The J-Pop Thread

new Dempagumi, sounds a lot like MomoClo from 2 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOin4bwUQ5c

yea, I dig it. hard to top "sakura apparation" but I'm always up for more light-speed dempagumi tracks.

This is so good I feel like talking about it for days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDEl77WMY8

If that didn't load, Charisma.com VS Tempura Kidz http://youtu.be/NDEl77WMY8Q

That is fantastic

wow!

echoing everyone - music video of the year right there

Mummies! This is awesome. What is it pastiching? Are there 80s Japanese music videos that look like this?

I get Michael Jackson vibes from that bit but idk really

The video was produced by NAGOYA TV and parodies the what the late-night music program BOMBER-E would have looked like in the 80s.

The lyrics talk about people who are like “mummies” wrapped in bandages that are just an empty shell and have no free will of their own. They want to kill them.

http://aramajapan.com/news/tempura-kidz-vs-charisma-com-in-new-80s-inspired-video-for-miirakiraa/4084/

new Tricot vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3D-yKRRt5s

Ooh, I shall watch that soon - was just popping my head in to concur with the Charisma.com/Tempura Kidz greatness.

apathy - apathy - appetite

really enjoying this new song by Seiko Oomori - she has one of those voices with a harsh edge like YUKI or the singer in nano.RIPE that I'm kind of addicted to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qlEeVS2vMU

that's p cool and I love her voice too but I was kinda hoping for the outside shot that signing w/avex meant she'd ditch all the rock in her sound and just make weird jun togawa-ey pop music like that one single from her last album

I realize this is just my own hangup speaking and I'm prob in the minority here...

Tempura Kidz are amazing. This is my favourite single of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmTiOwuC39k

Still listening to the tempura charisma tune... but here's Hungary's Volt festival's upload of the awesome full tricot set from this summer http://youtu.be/hW_ayjXr1Lk

fun vid to promote the BiS Kaidan (collaboration between BiS and veteran noise group Hijokaidan) boxset
taken from a concert where they played the same song 13 times in a row (!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpjAWcv94ro

new dempagumi.inc rules, as usual (and cool video, as usual)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGy39OMyHzw

Yeah, cool song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_RN3a_GJuE

really cool stuff! sometimes i watch a "j-pop" video and i say to myself: oh japan! i loves ya, but you so crazy!

just my $0.02

Sumire Uesaka has a covers album out soon called "Uesaka Sumire Presents 80's Idol Song Definitive Disc"

1. "Koiki de Namaiki" (Saint Four)
2. "Aoyama Killer Monogatari" (RAMU)
3. "Naze? no Arashi" (Akie Yoshizawa with Onyanko Club)
4. "Little Date" (Ribbon)
5. "Tokyo Rose '88" (Lemon Angel)
6. "Yume Fushigi Ikaga" (Kirara to Urara)
7. "Henne!" (Tsukasa Ito)
8. "Parallel Girl" (Sayuri Iwai)
9. "Stormy Weather" (Mariko Kurata)
10. "Hime-sama Zoom In" (Miho Morikawa)
11. "Starlight Movement" (Momoko Kikuchi)
12. "Pygmalion" (Etsuko Sai)
13. "Motto Sekkin Shimasho" (Hidemi Ishikawa)
14. "50/50" (Miho Nakayama)
15. "Ai wa Boomerang" (Yuko Matsutani)
16. "Yume Shinjyu ~MY DESIRE~" (Junko Mihara)
17. "I WANT YOU" (Mami Yamase)
18. "Dotou no Renai" (Chika Takami)
19. "Mizu no Hoshi he Ai wo Komete" (Hiroko Moriguchi)
20. "MUGO・N" (Shizuka Kudo)

cover is pretty spot on!

http://i.imgur.com/MSXv1nG.jpg

first single by ex-BiS member Tentenko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIkd3H4tEf4

That sounds a whole lot like Especia.. same producer?

looking into it it seems like she produced it herself and is financing its release through this Japanese Kickstarter-esque thing http://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/1305

Awesome

that new sumire uesaka looks awesome!

been getting into you'll melt more lately. the record collector scum designs they bite on their covers caught my eye, like

neu
http://item.shopping.c.yimg.jp/i/j/yamano_4113090673

esg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kzRZCRKdL._SY300_.jpg

and, um, weezer
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O4JK-D10L._SY300_.jpg

and interestingly, altho they mainly work in typical idol pop modes, like on this wonderful track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOCIKV2erL4

they do throw in some curveballs and sometimes even explicitly in the style of the band they're referencing, e.g. this krautrockin' one (with hijokaidan adding some extra feedback skree!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H67s0_7zCo

and here's some shoegaze idol music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiWiQ0RofSU

^ great find.

Been listening to Negoto a fair bit this year, it kind of scratches that early Shiina Ringo itch.

