Notable Japanese releases from 2020, in brief
Gezan – Klue
Jusangatsu
Gezan have taken a perplexing trajectory over the past decade, as they morphed from chaotic noise rockers to the kind of middling guitar band you’d expect to hear at Rock in Japan, then swerved into post-hardcore on the Steve Albini-recorded Silence Will Speak. It’s been a long time since they released anything I could really get behind, but Klue is their most righteous statement to date. Hovering at a steady 100 BPM pulse, it’s a megamix of swampy didgeridoo dub, kechak chatter, punk riffs and millennial dread, which peels back occasionally to reveal some indelible melodies. It’s hard to imagine a better soundtrack for this fucked-up year. Read my interview with the band for The Japan Times here, and look out for their label’s forthcoming benefit compilation in support of Osaka underground institution Namba Bears.
Mikado Koko – Awa no Uta
Tanukineiri Records
Lots to unpack on this free EP from Mikado Koko, who featured on last year’s Seitō: In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun. The title track uses lyrics from the apocryphal Hotsuma Tsutae, over what sounds like a malfunctioning early-’90s Aphex Twin demo. On the other two tracks—“The Tragedy of Women’s Emancipation” and “The Way of the New Woman”—she delivers spirited interpretations of poems by Ito Noe, the anarchist and feminist murdered by police after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, against a backdrop of jumbled concrète. It’s a potent addition to an intriguing discography; newbies should check the Ba Ra Kei -Best of- comp released at the start of the year.
After a breathless stream of releases, Foodman has been kinda quiet recently, so it’s nice to have a fresh missive. As with last year’s ODOODO, the rhythms on DOKUTSU are easier to parse than some of the producer’s more screwball work, but he’s constantly tugging at the fabric of the tracks in unexpected ways. Vaporwave junkies will probably dig the second half of the EP, which is like relaxation spa music with ants in its pants, while closing track “Kachikachi” is the sound of an out-of-control step sequencer hurtling into a black hole.
Yentown/bpm tokyo
Foodman – DOKUTSU
Highball RecordsAfter a breathless stream of releases, Foodman has been kinda quiet recently, so it’s nice to have a fresh missive. As with last year’s ODOODO, the rhythms on DOKUTSU are easier to parse than some of the producer’s more screwball work, but he’s constantly tugging at the fabric of the tracks in unexpected ways. Vaporwave junkies will probably dig the second half of the EP, which is like relaxation spa music with ants in its pants, while closing track “Kachikachi” is the sound of an out-of-control step sequencer hurtling into a black hole.
Ajate – Alo
180g
Japan has produced some fine Afrobeat combos in the past, but they’ve inevitably struggled to go beyond the level of affectionate tribute act. Like Minyo Crusaders, Ajate have managed to tease out fresh possibilities by chucking traditional Japanese elements into the mix. Opener “Uka” sets the tone: shinofue flute and Japanese-language call-and-response vocals cutting through an insistent Fela Kuti groove. The group’s homemade bamboo instruments lend some interesting timbres, with leader John Imaeda’s piechiku guitar bringing to mind Bassekou Kouyate. It’s too bad this summer’s festival season looks set to be a non-starter, because Ajate would have cleaned up.
Japan has produced some fine Afrobeat combos in the past, but they’ve inevitably struggled to go beyond the level of affectionate tribute act. Like Minyo Crusaders, Ajate have managed to tease out fresh possibilities by chucking traditional Japanese elements into the mix. Opener “Uka” sets the tone: shinofue flute and Japanese-language call-and-response vocals cutting through an insistent Fela Kuti groove. The group’s homemade bamboo instruments lend some interesting timbres, with leader John Imaeda’s piechiku guitar bringing to mind Bassekou Kouyate. It’s too bad this summer’s festival season looks set to be a non-starter, because Ajate would have cleaned up.
