Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday

meisenfek: just heard the paranoia agent theme you posted and it's definitely representative of his output. maybe a bit more upbeat than usual but if you like that song than pretty much all of his music from the 90's and beyond should appeal to you.

Does anyone (of maybe the two people who actually d/l these) know what kind of stuff they want to hear next week?

hah.

personally, I would love to hear some of the more psychedelic, pre-ymo stuff that's working with a primarily electronic palette. I think cochin moon is a stunning record, for example, and haven't heard much else like it from that scene... but I realize that's taking us out of "new wave" territory for sure.

Those albums are kind of tough to come by. I think that in Japan, YMO really was the pioneering electronic act, it's not like Germany where you had Cluster and Harmonia and Schulze...but I'll have to look. I'm not too worried about going out of "new wave" territory since there are only really handful of Japanese bands that can really be classified as such...I mean Sim City is pretty far away from new wave but he had his roots there and took just enough of it with him to make it count in my mind. Hell I was planning to post Kaze Machi Roman by Happy End up here one of these weeks just because Hosono was on it.

yeah, I'm not really sure if there even IS much stuff like cochin moon out there. not knowledgeable enough. have to admit... a whole world of bands running parallel to cluster/harmonia/schulze that I had never heard of is exactly what I was hoping for. :-)

but I'm loving this thread and especially the more fringe stuff like sim city! it's unlikely that I would have heard it otherwise and it is GREAT. thanks for doing this.

yea i'm into sim city, especially the title track, really appreciate the tip

Glad you guys liked it...i would be interested to know what songs were your favorites.

Hard to pick just a couple but "Caravan" always strikes a chord with me, mainly because it comes after such a melancholy stretch of music. "Moonlight" also really blew me away, especially the first time around. Seems like its going to be sort of a typical string ballad, then this overpowering industrial noise comes out of nowhere and becomes the focus of the song...very cool

Glad you guys liked it...i would be interested to know what songs were your favorites.

"lotus" is really doing it for me right now.

re-listening. a couple thoughts.

"moonlight" - wow, this might be my fave. so sweeping.

"pacific rim imitation network" - maybe not top tier, but whoa, that guitar solo is pretty "out."

the whole thing is fairly consistent, tho. and a lot of little touches to latch onto with this one.

"Moonlight" still gives me chills just thinking of it. "Kingdom" is one that has really grown on me. Kind of has a trip-hop beat to it and the organ parts in the background are really neat. BTW speaking of "Lotus" it's one of quite a few songs he did that seem to change depending on how you listen to it...like on a full system vs. headphones vs. say, computer speakers

Does anyone know anything about this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRgLhEGEetc&feature=player_embedded

Moka posted it a while ago, and it just slays me.

cant find anything else about this on google except that its from 1983

would love to hear the rest of this album!

yeah, that's great!

i'll have to look at it when i get home

but if you know the artist or song i'll see if it rings a bell

The band name is Mariah. I have both of their albums on CD in my hometown, but their sound is a little too experimental for my tastes. I haven't heard them in 4 years, but I'm actually curious to give them a listen again. My mom is visiting me tomorrow, so perhaps I'll have her look through my collection and bring them for me!

Further googling yielded some results after all:

http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=4272

Apparently some of the lyrics are also in armenian?

Thanks so much Patrick, and if its not too much trouble i would love to hear the other album as well.

looking forward to catching up on this thread.

and if you do end up ripping those, flac would be just great. :-)

I was going to say, if you find them, definitely throw them up here, that would be awesome. I did find it on Soulseek but only in 128 kbps

maybe not top tier, but whoa, that guitar solo is pretty "out."

most of his solos are like that; check this out

(skip to about 2:10)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCmtP7dpk4I

Ah, missed this thread!

Agree about Takahashi, though I think Neuromantic is his best. Murdered By the Music is great though. "Blue Colour Worker" is so uplifting in that relentlessly happy 80s Japanese futuristic mall music sort of way. What, Me Worry has a few great tracks too ("It's All Up To You", "Disposable Love") The "Poisson d'Avril" soundtrack has a lot of nice carefree instrumentals like early Bacharach-ish Pizzicato 5 (pre-Nomi Makiya).

