Ultra-violence and erotic-grotesque, lyrical themes revolving around Nazi symbolism, anal rape, and Steve Harvey that make Brotha Lynch Hung seem like Will Smith, the Odd Future collective (or more properly known as OFWGKTA [Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All]) are the next revolution of underground hip-hop. Their popularity already snowballing during the past year, the collective has been compared to the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, and although this may be a label put on any new aspiring rap group that is getting their fair share of press, the term is very fitting here, with the Odd Future collective spanning over a vast amount of members including that of "leader" Tyler, the Creator, his brother Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Left Brain, Hodgy Beats, and many others to boot. Each member often appearing on each others albums and even during live shows the stage is shared equally by the members, trading off and performing with other members on songs.

Tyler, the Creator is perhaps the most well known of the group, followed by his brother Earl (who is supposedly in bootcamp right now after his Mother had heard his album). Tyler's album Bastard was finished when he was only 17/18, and Earl finished his earlier this year at the age of 16. Both albums possess a dystopian, darkly ambient feeling that clashes perfectly with the raw vulgarity present.


The whole crew themselves are young, ranging from the age of 16-21, they produce their own beats and push forward a visual style in both video and album art which is almost as abrasive as their lyrics. The effect of their music is quite polarizing, but if you look beyond the surface you'll see past the wrongly accused label of "horror-core" and see something much deeper, almost depressive, with Tyler's album, Bastard, often referencing the father he never knew. Despite all this though, many of the members show a strong sense of intelligence, self-awareness, and tongue-in-cheek lyricism that goes far beyond the years and the skills of their peers in the rap game. Groups like MellowHype (consisting of Left Brain and Hodgy Beats) and Mike G focus less on the vulgarity and explore more ethereal and experimental forms of hip-hop. There isn't much to say about this group that hasn't been said already. You'll either love it or hate it upon listening. To all the Female Trouble readers, I'm more than positive you'll enjoy.


The rest of Odd Future's albums, mixtapes, singles, etc. can be downloaded directly from their Tumblr for free.

-Garrett

JaccaPop is yet another indie techno-pop group from Japan. What amazes me so much about the Japanese music scene is that unlike American music (at least to my knowledge), you have groups making pop music equivalent to that of the mainstream who are still very much set in the indie scene and playing small clubs. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Japanese pop is that people lump all forms of pop music together and one assumes that just because one is making pop, you're some mainstream star, but that's far from the case (especially when you have great artists like Mizca who supposedly only sold around 100 copies of her 1st CD during her first week, not to mention the hundreds of Doujin musicians out there who have strong underground followings). But I digress.

JaccaPop's sound is very naive, bedroom techno-pop, if you will. Their sound is a bit under-produced in comparison to other groups, but that's where the charm and distinction in their sound lies. Even upon looking at the tracklisting you'll come across grammatically incorrect and misspelled song titles like "Majic Night" and "21th century girl." Singer Sun's voice isn't the strongest, but it fits the music perfectly and it feels endearing to listen to. Miru is the composer for the group, and while his production has little tricks and may not be flashy by any means, the songwriting shows lots of personality. Both members appear to be very young and I believe it shows, but as I mentioned, their lack of experience is what sets them apart, creating a sound that is innocent, playful and endearing. Parsley is only their 1st album and only the start of more amazing things to come.

Amu is described as an "indie/technopop" outfit and rightfully so. With their debut album, "Prism," the group combines the messy quirkiness of indie groups with the cuteness and refined production of bigger technopop acts out now. Imagine the energy of レコライド mixed with Hazel Nuts Chocolate and some very odd production on top of that and you come close to the sound of Amu. They are definitely one of the standout groups in the technopop scene right now and deserve your attention. They don't sound like a group produced by Nakata, nor one by Terukado, and while I do love that sound, it's nice to hear some originality for once and not just another group trying to sound like the next Perfume.

I thought I'd make this post to point people in the direction of some amazing blogs that definitely need some more recognition. Check all these out! I've learned about so many amazing artists from these people.