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Negoto---Ammonite%2521/125a3f9263b00e1bc37a2eb77a0eb02b

really like that shoegaze You'll Melt More song. no surprises in the Red & White lineups this year, feels like a cut & paste from last year.

thoughts on the oomori seiko album? surprised by how much I like it given that, save a couple tracks, I've been kinda cold on her in the past, never really got into sheena ringo, etc.

still want a whole album in this style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbKu4Xx0_Us

Just want to say j-pop has by far been the most interesting thing in music this year. So much good stuff from all kinds of artists and scenes I'm struggling daily to keep up with it all and give albums and singles the time they deserve.

Clear your 2015 best-of lists... tricot is putting out a new single in february and ALL NEW ALBUM IN MARCH. Praise the lords.

new Suiyoubi no Campanella video is so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syLz1rcTKD8

What will it take to get to a place where Japanese language popular music (not just j-pop, but indie, rock, hip hop, stuff like Suiyoubi) can be a thing on year-end lists, year-end summaries, western coverage in general? We're obviously at a place where some of the most lauded artists among sources ilxers follow do not sell a lot - they're not 'relevant' in a bestseller perspective any more than these artists - their fame stems from certain circles of people who care about their music and talk about it, often mainly online, which is significant enough to have them end up on many year-end lists also among more mainstream publications. It's not a case of writing about the artists around you - scandinavian, latin american, eastern european artists are represented. In this world where this consensus grows online for artists of all kinds, what does it take? What is the magic ingredient still missing? Asian pop has had its viral hype, k-pop more so than j-pop, j-pop mainly through Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - but what about the critical darlings among fans of Asian popular music? I didn't except them to show up on year-end lists in 2013 and I didn't expect it 2014, so I didn't even react to it, but why? Why can't tricot, for example, be a band that shows up on these lists?

/late night rant

I hear ya and the inevitable "japan is CRAY-ZAYYY" angle that goes along with the meme-friendly stuff that does get written up riles. but I'm not sure there actually is a lot of foreign pop showing up on broad "best of" lists for english-speaking publications? I've missed it if so. usually a couple token acts, nothing too deep & that's not really super different from KPP or babymetal getting a blurb or w/e.

but the heavy overlap with weeb circles prob isn't helping either, that stuff is super uncool

speaking of which, this touhou arrange track is incredible, like an extended especia club edit or something

http://youtu.be/FbX5OLKwlIk

that new suiyoubi is awesome btw, really excited to see where this act goes as they mature...

gotta admit the new You'll Melt More EP cover made me laugh. Also it's called SUImin CIty DEstroyer.

http://i.imgur.com/2WjoSQT.jpg

That EP is great. Glad they put the instrumentals on there too.

Suiyoubi no Campanella = zOMG awesome, had forgotten how ace her stuff can be.

yea the long track on that EP that is not really very suicide-y but maybe a little bit ("nnn") is really pretty

yeh that track NNN was not Suicidey enough, so I made a quick remix over the weekend using only Suicide samples! http://youtu.be/ljKzgNXk6ic

nice!!

not quuuuite there yet but have high hopes for cupitron:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUWTK8jomc4

in their own words, “Colorful Pop!!! From Techno World”

not sure how i've missed this thread before!

i could talk all day about why j-pop (and k-pop) aren't considered for the western crit canon, but will refrain.

nothing out of j-pop really struck my fancy last year except the two shiina ringo record, akai koen's major label thing ("now on air" especially), maybe a few other things here and there...what did i miss? what should i be looking for in 2015?

I don't know where to start with 2014 reccs which is why I haven't made a year-end list either. It was the year where every girl group made an effort to stand out. Cynics may say it was the year where the idol scene co opted indie aesthetics at random to find a gimmick foundation, or just used indie scene songwriters for quick cred, but I'd rather go with 'lots of crazy stuff in every direction' and too many good songs to list, from more traditionally j-pop-y stuff to everything else. I'll have to put together a youtube playlist at some point, at least.

2015 will be the year tricot releases a new single (next month) and 2nd album (march)

imo

dempagumi.inc - singles, esp. "sakura appareshon" (world wide dempa lp came out dec 2013 and rules, so that too)
suiyoubi no campanella - eps
especia - gusto
seiko oomori - sennou (esp. if you're a ringo fan)
charisma.com x tempura kidz single

probs forgetting a bunch of more low profile stuff...

Last Berryz song before they split

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M9TJpLTcw8

Pretty good, but several of the best songs of 2014 were HP releases, like

Morning Musume's
Beyond the Time and Space
Your Bright Smile Is Like The Sunshine

C-Ute - I Miss You
S/mileage - Oh Susukino

I mean how good are those songs. I've played them all year and I'm still surprised listening to them now. Tsunku was on an absolute roll.

Also Juice=Juice
http://youtu.be/_so9w95wzVI¨
http://youtu.be/38c5UbdpfLw