Speaking of P5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp951qxPyuc

^^ produced by Hosono btw!

that solo rules!! xxpost

^^i'm not really into guitar solos that much, but that's pretty much how to do it.

love this thread, btw, not sure if i said that earlier or if i just thought it a bunch of times (and i'm apparently too lazy to take 10 seconds to search)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3NPMYzruY4

corey - I'm a big fan of "It's All Gonna Work Out" from What, Me Worry. Maybe my favorite of his. Have you ever heard that instrumental soundtrack he did called La Pensee?? It's surprisingly addictive, kind of like one of Hosono's Monad albums. There's a track called "Brise" that's so wonderfully bizarre that it makes me laugh every time.

btw; are there any other P5 albums really worth checking out? I've got the first 6 and the only one I really like is Pizzicatomania, which Hosono produced, mainly because I love the sound (similar to his S-F-X record). They seemed to crank out records way too fast

also if no one's heard this, this is one of my favorite Sakamoto tunes ever, super surprised to find out that it was him, since it's really wild:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRAub18g1Pw

I like the early Non-Standard singles (Audrey Hepburn Complex, P5 In Action) Couples, Bellissima! and This Year's Girl.

My favorite P5-related release is Maki Nomiya's Pink no Kokoro from 1981 (which is actually perfect for this thread!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnpfqN1F0Wg

nice tune!! i like madcap stuff like that

btw is she the one who sings "Baby Universe" on one of the Katamari soundtracks?? love that song

http://technopop.info/pm/st2.GIFhttp://technopop.info/pm/bb2.GIF

P-Model (1992) and Big Body (1993)

P-Model's original run was from 1979-1986, but after six years they reformed into a more focused, techno-oriented unit while retaining their original style. They're very high-quality and are a good intro to the band (or Hirasawa in general). Unlike later albums this is still grounded heavily in technopop, with lots of sequencers and blippy noises. I was only going to post the 1992 album but decided to post them both for two reasons - one, Big Body has "Chevron", one of the greatest technopop songs ever, and two, both of them are short and sort of form a set. I might wind up posting another album but for now both of these are pretty worthwhile. P-Model is more straight-up techno, while Big Body has some more epic (and harsh) style of music. In addition to "Chevron", "Wire Self" (from the s/t) is an incredible tune that deserves repeat listens. If you get to the end "No Room" is a neat update on their first single "Art Mania".

Still not a Spotify link

Cool — I've been meaning to listen to P-Model. "Techno-oriented" sounds up my alley.

hey frogbs is this a private party or can anybody join in? i've been living in Japan since November and buying up this kinda vinyl like crazy. would enjoy sharing w/ you guyz

I have an album I'd like to post after you missingNO

you should go before me since you've been posting already !

I would love to hear some of the more psychedelic, pre-ymo stuff that's working with a primarily electronic palette.

not exactly pre-YMO, but Vanity Records put out some of the strangest electronic music I've ever heard. the Sympathy Nervous and Tolerance LPs especially are a must for all BGM disciples (they even put out a record by group called BGM iirc), super austere submerged tape loops, primitive drum boxes, insane synth programming. the Alfa/Yen Records axis gets most of the attention especially going towards the digital era but there's a lot of weird stuff out there that kinda went under the radar. there's a cool Vanity Records comp that came out last year that's highly recommended

http://youtu.be/V0oKkgiiJlo

http://youtu.be/KHYpx5ucIQc

it's like weird euro minimal synth but with better synths and psychedelic drugs

there's def a Cochin Moon/Zuckerzeit/Curiosum kinda vibe

That Sympathy Nervous track is great. I'd never heard of any of these before, so thanks.

missingNO; by all means, especially if you can get away from the Alfa/Yen Records axis of everything...nothing against that label but sometimes its hard to remember that there was other stuff out there. I haven't heard anything on the Vanity label so fire away!

If you guys want to go next week be my guest (or just throw them up whenever), if you can't post up two albums let me know because I still have a good amount and can put up one more if you like. Really appreciated...for a while I didn't think anyone was going to help me out!!

I'm pretty cool with this being like two or three people just trading records or whatever. :)

absolutely, as much as I want to share these albums, I was definitely hoping to find some lurkers with weirder tastes than me

I would love to contribute but I'm really just dipping my toes in at this point. knowledge definitely isn't v. deep right now but I am really loving everything on this thread so far.

No problem — the fun of sharing stuff I already know is seeing the reactions of those not already familiar. It's always awesome to see more people get into BGM.