-A Softly Sleeping Rose: NOISE/IDOL/EXPERIMENTAL/ETC. EVERYTHING GOOD!
-Habit of Sex: JAPANESE INDEPENDENT MUSIC (The most obscure stuff you'll ever find!)
-Japshare: DUH!
-Stalking Duppi: JAPANESE 80'S UNDERGROUND

Also, if you could take the time to check out/follow a blog my friend and I run focusing on the Orange County Noise scene and the annual Santa Ana Noise Festival. We try to update fairly often about local happenings and artists.

Santa Ana Noise Festival @ The OCCCA

We also have a YouTube channel: OCNoise

Peace!

-Garrett

Sadesper Record is a two-person group involving Narasaki of Coaltar of the Deepers (who goes under the alias, Goro Watari, on this album) and Oshima Watchma (WATCHMAN) who has played with groups such as Melt Banana.

The CD actually is technically a soundtrack for the movie U.F.O., directed by YU-ICHI SUKIGARA. The video for "Siesta" is meant to be a kind of trailer for said movie.


If you've heard Coaltar of the Deepers before, that may gave you a brief indication of what to expect. A nice mix of shoegaze, grind, electronica and pop. Although the genre clash may be relatively close to what Coaltar does, the sound here is quite distinct from that band. Songs such as "Lose Your Sight" is a blissful shoegaze piece with distinctivly J-pop vocals. Think something like Coaltar of the Deepers meets Hatsune Miku. The other tracks sound more "soundtrack-like", with many brief instrumentals that give one the image of running through a dark, industrial city, or drifting away on a soft cloud. The stand-out piece, "Siesta," sounds like what it would be like if aliens abducted Kevin Shields to write a 90's house song.

A bit too songy to be called a movie soundtrack, but sometimes too dense to stand out as a complete album. Altogether, this is a very brief, but fun record. I'll post their full-length soon.


-Garrett

Thanks to Megane-kun's recent post on Etsuko Yakushimaru I've been obsessively listening to her band Soutaiseiriron for the past month or so. It's a bit hard to talk about this band, aside from the language barrier, it seems as if this band is quite difficult to decipher even to native fans of the group. The band name itself translates to "Theory of Relativity," a name that is very fitting due to their complexity. No pictures or video at live shows, little to no press photos or interviews, and ambiguous music videos with no members of the band being show. Despite this though, singer Etsuko Yakushimaru has been hard at work with her own solo career (her image present in press and video), guitarist Seiichi Nagai has produced for groups such as Spangle Call Lilli Line, and drummer Kensuke Nishiura supports groups like Mass of the Fermenting Dregs and Luminous Orange. This band already has obvious talent.


From the usual schoolgirl/teacher loli-themes of coy sounding Japanese indie pop ("Jigoku Sensei) to more obscure themes such as a 25th century boy traveling to the 22nd century to find a girl ("Shikaku Kakumei"), Soutaiseiriron are not just another quirky guitar pop group to be dismissed and forgotten about, lyrically, musically, and aesthetically they are very ominous and mysterious.


Upon a few listens to them you will notice the amount of intricacy in their songs, from the jangly Smiths-eque guitar work, to the sad innocence of Etsuko's voice. The end result is surprisingly dreamy despite it's initial sparseness. This album is altogether strange, sad, but also often joyous with it's often tongue-in-cheek and self-aware approach to pop music. It goes without saying, but despite how closed off they are to the mainstream, Soutaiseiriron's music is extremely enduring and not gimmicky at all. They live up to the image they present and even exceed that. Whether they remain in the dark or show themselves in the future does not matter, they've already proved themselves to be an amazing band who's obscurity far surpasses that of image alone.

