It's been five years since we last heard the super lush, whispery, twee sounds from Matryoska. So what have they been up to? Something huge, it would seem. Their new album Laideronnette is due out on 12/12/12. The first track "Monotonous Purgatory" (above) is a sad, expansive, glitchy orchestral dream. The rest of the album (see the sampler below) looks to be more of the same, which is all fine by me.
You can download "Monotonous Purgatory" for free direct from their site and order the album there as well. You can also get it at CDJapan.
Here's a video from Luminous Orange from the newest album Songs of Innocence. "Untold" sounds to me like it came right from the mid-'90s and I think the video fits into that era pretty well too. The song has a ton of swirly effects and jangly guitars and the video has a similar indie-rock, art-school feel. There are only a couple main ideas, but there's a lot going on, so that makes up for it. Overall it's an OK video for an OK song. Why do I feel like Kennedy needs to send us to commercial...?
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche is an arty, brooding grunge band formed around 2005, though simply calling them a grunge band is selling them woefully short. Like their alliterative name might suggest, they blend styles and sounds from all over the map with loud guitars and sloppily screamed lyrics just one set of paints on their palette. For every jangly song there is an equally soft and shoegazy counterpart, a slightly psychedelic swirl behind the driving rhythms.
While songs like "Take Me Out" and "Midunburi" seem haunted by Kobain's ghost, others like "Lonesome Valley" and the stunning "Narrow" show a much more modern, almost post-punk aesthetic. There are also more sparse and dreary moments like "Act I Scene II Tremolo," and it's follow-up "Tea For Two," both of which seem pulled from an angst-filled film soundtrack.
Whatever they attempt, Psysalia Psysalis Psyche manage to ride the fine-line between obsessive attention to detail and sloppy rage. They have enough coffee-house flair to grab the beard-wearing, iPhone obsessed art-students, while still waving a middle finger in the air. With only a few small releases and one solid album under their belts, it'll be interesting to see what course this young group chooses to blaze.
Karen is a five piece band whose two guitar players are Art-School members (front man/guitarist Riki Kinoshita and guitarist Masafumi Todaka) and whose rhythm section is made up of two former Downy members. Singer Achiko provides the contrast to all that arty/indie testosterone with her mild, crooning vocal style.
Obviously something of a side-project due to the fact that Art-School is still quite active, the band nevertheless manages to produce solid releases with a sound independent from that of its Frankenstein's Monster origins. Sure, some of the guitar tones and playing can echo that of Art-School's dreamy, indie, emo-rock sound and Riki's occasional backing vocals only serve to amplify that echo, but Karen's overall vibe is much more suave and contemporary. It's obvious that the band knows how to pound out a song, but in Karen they all fall back a bit, instead simply keeping things very tight and stripped down. Given the chance, the band does toss in some tricky rhythms and the production is generally louder and more raw than on any regular AAA release. You can lead a horse to water and all that...
They also mix things up with a few lines of saxophone, oboe and other instruments rarely seen in your typical rock set-up. The atmosphere is extremely hazy and reverbed-out, a nod to the heavily effected shoegazy sounds of early '90s groups like Mazzy Star and The Sundays. The songs themselves follow suit, being generally slow and subtle. Achiko often lets her voice ring out for what seems like ages, with nary a waver or wobble in her crystalline tone.
One final note. While the name Karen could be thought of as the Japanese word "かれん" pronounced "kah-ren," looking at their almost exclusively English song and album names, it would seem to be more likely that it is simply meant to be pronounced as "care-en." Though that could be incorrect and any insight would be appreciated.
Pasteboard was a very short lived shoegaze duo. Formed around 2001, Makoto Igarashi and Mihoko Tanoue stuck together for a few years before the release of what was to be their only album, Glitter, in 2005.
Yet the real story is that the band never really broke up. Not exactly. Both Makoto and Mihoko were actually working together as Roly Poly Rag Bear for a while before they released their Pasteboard material. Since they are still releasing material under the RPRB banner, it would seem as though Pasteboard was only a sort of side project. The material on Glitter seems to prove this theory, as most of its nine songs are very short, almost unfinished at times, mere sketches of songs that never really came to fruition. On the other hand, songs like "Shoegazer," "Slowdive" and "Squall" are truly great, blurry pop gems.