Awich – Kujaku
Not my usual fare, but credit where it’s due: this is a cracking pop album. On her second full-length for Yentown, Awich is on domineering form, whether purring R&B sweet-nothings à la Aaliyah, trading verses with guest MCs like kZM and JP The Wavy, toasting over lovers rock, or going the full Ariana on EDM closer “Arigato.” She slips between styles as comfortably as she flips between languages in the album’s interludes, which chronicle lovers’ tiffs and odes to pussy power (nice). Chaki Zulu handles most of the production, though on lead single “Open It Up,” Awich gets Baauer to cook up the kind of minimalist banger the Neptunes used to make for Kelis way back when. (Available here.)
FUJI||||||||||TA – iki
Hallow GroundIt’s been 9 years since Yosuke Fujita last released an album, but this arrives just in time to capitalise on the weird resurgence in organ music. Though it will inevitably draw comparisons to Kali Malone’s The Sacrificial Code, iki is an even more fragile and intimate work. Fujita uses his self-built organ—eleven pipes, no keyboard—to generate thick oscillations and wheezing dirges, before concluding with the unexpectedly sprightly “Sukima,” a delicate cloudburst of staccato puffs. There’s no attempt to disguise the physicality of the instrument: the sound of the pedals adds a hypnotic counterpoint throughout, like a shishi-odoshi in a Japanese garden.
YPY – OVER SMILING DUB / NYE/D IN DUB!!!!
birdFriendMuch as I’ve enjoyed Koshiro Hino’s recent YPY albums for EM Records and Where To Now?, it’s nice to hear him working in a looser, more experimental mode on these two cassettes, released on his own birdFriend label. These excursions in rickety, lo-fi dub—spiritual kin to EM Records label-mate 7FO—sound like they could have been knocked out in the space of a single afternoon, but that’s part of the charm.
Various – Bird Cage: Birdfriend Archives
EM RecordsSpeaking of Hino, EM Records has released a handsome two-disc compilation on CD and vinyl of birdFriend music that was hitherto only available in limited cassette editions. It’s an appealing pick-and-mix of grubby hardware electronics that flows surprisingly well. The first disc is a dance party for faulty machinery, where rudimentary production values are no barrier to playfulness. Sofheso contributes a typically off-kilter detour from the rave continuum, while Shimettainu’s “Dog is Surrounded by Birds” is a gloriously crude synth’n’squeak banger. The second disc is more serene, with some sampler-powered micro-symphonies by Futoshi Moriyama, and a lo-fi trance epic by Bonnounomukuro that starts small and then rides billowing clouds of delay for 20-odd minutes, The Field style. (Available here.)
Nebozu x Junes K – Kowloon Garden
Self-releasedPlunge down the rabbit hole on Bandcamp and sometimes you get lucky. This hook-up between Soundcloud rapper Nebozu and Fukuoka-based beatmaker Junes K has an uncanny way of warping and changing shape whenever you try to listen more closely. Nebozu’s verses and Autotuned warbles are wrapped within tracks whose textures have the same pearlescent quality as Fumitake Tamura, though Junes K’s beats are a lot busier, sending percussion and sound effects pinging around the stereo field. All told, it’s rather fine.
Jim O’Rourke – Steamroom 47
Self-releasedJim O’Rourke’s Bandcamp releases are consistently rewarding, but this latest instalment really took me by surprise. The opening piano notes, wreathed in squiggling synthesiser vapour trails, announce that we won’t be getting another of the longform electro-acoustic pieces that have come to define the Steamroom series. Instead, O’Rourke delivers a series of movements for piano and electronics that initially reminded me of Chris Abrahams from The Necks, but later start to sound like a stiff disklavier rendition of “1/2” from Music for Airports. As it progresses, the synths get thicker and the tonality weirder, until it resolves in relatively tidy fashion. What the fugue? My thoughts entirely.
