You can now read my review of this album on Netlabelism.

I feel as if every time I come back on here, it's some sort of apology for not ever signing on here and posting anymore. So here is another apology! I wanted to shamelessly self-promote a little something here. I'm going to be having a small radio show broadcast online from my campus, so if any of you want to tune in, that would be great. I'll be playing, of course, lots of Japanese music, as well as whatever else I'm feeling at the moment. Could be a little more mainstream, a little obscure, it'll be whatever really. I may play some more "normal" stuff just to ease in the show at first though. Either way, I hope you get SOMETHING out of it and maybe hear something new. Here are the details:

Titan Internet Radio at 5:30-6:00 PM PST every Tuesday.

There will be a webcam set-up so you can all jerk off to my face as well.

Thanks ya'll
-Garrett

I usually don't do this sort of thing, but my good friend Houston recently wrote about Nemu Yumemi, a fairly new idol within the Akiba scene who is tearing things up! He described her pretty well, so I'll spare you my boring description!

"Nemu Yumemi is a "budding idol" from the Akihabara district in Tokyo. Akihabara, famously, is the neighborhood in Tokyo that is most densely populated by stores bearing items that are essential to the "otaku" lifestyle. Whether it be anime paraphernalia and action figures (which I guess could be anime paraphernalia as well) or video games and a great set of headphones (for the audiophile in you) Akihabara is filled with toys for the obsessive. In turn the music that comes out of a place like this is often goofy, obsessive in it's lyrical themes, and based around anime or anime-esque gimmicks. Nemu is one fifth of the larger idol group でんぱ組.inc (Denpa Gumi, Inc.) but--for me--the real prize is her solo work. The group had it's [I believe] second single come out on the sixth (at least the second with all of it's members, allegedly there is one from 2008 with only the two founding members--neither of these members is Nemu) and Nemu only has one single out as well, but I for one believe that this is the start of something beautiful. Nemu is my contemporary Yukiko."

To describe Nemu, I would call her "punk moe." Her lives definitely have an unmatched amount of energy and interaction that most artists like her fail to display. Along with being a denpa artist, she is also a DJ and model. Akiba-worthy indeed. Download her first single, 魔法少女☆未満.

Official Site/Tumblr: http://nemu.dearstage.com/
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/nemuq/

IZ BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I RAWK N ROLLED. I've been picking up a lot of random Alchemy releases lately, so I'll be posting here a bit again. These days I'm usually just on Tumblr, where sometimes I'll post stuff like this. This one is the first CD single ever put out by Alchemy by a playful punk outfit named Sekiri. They mostly sing about food and sex. What every girl likes. It's your standard Japanese girl punker stuff, not too out there, but quite enjoyable and fun to hear. Enjoy!

Shinsei Kamattechan may very well be the biggest thing in alternative rock in Japan since Number Girl. In December they released this album (Tsumanne) along with a major label album entitled Minna Shi Ne and are currently in the process of starring in a film directed by Yu Irie. Their chaotic live shows have gained them quite an amount of notoriety and it's safe to say that their albums very much capture that intensity. Tsumanne is an epic apocalyptic ambient-pop trip filled with anthemic noise-rock, chilling processed vocals, incomprehensible melodies layered over and over each other and gltiched out drums, at times the music reminds one of the obscure avant-pop of Yapoos mixed with the short stories of Kafka processed through headphones. Endearingly strange, Shinsei Kamattechan have very much pushed the boundaries of music with this album and have may already launched themselves among the ranks of legends in Japan. This is one album that all Japanese music fans must here.



*Note, the last two PVs were recorded roughly 1 or 2 years ago and were re-recorded on this album*

-Garrett

A million apologies. I can't believe how long I lagged on this one, but here it is. I uploaded it as one straight .avi file to insure that there wasn't any corruption in trying to put the files together. I hope that's okay with everyone here. Here's my original short write-up about it, nothing much, but in case you haven't heard much info on it. Enjoy!

New Pants are a band from Beijing turning out jams ranging from anything to spaced-out synthy indie rock, to Ramones injected disco numbers. At times they remind me a lot of other contemporary Asian bands like the pillows, My Little Airport, and (although it makes me cringe a little to say this) Polysics. A sense of playfulness and happy melodies contrasted with sometimes more serious takes on their sound, the band is fairly self-aware and seems to poke fun at themselves often or the genres of music they take on. Surprisingly enough, this band is to appear at this year's Coachella, I wonder what the crowds reaction will be? Personally, tracks like "Being Together" stand out much more to me than their poor Engrish dance numbers, but I believe the band is varied enough that there at least a few songs that everyone can enjoy.

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.