In a way, it's a shame that the duo doesn't continue to peruse the more rock-oriented sound of Pasteboard in lieu of the more stylish, though no less muzzy bossa/Shibuya-kei style of RPRB. That project is a bit less unique and precious, instead being slight more run of the mill and bland overall. Not that Pasteboard is groundbreaking in any way, but in that case the songs have a stronger presence and a more earnest feel. Of course we can still hope that the duo takes the time to release another batch of hazy, dreamy rock some time down the road.
Being the solo work of Koji Nakamura, ex-frontman of the highly popular and influential indie-rock/shoegaze/electro band Supercar, it's perhaps understandable (if not inevitable) to want to compare the music of iLL to that of Supercar. This isn't helped by the fact that they are, in many ways, very similar. Similar enough to say with confidence that if you like one, you'll like the other.
Two of the largest missing pieces from the Supercar puzzle are bassist and vocalist Miki Furukawa, who brought the female voice to the Supercar equation and the more electronic slant that Supercar adopted later in their career (see Highvision.) iLL keeps the quiet and muzzy shoegaze vibe though, as well as the morose tone of Nakamura's own vocal delivery.
While Nyantora, another of Nakamura project, is almost 100% ambient electronic, iLL is rooted in rock, albeit very spaced out and simplified. Many of the songs are very repetitive and almost drone-like, though far from atonal. They often work themselves into a trance-like state with a wall of reverberant guitars and crashing drums. Again much like Supercar, the electronic elements are kept to a minimum, but when used are rather organic and raw.
iLL's output has greatly increased as of late, with two full length albums released in 2008. While many fans are still mourning the passing of Supercar, the can at least console themselves knowing that its shattered pieces are still spreading their own light into the music world.
Matryoshka is a somber, ethereal duo consisting of programmer Sen and vocalist Calu. They seem to be very heavily influenced by other precious bands like Mum and Sigur Ros. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found a resonance with fans in the Netherlands who helped bring them to the attention of the powers the be.
While the dark, washed out chords and gradually building piano lines might at first conjure up echos of the Icelandic shoegaze super group, Matryoshka does have their own style. (Although, having said that, "My Funeral Rehearsal" is almost note-for-note Sigur Ros fodder.) First off, being a duo with (apparently) a single, largely electronic music producer, their sound pallet is certainly different. Where Sigur Ros is solidly grounded in real-world instruments, Matryoshka instead beings a host of both frigidly cold soundscapes and more heavily processed glitches. Most songs are a mix of muffled beats and the aforementioned pianos and stings with various vocal twitters and sonic trickery. Others are a bit more experimental, like "Viridian," an exercise in massive synths and little else, something that wouldn't be entirely out of place buried deep on a Nine Inch Nails album.
That's not to say they are stark and lifeless however. Quite the opposite. Calu's melancholic and angelic singing style brings an almost Dead Can Dance feel to some songs, most notably the absolutely amazing "Evening Gleam Between Clouds." She sings in both a whispery falsetto and a lower, more mature register. It's almost as if two people inhabit her voice from one song to the next. Much like their Russian name (nesting dolls) and Polish album title Zatracenie ("doom"), the vocals also jump between languages, from Japanese to English, though with the ghostly presentation it's often tough to tell the difference.
While they do at times show signs of still being a rather young band (they formed in 2006) with limited resources ("Tyrant's Miniature Garden" is a fantastic song marred by synthetic strings and drums) they definitely have a very unique style that's ripe for many years of harvest yet to come. In fact they already have a second album in the works. You can listen to and download almost all of their songs directly from their official website, something else rather unique.
At times sounding remarkably like fellow indie/shoegaze band Art-School, other times like a slightly more epic touchy-feely emo version of Asian Kung-Fu Generation, or maybe the rawness of the post-punk Orge You Asshole, The Novembers are obviously a melting pot of rock styles.