Leo Takami – Felis Catus and Silence
Unseen Worlds“I keep creating music just like Haruki Murakami stays home and writes novels alone from morning till night,” Leo Takami says in an interview on the Unseen Worlds website. “That’s all I do.” On Felis Catus and Silence, the Tokyo-based composer/guitarist combines the timbres of environmental music and the lushness of a Joe Hisaishi soundtrack with pop melodies and intricate structures that verge on prog. His clean, jazz-inflected guitar lines stitch together instrumentals daubed from a warm palette of synth strings, marimbas, steel pans and buttery pads. It’s very New Age, in other words, but despite the surface tranquility, there’s a lot going on in these compositions, meaning they never risk becoming polite background music.
Lemna – Storytelling #1 - Reminiscences of Inner Scenery
HoroReturning with her third full-length in six months, the prolific Lemna strays even further from the dancefloor on Storytelling #1, composed last year during a two-week period of intense insomnia. In the notes for the album, she describes these liminal exercises as a kind of “hypnotherapy,” dredged straight from her subconscious. At times, the eldritch atmospherics and echo-drenched industrial percussion bring to mind early Demdike Stare—and that’s before you get to track titles like “Crawling With Body Fluids Running Down.” The music is presented in the order it was created, and after getting progressively heavier and more rhythmic, things take an unexpectedly pastoral turn on the final two tracks, suggesting that Lemna has put her demons—if not herself—to bed.
Corey Fuller – Sanctuary
Self-released
Corey Fuller recently created the music and sound design for a fancy meditation centre in Aoyama, and while I’m loathe to call this healing music, it’s a damn good way to decompress. The 35-minute Sanctuary was originally composed for an installation with multimedia artist Synichi Yamamoto, but works just as well for headphone listening, enveloping you in a balm of slow-blooming textures, accented with spare dashes of piano. The piece is available as a pay-what-you-want download, and Fuller says anyone who’s particularly hard up at the moment can have it for free. “Let’s support each other,” he writes. Hear, hear.
I haven’t had a chance to catch this three-piece live yet, and while their debut EP sounds a little hesitant in places, it suggests they have plenty of potential. Opening track “Angel” comes on like 4AD-style dreampop before switching to a heavier psychedelic rock mode halfway through, and the rest of the EP follows suit. Bassist Miri Akasaka’s vocals are a beacon of light within chilly, droning instrumentals, occasionally punctured by sky-scraping solos (and some rather less convincing sitar) by guitarist Kazuki Toneri.
Corey Fuller recently created the music and sound design for a fancy meditation centre in Aoyama, and while I’m loathe to call this healing music, it’s a damn good way to decompress. The 35-minute Sanctuary was originally composed for an installation with multimedia artist Synichi Yamamoto, but works just as well for headphone listening, enveloping you in a balm of slow-blooming textures, accented with spare dashes of piano. The piece is available as a pay-what-you-want download, and Fuller says anyone who’s particularly hard up at the moment can have it for free. “Let’s support each other,” he writes. Hear, hear.
Barbican Estate – Barbican Estate
Rhyming Slang
I haven’t had a chance to catch this three-piece live yet, and while their debut EP sounds a little hesitant in places, it suggests they have plenty of potential. Opening track “Angel” comes on like 4AD-style dreampop before switching to a heavier psychedelic rock mode halfway through, and the rest of the EP follows suit. Bassist Miri Akasaka’s vocals are a beacon of light within chilly, droning instrumentals, occasionally punctured by sky-scraping solos (and some rather less convincing sitar) by guitarist Kazuki Toneri.
Manami Kakudo – Oar
Universal Music Japan
If you’ve seen Manami Kakudo performing with Cero or Shun Ishiwaka’s Songbook Project, you’ll know she’s pretty goddamn capable, though I wouldn’t have pegged her to get signed to a major. On Oar, she crafts some immaculate, low-key avant-pop, including unexpected covers of Fishmans’ “Ikareta Baby” and Maki Asakawa’s “Watashi no Kinyobi.” Backed by musicians including Ishiwaka, Shuta Nishida and Marty Holoubek, the playing is consistently engrossing, even when the songs meander. It reminds me a little of UA’s later albums, or even Stina Nordenstam at her most bucolic, but I’m not sure Kakudo is bringing anything quite so distinctive to the table. Still: one to watch. (Available here.)