Yeah...it's kind of the Sgt. Pepper or whatever of the genre; one of the few early synth albums that really "plays up" to whatever speakers you have...if you have subs, there's such a big kick-thump on tracks like "Ballet"...not even Kraftwerk had that! And "Mass" continues to scare the shit out of me in any situation

yeah it's one of the few records of that era that lets the bass in the 808 kick come through in the mix. compare BGM to a Soft Cell record from the same period and you'll see what I mean

there's a different mix of "Happy End" w/ a straight 4x4 808 kick drum that's well worth tracking down

is that the one on Sakamoto's Arrangement EP?

btw "1000 Knives" is definitely one of the high watermarks of 808 beats

agreed on BGM. just played it on my living room setup last week and it sounded great.

that sympathy nervous track is excellent!

Read somewhere that YMO playing "1000 Knives" live was the first concert appearance of an 808? Not sure if that's true or not but I believe it.

Who else was using them in 1980/1981? It didn't really become popular until the mid-to-late 80's.

Roland (coincidence?) Bocquet's "Robot Bleu" has a few tracks that use it. Tangerine Dream was using them too in their live shows, but they were using them essentially as "rhythm boxes" and not really realizing their programming potential the way YMO did.

I'm thinking the Germans would have been among the first, thought maybe Cluster had used them at some point but I guess not. I thought Kraftwerk used them for Electric Cafe but just found out it was a Linn drum machine.

Oh wait, it was on "Musique Non Stop"

Some great selections here. Anyone heard those Fairlights Mallets & Bamboo compilations? I generally don't like various artists compilations but these might be pretty helpful.

Those compilations are great yes!

I see they were brought up in the YMO BGM thread and a bunch of non-genre threads. I'll get them someday. Wasn't there a few related compilations?

This from the JT link upthread, it seems they've been part of the catalyst that has resulted in the renewed interest in some dusty areas of 80s J music.

"He helped artists such as Prins Thomas acquire copies of “Utakata,” who then put songs from it into mixes shared online, helping turn the record from virtual unknown to secret gem. Beyond Shimizu, the internet played a central role in spreading older Japanese sounds. Portland-based producer Spencer Doran’s 2010 mix “Fairlights, Mallets and Bamboo — Fourth-World Japan, Years 1980-1986” attracted attention, while Gorchov says YouTube’s “suggested” algorithm kept highlighting ’80s Japanese songs."

We play a bunch of this type of stuff on our little show and it's def become easier to track down and to get information on over the last year too, which is great, we're going to interview Patrick St Michel soon and ask him whats going on.

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/djmix/bo_en/plastic_platform__c67___bo_en/

This is the other one I was thinking of but it's not all Japanese.

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/various_artists_f2/ymo_rewake/

Anyone heard this?

Decided to bump this thread to up some Yasuyuki Okamura, who is not really YMO-adjacent like most of the stuff here but does fit into the funkier division of the New Wave scene. He appears on albums by Cornelius and Denki Groove and if you're into J-pop you may see his name crop up a lot. He reminds me a lot of Falco, but with Prince's falsetto and Michael Jackson's sense of rhythm. He actually borrows a ton from Prince but that's obviously not a bad thing. Anyway, he was pretty huge from 1987 to 1990, during which he released four albums, a greatest hits, some singles, and starred in a film. He's slowed down considerably since then, always "active" in some sense (mostly as a producer and songwriter) but he's only released three actual solo albums after 1990, plus some self-cover discs and collaborations. Partially this is due to two drug arrests which derailed his career; if you know anything about Japanese drug law, getting caught with anything is bad news, even if you're a celebrity. But he's actually managed to become a hot name again these last few years, mostly due to the success of the single "Viva Namida" which wound up a high-profile anime theme.

I find his music to be totally addictive, but I couldn't really figure out what album to upload here; in my opinion they're all pretty good, but he's one of those artists where there's a large gulf between his best work and everything else. So I decided to make a playlist, which I've been jamming like every day this month so far. It starts off with his early hits and more pop-oriented work and then goes into his funkier and stranger material. Included are covers of "Burning Down the House" and "Turtles Have Short Legs", the latter of which is from a collaboration with Takkyu Ishino of Denki Groove. Enjoy!!!

Link: https://mega.nz/#F!4qxw1KCJ!Cp2zeKsnP4-SRb3fISUKuw

sounds great, thanks!

Why is the seach function in this place so bad? I don't know if OP is still doing this listening club

I knew i had read about Soft Ballet somewhere on this forum. But the only posts that were coming up were about the Autechre remixes. (SB did have impeccable taste in remixers.)

