good japanese indie stuff?

Destroy: Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Maybe could pass for "edgy" but certainly not listenable...

Nisennenmondai are really cool, guitars look giant

Chocolat - Like a Starberry

Not sure where Momus is, but:

Kahimi Karie - One Thousand 20th Century Chairs

Kaji Hideki - Good Morning Call Song

what is the feeling here (if any) about yura yura teikoku

Tenniscoats

Green Milk from the Planet Orange. More of a live band than a studio band, but amazing nonetheless.

the new tenniscoats record is lovely. they ought to have a thread. i think we're edging away from edgy. eddie marcon, two of lsd march, are really great. there's a new nagisa ni te lp, and shogu tokamaru's touring. i trust monorail music for albums of the month with a japanese theme.

The new Zazen Boys album has been out for about a month now, and it is bananas:

http://www.last.fm/group/Japanese+Indie

what is the feeling here (if any) about yura yura teikoku

love em. especially the live album. "sweet spot" is pretty good but more subdued than I expected, I like when they freak out more

does Nisennenmondai have an album? or a single? I've only heard their track on the first Million Tongues comp

huh looks like they have a couple EPs and a bunch of CDRs
http://www.nisennenmondai.com/discography-e.html

what is Bump of Chicken considered to be?

new midori hirano is lovely

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/146854-nisennenmondai-neji-tori

Instant Cytron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb12tEVqVx8

new midori hirano is lovely

I loved LushRush, is it on the same label, Noble?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57LboHngkn4

that sounds very cornelius produced, were they "together" at some point? Milk Rock (Cornelius remix) - Takako Minekawa is great as well

also digging Tenniscoats, 坂本龍一 + 嶺川貴子, and supercar is getting even better after repeated listenings

Aside from her first album possibly, everything Takako Minekawa has ever recorded is mindblowingly awesome.

I got a couple of albums by Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her and they were pretty cool. The "17" record is wonderful and stripped down 90s experimental j-rock. They made a LP-length video for it called "Motorhead and Drive Video" and I recently transferred my copy and put a few videos on youtube:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_L85N0CrrI

the most recent midor hirano is on noble. it's similar to lushrush, possibly more spare? strategic.

If you like Takako Minekawa seek out some Tomoe Shinohara, Nagisa Cosmetic or Paris Match

This is pretty good (fresh from hearing it for the first time thanks to Tesla over at Electric Mole):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qpQoirfcLo

There's also a Candy Says cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmA4GfEuRxg

new tenniscoats forthcoming:
http://blog.tenniscoats.com/images/tokinouta_600.jpg.400px.png

i don't think there's ever been much discussion of them on here?, but i get a lot out of them, particularly the record with secai.

Support the love for tenniscoats.

No Boris?

couldnt find a relevant thread to post this in since there isnt a thread of lo-fi japanese test card music that dissolves into atonal guitar harmonics & broken down tape echos but anyhoo, this whole album is such a joy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6o6uc6gOU

the boy who cried fantanto

nah I'll give it a listen or 0.02

im not trying to be your friend

I was wondering if there was a suitable thread for people to paste up some new(ish) JP music that was outside the Idol/J-Pop/Dance music sphere, it could be noisy, poppy, whatever and I guess this thread fits. let's enjoy Japan!

385 (sanhachigo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWweM9eaxg4

Spangle Call Lilli Line
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2FxhiY7qGg

Skillkills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgnhxYSvd10

Going to have to work my way through this thread at some point.

But for now, here's this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQc-2bBmdfw&ab_channel=Motfd

https://burnyourhometown.wordpress.com/ / "Travels in Japanese underground music"

Thanks for that link dylannn, some friends and I have a little net radio show that goes out every fortnight and I try to find new or newish J music, blogs like that and makebelievemelodies.com are a total godsend because research minus the ability to read kanji can be a bit of a headache.

I'm beginning to think that Coaltar of the Deepers were the best band of all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaFA7EUYnxI&ab_channel=NorioMusicChannel

RYM genre tags for their Penguin EP: death metal, shoegaze

How are there no results when I keyword search Shugo Tokumaru? Love the two albums of his I own: Night Piece and L.S.T.