It’s funny to think that Hoshina Anniversary used to crank out electro bangers for Boysnoize Records. There’s still an acid influence detectable in his recent productions, but it seems to be beaming in from the spirit realm. Picking up where he left off on last year’s Nihon No Ongaku, this album mixes minimal electronics with snatches of traditional Japanese instrumentation and haunted atmospherics, all of it seemingly clad in a film of dirt. Closing track “Boro Boro” harks back to the producer’s more club-oriented work, but the sonics are all degraded, like a cassette that’s been left out in the rain.
In the past couple of months, Yasuyuki Uesugi has put out nearly 30 releases of harsh noise and industrial drone on his Bandcamp page, each executed with a hands-off approach that involves setting up his gear, hitting record and letting the machines do their thing. By those standards, this release for Drvg Cvltvre’s New York Haunted label—which weds his toxic JMT synth spurts to a clomping 4/4 techno pulse—is shamelessly commercial. But, eh, that’s not saying much.
Hoshina Anniversary – Odoriko
Alien JamsIt’s funny to think that Hoshina Anniversary used to crank out electro bangers for Boysnoize Records. There’s still an acid influence detectable in his recent productions, but it seems to be beaming in from the spirit realm. Picking up where he left off on last year’s Nihon No Ongaku, this album mixes minimal electronics with snatches of traditional Japanese instrumentation and haunted atmospherics, all of it seemingly clad in a film of dirt. Closing track “Boro Boro” harks back to the producer’s more club-oriented work, but the sonics are all degraded, like a cassette that’s been left out in the rain.
Yasuyuki Uesugi – Vintage Models
New York HauntedIn the past couple of months, Yasuyuki Uesugi has put out nearly 30 releases of harsh noise and industrial drone on his Bandcamp page, each executed with a hands-off approach that involves setting up his gear, hitting record and letting the machines do their thing. By those standards, this release for Drvg Cvltvre’s New York Haunted label—which weds his toxic JMT synth spurts to a clomping 4/4 techno pulse—is shamelessly commercial. But, eh, that’s not saying much.
...and one other thing
I started this blog about five years ago as a way of keeping track of interesting gigs in Tokyo. With the entire live music and club scene now in shutdown, everyone is hurting for money at the moment, as the numerous crowdfunding campaigns on Campfire can attest. Given that it’s only taken a few weeks to get to this point, it’s hard to feel optimistic about the long-term survival prospects for much of the industry. Whatever scene remains when all of this is over, it will probably be a lot smaller than what we had before, so if there are venues you’d like to see stay afloat, I’d encourage you to chip in what you can. Here are some of the crowdfunding campaigns currently underway in Tokyo, as well as venues that have branched out into live streaming (often with the option of donating), or are selling merchandise to drum up cash. Hit me up on Twitter if there’s other stuff you think should be on here. There’s also the #SaveOurSpace petition, if you haven’t already signed it.
Crowdfunding
Anagra | Aoyama Hachi | Aoyama Zero | Bonobo | Grassroots | Heavy Sick Zero | Nakano Moonstep | Ruby Room | Unit | Vent | Koenji independent music spots
Live Streaming
Merchandise
Earthdom | Nakano Moonstep | Solfa | UFO Club
Update (April 20): The newly launched Music Unites Against COVID-19 campaign lets you donate between ¥500 and ¥10,000 to a specific venue (or venues), and get access to a digital cache of tracks by around 70 artists, including Number Girl, Cero, Gezan, OOIOO and Tokyo Jihen. I also forgot to mention music site Ototoy's Save Our Place system, which lets artists raise money for a venue of their choosing.
Update (April 20): The newly launched Music Unites Against COVID-19 campaign lets you donate between ¥500 and ¥10,000 to a specific venue (or venues), and get access to a digital cache of tracks by around 70 artists, including Number Girl, Cero, Gezan, OOIOO and Tokyo Jihen. I also forgot to mention music site Ototoy's Save Our Place system, which lets artists raise money for a venue of their choosing.