Was really looking for discussion of this tangle of bands - Soft Ballet / Der Zibet / Buck-Tick and their dozens of collaborations and solo and side projects. kinda gothic, kinda queer, but with a dance / pop sensibility. Adjacent to Visual Kei, but not metal enough to be that genre.

Soft Ballet were one of those bands who honestly should not have worked on paper. One keyboard player (Fujii Maki) was into extremely hard German industrial and experimental music. The type of guy who would literally get an angle grinder out onstage. He's the one who pushed them to work with Coil and Autechre. The other keyboard player (Mokioka Ken) was into eurodance - Pet Shop Boys, Stock Aitken Waterman synthpop. They had their later albums mixed at Pete Waterman's Hit Factory in Borough to get that shiny, shiny eurodance sound. And then on top of that, they had this extremely operatic, shamanic Jim Morrison wannabe singer. Yes - very handsome. If you're into the handsome singers of the androgynous goth variety, you should really look into Buck-Tick and Der Zibet, lol. (Buck-Tick are so goth they have a theremin player, if that tempts you.)

This music has become more accessible since a lot of it has come onto Spotify now, but is there enough interest to justify starting a new discussion? I don't know how active this forum is.

I remember getting into Buck-Tick years and years ago, in my early j-rock phase (the anime OP/ED providers: L'arc~en~Ciel, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, etc). I remember liking what I heard but no further details. I'd be interested in some pointers for sure. (You could also -- shameless plug -- force some people to listen over in the 7gp thread, as long as you're willing to get into other folks' deeper explorations!)

It was me and someone else discussing Soft Ballet, but I never went beyond clicking around youtube to hear their stuff. I discovered them on some alternative manga tumblr page and there was a really gorgeous song that I was struggling to find again. The main vocal influence had to be Depeche Mode and my only complaint about the band was that the vocal influence was just a bit too obvious, maybe that fades away later? Susumu Hirasawa worked with them too.

I'll keep those other bands in mind, that Der Zibet guy is vampire handsome.

https://liveikoze.com/images/report_20150603_01_03.jpg

https://liveikoze.com/images/report_20150603_01_03.jpg

https://liveikoze.com/images/report_20150603_01_03.jpg

Oh wow

Haha definitely - ISSAY is the daddy of Endo Ryoichi and Sakurai Atsushi and every other handsome vampire type singer in Visual Kei and J-rock in general!

I like the idea of the 7GP thread - but I think I'll hold off a bit untiL I get more of a sense of this place, what the other posters are into and what their taste in music is like? I can be quite fussy about music. I think I will lurk on the thread and learn for a bit first.

But if you are at all interested, TheNuNuNu and Robert Adam Gilmour, I would love to start a thread specifically for these bands, as opposed to general Japanese New Wave?

Please do!

Etherwave,

many x posts
I find the best way to search the site is using Google (or another search engine) and adding
site:ilxor.com
along with your search terms.

Thanks for the tip, bryan - I will definitely try that in future.

I have created a new thread for discussion here:

This is NOT Visual Kei: BUCK-TICK, Soft Ballet, Der Zibet / ISSAY and their associated 90s J-Rock side projects

Random request: I know there are many people on this board who know more about Japanese music that I do.

The people in this image. The man is obviously Fujii Maki of Soft Ballet. Does anyone know who the two drummers are?

pic.twitter.com/r1QxPihKkQ

— VANILLA (@DGJ3LrW9H6OTCLt) April 1, 2025

Tried reverse google and got nothing.

Not much to do with any of the previous: The Willard has a compilation called Rubbish Stories Happened.

After someone on a Soft Ballet forum posted live video of Maki playing with the two live drummers above (phenomenal show BTW) I finally got an answer on who they are! And this is going to send me down a rabbit hole of more great music.

The woman on the right is Yamaguchi Miyoko from BimBamBoom, an all-female funk band. Absurdly catchy and danceable stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unh_lfkcDAw

The woman on the left is Yuumi from DE BESO, their YT channel looks more like dub plus a bit of funk, but again, super fun:

http://www.youtube.com/@DEBESO

Plus - Cross Power Flower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDAzM_Nre64
https://www.fondsound.com/plus-%E3%83%97%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B9-cross-power-flower-%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B9%E3%83%91%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC-1992/
Just bumped into this on youtube, really fascinating, dreampop but a whole lot of other things, a shame they didn't make more albums

Absolute treasure trove of a YT channel that's been going for a few months, seems to be an archive of a Video magazine tied to a record label?

It starts with punk and goes through to the early 90s, taking in lots of great stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/@CaptainRecordsVos