-Garrett

Silver Forest is a doujin music circle who produces remixes and rearrangements of music from the Touhou series. Not to be confused with the more well-known IOSYS, I believe Silver Forest produces songs that are typically more faithful to it's original works, but that is not to say I have any preference over IOSYS or Silver Forest; they both make innovative, and insane interpretations of the Touhou works. That being said, this album has some very relaxed, simple orchestrated instrumentals, warm electro-pop, as well as the fast-paced typical loli-styled songs that one would typically associate with any doujin music circle, especially one focused on something like Touhou. Enjoy.

SAWA has been around since 2008 and has released 5 mini-albums to date. It was not until earlier this year that she released her 1st full length. Her first mini-album, Many Colors, was a small collection of clean-cut techno-pop songs, putting aside all the vocoder and autotune that has been highly present in practically all techno-pop groups now. However, to call SAWA simply a techno-pop artist isn't really fair. Her debut album, Welcome to Sa-World presents a large variety of pop songs which mostly throw back to the sounds of house music and shibuya-kei that were present in the late 90's/2000's in Japanese pop. Many of the songs on this album are actually produced by SAWA herself, along with producers like RAM RIDER, Nawata Hisashi, and Takeshi Hanzawa of FreeTEMPO.

Personally, I think this may one of my favorite Japanese pop albums of the year. Although this year has been really good for techno-pop (Sweet Vacation, Aira Mitsuki, Saori@destiny, capsule, etc.), SAWA not only busts out some very, very good techno-pop-esque songs, but stands out by throwing back to the sounds of pre-techno-pop crazy Japan, taking in the influence of the relaxed, summery sounds of shibuya-kei. SAWA explores the usual cute side of pop, while also creating some tracks that are slightly unnerving in a subtle way, notably with tracks like "Swimming Dancing" below. Although I love techno-pop, it's still refreshing to see an artist like SAWA who isn't a robot to her producer and is crafting her own tunes. The songs on the album seem to be approached more personally, and the fact that her voice isn't warped to death probably adds to that feeling. Also, "Swimming Dancing" may be my favorite bizarre techno-pop video since "Secret Secret" or maybe "I Can Fly" is stranger.... I can't decide yet. GOTTA LEARN THAT DANCE.

Spacey 2-step/dubstep single by London native Peter O'Grady. I'm not too knowledgeable on either genre, but I believe many here would be appreciative of this due to his use of minimalism and repetition in his works. It's the kind of stuff you can grind a bitch to (a very classy bitch, mind you). Very cool stuff indeed.

Why do I need to post a Perfume album? Well, most casual listeners of the group may have looked over this single that they released shortly after their indie days. And hey, their name is even written in hiragana on this album. Perfume teamed up with denpa queen Momoi Haruko of Under17 fame and.... well, Momoi Haruko fame, and this was the end result of said efforts. It is pretty much the kind of production you would expect with a Momoi Haruko song, but with the voices of Perfume instead. A nice change of pace, and Kashi's voice sounds adorable on this. A really cool collaboration for fans of both artists. I'll stop before I start acting like too much of a drooling fanboy at how amazing this.

Out of boredom and due to following trends, I started this Tumblr yesterday. It is more or less a focus on Japanese music of various kind (which Female Trouble seems to be for the most part anyways, so I guess this can be like Female Trouble Pt.2, but under a different name for the Tumblr savvy out there). So if you use Tumblr, please follow this! For the most part I'll post different stuff from here.

Young Henry is a one-man project consisting of individual Kyle Y. hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who's unique approach to ambiance can only be labeled as 'seagaze,' as he describes it himself. His latest effort, 'It Must Have Been The Weather,' is a big step from his debut album, a brilliant collection of off-kilter, lo-fi, post-punk jams leaning on the spectrum of both pop and noise. 'Weather' resonates strangely at times with it's jarring avant-garde guitar work which creates something that is as much dissonant and discomforting as it is relaxing and gorgeously stunning. If Hisato Higuchi and Derek Bailey were to make passionate love to the ambiance of Fennez while on a snowy mountaintop, the resulting climax would be something similar to the music of Young Henry. Anything else I can say about this album will only demean it's brilliance. Space out into some distant land and enjoy.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hnrylthm
Tumblr: http://younghenry.tumblr.com/

