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