The Novembers introduced themselves to the world in 2007, releasing a handful of demos before their first self-titled mini-album was released, suitably, in November of that year on Daizawa Records. Their first full-length album Picnic was released in mid-2008. The band fits quite well alongside label-mates Bacon, Vola & the Oriental Machine, Syrup16g and Base Ball Bear, among others. Their style is rather restrained and "arty," with plenty of softer, guitar driven tracks interspersed with a few faster, louder tracks. Mostly they stick to simple, almost droning, wall-of-sound songs driven by Yusuke Kobayashi's suitably high, geeky voice. He very rarely breaks away from singing to scream a little emotion into his delivery.
Overall, The Novembers tend to fade into the background. They don't have any tricks up their sleeve, simple sticking to a few nice songs that usually don't rock too hard. Perhaps in an extremely loud live setting their songs would relate more intensity, but if so, it's something lost in the recording process. Nevertheless, they are a great alternative to more intense bands like 9mm Parabellum Bullet or Ling Tosite Sigure who tend to actively scare away more timid listeners.
With a name like My Plastic JonBenet Doll, you know it has to be good.
In fact, My Plastic JonBenet Doll is made up of members from four other rather good bands: Aiko Nakajima of Veltpunch on vocals and bass, Tomomi Hirota of Overleaf on vocals and guitar, Seiji Himeno of Enmanova on guitar and backing vocals and Naoki Asama of Kiwiroll on drums. Perhaps it is this hodge-podge of members from other, moer active bands that makes MPJBD seem like a bit of a side-project right from the get-go.
Since their formation in 2004, the band has only released one mini-album, Yellow & Blue, and that was back in 2006. Obviously the members have a lot on their musical plates, so it's no surprise that work on My Plastic JonBenet Doll has fallen to the wayside. Nevertheless, their single release has plenty of shining moments to make it worth the effort.
With duel female lead vocals in full effect on most songs, they sound most like Toddle or some of Esrevnoc's harsher rock songs. They are a dreamy indie rock band at heart, with the bulk of Yellow & Blue featuring their high, fluttering duel harmonies floating over a wash of fuzzed out guitars and straightforward drumming. Their various musical backgrounds do show through from time to time though, most notably with the obvious single and opening song "YB." It's extremely catchy and peppy, and also the most like Esrevnoc's chirpy, sunny style. That's followed up with "U.S.O." a fast, almost punk tune, if not for the very pretty vocals. "Faint" is a plodding space pop jam that suddenly breaks into a psychedelic rock-out at the end. The album tosses in enough of these twists and turns to make for refreshing listening, if not anything revolutionary.
Will we ever see more from My Plastic JonBenet Doll? Probably not (their official website seems to have expired...) but hey, we've got all of their other "real" bands to keep up with, so any future releases will be a very welcome surprise.
Somewhere in the wash of shimmering guitar chords and distant drum beats, two voices echo, burbling up from some underground cave. This is the sound of Hartfield.
Formed in 2000 by the Takateru Kagawa, male half of the band, Hartfield took a few years to perfect its atmospheric shoegaze sound. They made several appearances on various compilations, perhaps most tellingly Seven Winters, a compilation of like minded artists, apparently released on a label called Curse of My Bloody Valentine. They shared some pretty good company, including Luminous Orange and Coaltar of the Deepers.
It took them three tears to release their first mini-album L.I.B.R.A. Their first full-length release quickly followed. At the time they were performing with a full band, including a drummer and bassist. Somewhere along they way they parted with their rhythm section are today are listed as a duo. To be fair, Takateru and Yukari, the female half, really are the stars. They share not only lead vocal duties, but dueling guitars as well. Not that you're likely to be able to separate their guitar tone from one another. It's tough to overstate the staggering amount of delay, reverb and distortion that blankets everything on their recordings. It's the audio equivalent of a gale-force blizzard and tsunami battling it out over a barren landcape.
That's not to say that their songs are all gloom and doom. In fact, despite the chaos, they are rather bright, with a rosy glow around the edges. At times they are even downright upbeat and poppy, a bit like some of Supercar's early, fuzzed out tracks. (See "She Knows" below.)