-Garrett

nono. is an acoustic project I started roughly a year ago with slight elements of ambient, dreampop, and shoegaze. If you like a lot of layered guitar harmonies and droney pop vocals then this may be your thing, although the outcome usually strays more towards the depressive as opposed to the usual cheerfulness of similar music. This is my 2nd album entitled No Crying (a slight reference to Mother 1 and just something fitting overall, I believe) that I finished a week or two ago. If someone out there is willing to make a legitimate release of it and can get some proper distribution on it, then that would be very much appreciated. But until then (or if ever), I just want people to hear this, it's a culmination of a lot of things and perhaps I hope you can sense that as well. Send it to your friends, play it on trips to the beach, listen to it after you broke up with your girlfriend or boyfriend. Whatever. Sorry for the self-promotion!

To me, Zelda is not a video-game franchise. Zelda was one of the best band to emerge from the Tokyo punk scene of the late 70's.

The band formed in 1979 after the members discovered punk and new-wave through the 'Blow Up Tokyo Rockers' shows at the S-Ken Studio (the early epicenter of japanese punk). They were close to the band Lizard and its leader Momoyo who produced the first EP released in 1980 on Junk Connection.

The band showed a big potential from early on and even with only female members around 15-16 years old (this was quite a novelty at the time) a major company quickly signed them. Zelda became one of the most successful band of the 'indie boom' of the 80's.


You can tell by listening to their first two records that their music is rooted in punk and new-wave. But despite the young age of the members, it's far from being a plain worship of the Tokyo Rockers sound. The general feeling is brighter and every song benefits from a strong melodic pop sense ('Mirage Lover' from their 1982 album makes a great single).

Yet, it would be reductive to say it's pop music as Zelda doesn't seem to care about boundaries. Their second LP 'Carnaval' (1983) already shows their ability to experiment and try new things. Somehow the first track has a light dub flavor while 'Watashi No Orchestra' directly takes inspiration from Guernica, the neo-retro pop unit which revealed Jun Togawa to the world...

What makes the Zelda sound coherent is Sayoko's vocals. She may be the best singer of the japanese new-wave, able to cover a wide range of emotions. She also gives the diaphanous and dreamy edge which makes Zelda a perfect listen to escape reality.


I could go on for hours about why Zelda is so great but 1°) my english is not so good, 2°) you will get bored. Instead, i'll let you make your own opinion about this wonderful band :

I downloaded this album about a year or two ago and was utterly confused. My initial interest in this album was because of two names alone, Merzbow and Hanatarash. From such big names in noise one would mostly likely assume that any album containing those two people would converge into a symphony of mass experimentation and utter chaos, this is true in the case of this album, but the result is much different from what one would expect.

There is absolutely no genre barrier within this album created by visual artist Ukawa Naohiro, perhaps best known for his work as a video director and album artist for groups such as Boredoms and Supercar. Strangely enough, it is perhaps the visuals he has made for other groups that best describe his own work as a musician. Quirky, often humorous, yet with a sense of unique, offbeat surrealism that is purely his own.

At times this is a pop album, highlighting songs such as "unexplored depths of memory decay / owner is Uri Geller," which feature MEG, well-known for her association with producer Yasutaka Nakata (capsule, Perfume). Songs like "drowned while photosynthesis experiment" are pop in the sense that Denki Groove may be considered pop, showcasing an experimental electronic slant which helps diverge from the norm of pop music, yet is still wholly so at the core for it's appreciation of catchy and hummable melodies.

The 7th song, "Strings of Life," plays out like a John Cage tribute piece set in a hostile and hellish environment, where the slowly minimalist rounds of strings seem to slowly attack each other, practically playing out the song's own title and at the end, fading away as if life's rounds have been fulfilled and the memories of past regret and pain all collide within your mind at one single, brutal moment, you eventually reach peace and it is finally time to pass off into a new world. And then there's a hardcore song right after featuring Japanese group, Abraham Cross. Need I say much more? This album is very diverse! (and by the way, the Merzbow track is insane!)


