth". It's also worth checking out the vocalist's other endeavors, like SHERBETS, PONTIACS and Asai Kenichi solo. It's been said he's the Jack White of Japan but better. It's funny that you say all BLANKEY's songs sound the same while the same can be said for the TMGE output but I guess it's just a matter of preference. I like that group too.

Japan has a rich history in music and I feel much of the good stuff is hidden away in Tokyo's record stores and never sees the light of day internationally. Aside from a few oddities I mostly know the well known and popular music too.

Solo women: Maki Asakawa, Morita Doji, Sai Yoshiko, Hako Yamasaki, Meiko Kaji

Morita Doji

Metal/rock: SEIKIMA-II, early X Japan (pre-1994 or so), Dir en grey from time to time (Uroboros is their magnum opus), Loudness in the 80's, DEAD END's late 80's run before they broke up in 1990, Carmen Maki&OZ (selftitled album from 1975 is a little gem)

Dir en grey

I also enjoy SOFT BALLET, BUCK-TICK, LUNA SEA, Uchoten, BOØWY, Tokyo Jihen (+Shiina Ringo solo) and Jun Togawa with her groups Yapoos and Guernica. And "shibuya-kei": Pizzicato Five, ORIGINAL LOVE and Flipper's Guitar. I don't know my genres very specifically and I don't really care as long as I enjoy the music.

Pizzicato Five, ORIGINAL LOVE

[themagician]

It's funny that you say all BLANKEY's songs sound the same while the same can be said for the TMGE output but I guess it's just a matter of preference. I like that group too.

Maybe I was just a little disappointed when I listened to the first 8 of their albums yesterday and I couldn't really tell when the album changed. I think I still have one album to go, Harlem Jets. I still like that band and the music though.

Anyway, trying to find some interesting girl bands / female leads, here's a few of the better ones I've come across:

Midori

According to RYM: Art Punk, Jazz Fusion, Hardcore Punk, J-Pop. Sounds pretty interesting.



Miki Furukawa

According to RYM: Alternative Rock, Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Electronic. Sounds quite nice, but the rest of the album isn't really that good...



Tsushimamire

According to Wikipedia: Punk rock, art punk, pop punk, indie rock. I like that the vocals aren't clean.

[Carmel1379]

I'll listen to your songs later, thanks. I'm not so familiar with Japanese music. I'll just mention an interesting experimental rock band I recently discovered called Boredoms.

[mjf314]

I like a lot of music from anime, but other than that I don't spend much time trying to search for Japanese music. I don't keep track of my favorites, so making a list would be difficult, so I'll just use this as an excuse to post this one link:

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGCrrPlJpYY

[clemmetarey]

For those of you who like Progressive Metal, check out Gonin-Ish :

[Armoreska]

Nice postings bal3x!

[bal3x]

Nice postings bal3x!

didn't realize you're into prog ;)
btw, Art mentioned this band on another thread, most of the album is on YT, I've been listening to it, some very good psychedelic stuff.



Also here: https://gurugurubrain.bandcamp.com/album/gypsy-house

[themagician]

So, Midori is pretty great. My favorite is probably THIS.

Miki Furukawa was nothing special... Her second album was a bit more dream pop/shoegaze.

Tsushimamire is okay, but all their albums sound the same.

New one I've discovered:

eX-Girl

Experimental Rock

They claim to be from the planet "kerokero" which is a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound a frog makes. Frogs seem to be a recurrent subject on their albums. They make some pretty awesome music too. Their cover of Pop Muzik is especially good:





eX-Girl playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 6YZ_MbV469

Have a listen to: Hettakorii No Ottokotou (this song is pretty insane), Cucumber Surrender, Waving Scientist @ Frog King, Crime of the Century, Zero Gravity...

[tirefeet]

Theme from Ukigumo is beautiful, glad I could find it.

[themagician]

Melt-Banana is pretty sick. Apparently they sing in English but I have no idea what they're saying. Definitely need lyrics. You can also find some of their live performances on YT.

[Chilton]

I know very little Japanese music, but this right here is one of the greatest things ever

[Pretentious Hipster]

I didn't know themagician was into noise rock/grindcore o.o

Wonder if you'll ever explore the Japanese Harsh Noise scene lol (or Japanoise)

[Pretentious Hipster]

Here's a taste of one of the extreme Japanoise groups (most people don't like them. imo they range from shitty to awesome). Although this probably belongs in the strange things thread

nsfw

[bobbybrown]

@themagician: I recall from browsing RYM some years ago that those who enjoyed Melt-Banana were also into Mainliner, Acid Mothers Temple and Ruins, though I haven't listened to those myself. And check out Ground Zero, their stuff is ridiculously good, esp. Consume Red - can be a truly cathartic experience if you set aside some time for it and let it build up for some time. From what I can remember their Revolutionary Pekinese Opera is great too.



Haven't heard much else from Japan. Once an LP by Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer (Japanese big-band klezmer) fell into my hands, boy that was a blast. Not much by them on youtube, but this one is fantastic, they start rather slow with a mix of mournful klezmer and what seems like more traditional Japanese singing style and then burst into an incredibly wild and lively drunken wedding party tune. Lechayim!



Oh yeah, @ArthurYanthar, there once was a funny period in my life when I was using Merzbow's Venereology almost every day as a mind-numbing drug, worked pretty well. I think I still can hum by memory two thirds of this little ditty:

[wasabi]

I like a lot of music from anime, but other than that I don't spend much time trying to search for Japanese music. I don't keep track of my favorites, so making a list would be difficult, so I'll just use this as an excuse to post this one link:

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGCrrPlJpYY

The link didn't work anymore.

[mjf314]

I like a lot of music from anime, but other than that I don't spend much time trying to search for Japanese music. I don't keep track of my favorites, so making a list would be difficult, so I'll just use this as an excuse to post this one link:

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGCrrPlJpYY

The link didn't work anymore.

I think this might be the same music but I'm not sure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UlHTcyGnqY

[Armoreska]

Im listening to Boris who are play stoner and other kinds of metal

[Mario Gaborović]

I did listen to this band, though:

[Armoreska]

I got 2nd all time play on this upload

[Onderhond]

[wasabi]