The band has toured both in Korea and the US. Their album True Color, True Lie was released in three different versions for Japan, Korea and the US, proving their sound translated very well across cultures. They are apparently in the process of recording their next album (since 2005,) so let's hope we hear more from this impressive duo very very soon!
It's easy to think, upon hearing descriptions like "spaced-out" or "instrumental" or "shoegaze," of a bunch of sullen dudes playing soft, twinkery tunes in a dark room. While that is certainly the case for Toyko's rururu, it's also far from the mark. rururu might play spacey songs, but they are loud spacey songs. Loud and huge. Full of swirling guitar noise and Dina's occasional high pitched vocals. Much like Downy, rururu builds their songs up over time through both repetition and sheer volume. Dina's vocals are treated just like the other instruments, acting more as raw tones instead of words, his words stretched and awash in delay and reverb.
Their songs have that dark and dangerous feel so common among the shoegaze set, but songs like "Mugen" and the amazing "&" also offer up trance-like tribal rhythms between the drums and bass, allowing the guitars to spin and scream over the top. This adds a welcome feel of triumph and celebration in an otherwise dismal and despairing genre. Truly awesome, awesome stuff.
Audio Safari is a mellow electro-shoegaze band from Kyoto Japan. Originally a duo (with computer backing), they've diversified over the past four yeas and now include a drummer and bass player. In that time they've only recently released a single full-length album, 2007s Urunosora.
Actually, calling them "electro" is a bit misleading. Much of Urunosora reminds me of Highvision era Supercar. They are very soft but full of bubbling synths and solid bass-lines, with an overall positive yet melancholy feel. Mami Sakurai's vocals are equally soft and clear, a bit like Chara meets Bjork. Pleasant yet unique enough to stand out in a crowd full of similar singers. There are also echoes of Sigur Ros sprinkled throughout, largely due, again, to Mami's wonderful delivery over the twinkling pianos and synths. A sort of slow but insistent quality. "Don't tell anyone," it says "but I have something important to tell you."
Audio Safari are one of those bands that you must actually listen to in order to fully understand. It's often too easy to just skip through a song looking for the good bits, but with Audio Safari, the good bits are sewn through the entire work. This is a rare feat. Hopefully they won't wait another four years for the next album. Then again, it would certainly be worth the wait.
Much like Miaou, Mono is a post-rock (I prefer "shoegaze" is it's much more apt) instrumental band. However unlike Miaou, Mono is very loud, with much larger build-ups and greater high points. Yet they still have plenty of quiet and pretty moments. They are rather morose and melancholy, with powerful center sections that inevitably build to an ear-splitting cresendo.
Miaou is an instrumental shoegaze trio. They stick mostly to soft, pretty, guitar driven sound-scapes. Occasionally they will build into large, soaring crescendos. Most of their songs take their time in developing, jumping from section to section until it all becomes clear in the end. They are the perfect background for a long distance drive through a picturesque landscape.
Dark. Art. Rock. That's the best way I can think to describe Downy. At first, one might think of Radiohead, but then the massive, complex, looping rhythms tell you that this isn't any ordinary shoegazing group of guys. They are gloom machines churning out huge falling blocks of rusted metal and dusty empty rooms. Their fractured structures are as relentless as they are fragile, with Robin Aoki's desperate, thin voice piercing through it all. Their albums are all untitled, each one more distorted and angry than the last. The only light they use on stage comes from a single video projector that bathes the stage with its imagery. Unfortunately for us all, Downy broke up after releasing their fifth (live) album. At least they left behind some amazing albums, and some equally amazing videos.
J-Pop and J-Rock are only the beginning. The modern Japanese music scene is just as vibrant and varied as any other music scene in the world. I'm Zac Bentz, writer, musician, designer and all around Japanese music fanatic. Here I hope to share with you a comprehensive (!!) list of Japanese artists and bands (with a strong focus on underground and indie acts) that you may or may not have heard of, in the hopes of expanding our mutual awareness of Japanese music.
I don't mean to suggest that everything I listen to is great. Quite the contrary, I hope that you will take the time to recommend your own favorite artists in the comments so that we can all learn a bit more about the huge range of Japanese music that's out there.
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