I can safely say that there is nothing I have ever heard like this album, it is truly a unique piece of music and is sure to satisfy anyone even briefly as it covers such a myriad of genres. Why UKAWANIMATION! hasn't gotten more praise in music circles? Perhaps the world just isn't ready.

Tracklist:
1. UKAWANIMATION! Feat. Hagiwara Keniti Tennis Ishino x <500> Dedicated to the camera (Camera)
2. UKAWANIMATION! feat. DAZZ Y DJ NOBU<千葉八街のリアルアンダーグラウンド落花生栽培> Dedicated to 落花生 (Peanut)
3. UKAWANIMATION! feat. MERZBOW<羽毛に纏わる水滴無限循環> Dedicated to アヒル (Duck)
4. UKAWANIMATION! feat. JONTE x TOBY<開いた身体は白い列島> Dedicated to ウナギ (Eel)
5. UKAWANIMATION! feat. ALTZ<溺れながらの光合成実験> Dedicated to 酸素 (Oxygen)
6. UKAWANIMATION! feat. HANATARASH<偏西風の次第♯1>
7. UKAWANIMATION! feat. STRINGRAPHY Dedicated to弦 ( String )
8. UKAWANIMATION! feat. ABRAHAM CROSS<盗まれた平衡感覚> Dedicated 飼い主のいない猫 ( Stray Cat )
9. UKAWANIMATION! feat. HANATARASH<貿易風の次第♯2>
10. UKAWANIMATION! feat. MEG x iLL<秘境の奥の虫歯の記憶/持ち主はユリ・ゲラー> Dedicated to スプーン (Spoon)
11. UKAWANIMATION! feat. 田中フミヤ<57杯目のブラッディー・メアリー> Dedicated to ウォッカ ( Vodka )


-Garrett

Sorry for the lack of updates, awhile ago I promised myself that I would try and post daily to keep up interest for those who actually do read this blog (or would daily posts be a bit too excessive?) and I've seemed to have failed to keep up that promise. I've been quite busy these past few weeks playing in friend's bands and going to Anime Expo (fanboyed tHe fUcK oUt at AKB48). But enough about my personal life, I've had some stuff uploaded on Mediafire for awhile that I just haven't bothered to post here yet. Here's one of them:

This is Denki Groove's 10th album (if one is to disregard the remix albums of Flash Papa and A) and is the successor to their album, A. This album came out in 2000, 3 years after A had been released. Relative to the year it was released, it plays off like some kind of drug-induced, futuristic dance album, at times often humorous, sometimes even nostalgic of the past, often posing as something mechanical or robotic, but also laced with the pop sensibilities that Denki Groove has always possessed underneath their strange exterior. Personally, I think this is a great follow-up to A, it builds off of everything else they've done up to this point into a much fuller and realized sound. Although this album does derive off of their dance music influences a lot more, I think it's hardly something to be turned off from (if you don't like that kind of thing), the album possesses a certain stream-of-consciousness attitude that is completely warped and unlike anything you would expect from the influences that Denki Groove wears.

I would've asked the main Nagomu man here, Megane-kun, to write up about this album, but considering he's on vacation now and this album has been on constant rotation for me lately, I thought I would take a hand at writing up a little about this.

While 人生 were one of the more notorious groups of the Nagomu label, they are also relatively well known for spawning the talent of Pierre Taki (who donned a Doraemon costume during these days) and Takkyu Ishino, who both went on to later form Denki Groove. If you've listened to Denki Groove before you may know what kind of music to expect. Pierre and Takkyu's sense of humor is very much present within this album along with their overwhelming appreciation and undeniable love for groups like YMO, although in the form of 人生, this love for techno-pop is filtered through a very lo-fi, punk kind of approach. Swirling synths, aggressive drum machines, with some very unique vocal styling. While it may be pop to you and I, this may be a borderline headache to others.