Croissant chicago are my favourite thing at the moment, a weird, jangly, floaty [mildly shoegaze] band with John McGeoch on guitar and the Hatsune Miku vocaloid program doing all the vocals, it's immense.

https://croissantchicago.bandcamp.com/album/people

Excuse me but may I just shill once more for my radio show, now we have an archive - https://www.mixcloud.com/JapanAlternativeSessions/

Evan, I really recommend Port Entropy by Shugo, it's so good.

Thanks! I've definitely been meaning to...

Aight let's post some more bits I've been listening to:

Sayuu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dyVEBOFxHg

Downy [covering This Heat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp8tgrI5U_E

Clammbon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIsAQQ7jBJE

Gesu No Kiwami Otomoe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhbBT-pQPxk

Atlantis Airport

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Bp3zr2Dlc

Haisuinonasa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT8mSZBJzJA

this is pretty rad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53mOa0B3nN4

there seems to be lots of great japanese indie and psychedelic rock - can anyone point towards some choice compilations / playlists / threads?

doesn't even have to be new what's up w this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKY38Nx8dSo

well if we want to talk old stuff i like the '80s comp "welcome to dreamland - another japan". what else have i been enjoying... luxembourg kouen, which is a japanese musette group. early '80s hardcore band the stalin. rosa luxemburg, mid '80s, sounds kind of like james chance and the contortions. hiroyuki namba's "hikousen no ue synthesizer hiki". the most recent ichiko aoba record. hoppy kamiyama's optical*8 from the '90s. i don't know it's none of it shibuya-kei like kirinji or whatever (i also love kirinji) but that's the japanese stuff i've been listening to.

oh! and pale cocoon. have you heard pale cocoon? somebody made an anime named for them. the anime is really good. so is the band.

I know Pale Cocoon through Soft Selection 84, which was a really good cassette comp of early 80s lo-fi synth pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbo4bcl9Jss

those are great recommendations, thanks!

love chelmico and their luscious jackson vibe. saw the first video playing on one of the dozens of monitors in truly mind-bending japanese variety store village vanguard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvA1AHKXUfY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yiaAfAb7-0

ha, those are great

can't find them on Spotify - wonder if I need to spell it in japanese?

yeah those are nice

a lot of japanese music doesn't seem to be on spotify yet, they only got it fairly recently i think

I've always like this group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cM7dQUu1VY

I'm never far away from being in a Clammbon phase, I keep all they rekkids close to hand despite the fact the last three EPs have been available only in Japan and not in normal shops but music instrument shops, coffee houses and little stationery shops in Kichijoji back streets, severely testing my fanhood, but they're more than worth the hassle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3lCCKXe998

I saw Clammbon perform live a zillion years ago and they did a serviceable cover of Judee Sill's "That's The Spirit", let me see if I can find it on the 'tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlNdjcBW3J4

(this would have been ~2005, forget who they were opening for...)

I am jealous !

Sakanaction album is kind of dull (to me) outside that incredible first track. The video, oh my. One of the best I've ever seen.

Love these guys -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BfmNBlzHFY

Ha, I love that. That pace shift really gets in your head!

this is messing with my brain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQk3rMnU9M

beautifully bonkers

this is awesome, thanks

I hope there's more to come. I've been playing the hell out of Endangered Species over the last couple weeks and it is a fantastic record.

japanese indie mp3 store and stream, looks to be tenniscoats-focused and -run https://minnakikeru.com/

some interesting stuff

I love this band so much -

https://croissantchicago.bandcamp.com/album/crankshaft

This is great. You would probably like a lot of other stuff in the vocaloid scene.

if you can point me to bands that use it but aren't J-Pop, Techno or more traditional vocaloid music, I'd be super interested to hear.

two recent singles from AprilBlue who sound kind of like the Beths but with a bit of a shoegaze thing going on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycnxITz8LpU
AprilBlue - Clarity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiOPbeOgPko
AprilBlue - シーサイド

If I may shill for myself and my friends for one sec.

Japan Alternative Sessions, a radio show I started a few years back has been reactivated, it's not just indie/alt we cover as much ground as possible, old and new music. The plan is to do a 2 hour+ show once a month and put it out on Mixcloud and YouTube or wherever else we can.

This is the latest edition:

https://www.mixcloud.com/JapanAlternativeSessions/japan-alternative-sessions-edition-70/

Stumbled across this little gem today, really great debut, for fans of Clammbon, Tricot, Spangle Call Lilli Line etc:

https://ungulatestokyo.bandcamp.com/album/ungl-009-downt-downt