Substance III to me is the techno-pop equivalent of Boredom's Pop Tatari, albeit it much more of a pop album, it still contains a significant amount of experimentation and complete disregard for the confinements of normal listening. This is, unfortunately, the only 人生 album I have heard, so perhaps these statements can possibly apply better to another album of theirs. Despite that, Substance III is an album that is truly worth noting for it's sense of self-awareness and it's bizarre approach to techno-pop, all of this is present while still retaining a relative amount of seriousness and a large amount of sincerity, and it never once comes off as something pretentious for the sake of being pretentious.

-Garrett

Ero-guro fans rejoice! Jun Hayami's work is finally to be published in English by Creation Books in a collection entitled Beauty Labyrinth of Razors! This work was originally supposed to be released in 2005, but was pulled back for.... obvious reasons. Now it is finally being released on hardback with only 69 copies being made. It compiles 12 of Jun Hayami's stories. The only downside is that the book is on quite the pricey end, being $79 before shipping. Personally, I really wish I could own such a work of art, but I don't think I can be spending that kind of money.

"Graphic art by Jun Hayami in the Japanese “erotic-grotesque” (ero-guro) style of manga, a unique fusion of sex, violence and philosophy unlike anything seen in Western comics. Deranged killers, innocent young women and leering perverts collide in some of the most feverishly lurid fantasies ever committed to paper.

Beauty Labyrinth Of Razors is a compendium of Jun Hayami’s most challenging work, containing 12 stories selected from his books and never before translated and published in English. With a translation by James Havoc and Takako Shinkado, and an introduction by Jack Hunter (author, Eros In Hell)."

While it may be easy to justify other works of ero-guro, Hayami's is a difficult one to present to others. Is it an effort at humor that only the most senile and depraved of us can truly derive laughter from? Or is it simply art for the sake of showing the grotesque and perverse reality that we often shun from our everyday thoughts? Are the works of Jun Hayami to even be considered art?

Whether Hayami's work is really something to be interpreted or not, if you have not read him before you definitely should. Even if it is something that may not particularly pique your interest, to just fathom the mere existence of his work is something that will forever change you.






More information/scans/etc. can be found here:
Creation Books: http://www.creationbooks.com/creation-pages/creationhome.html
Flying Teapot: http://flying-teapot.blogspot.com/
Same Hat!: http://samehat.blogspot.com/

-Garrett

This name will most likely strike a sense of unfamiliarity among most people, but chances are you more than likely know his music. If you were anything like me (and I mean that in the sense of you being a kid of the 90s) you were most likely caught up in the Pokemon craze. The one thing in particular that stands out in Pokemon that many may have not appreciated when they were younger is the music, and Junichi Masuda is the man to thank for that.

Junichi Masuda was one of the main founders of the company, Game Freak, and has composed the music for a large majority of the Pokemon video game series and television shows. He himself was the sole composer of the original Red & Green versions of Pokemon and was even responsible for the cries of the Pokemon used within the game, all thanks to a program he created called the "Sound Driver."

Unless the last.fm trolls just got to his profile, apparently some of his favorite music includes Stravinsky, Linkin Park, Slipknot, The Prodigy, and Rotterdam hardcore. Who ever thought that 'Smack My Bitch Up' was an important influence on Pokemon?


Nowadays Pokemon still seems to be relatively prevalent in Japan, but has had severely decreased popularity in the states, it's core following now grown up. Pokemon seems to be something held on for nostalgia's sake, and only for that reason, as if Pokemon is a kind of novelty to be treated purely as a childhood memory and to like it beyond those reasons is well... childish. Personally, I do like Pokemon for those reasons, it does indeed bring back memories, however, still to this day I believe that Pokemon is a damn good game, "childish" or not, and I am not embarrassed at all to admit that.


If you are ever wondering who to thank for the flood of nostalgia and tears that overcome you when playing your version of Red or Blue on Gameboy, you have Junichi Masuda to thank.



-Garrett