Japanese music discussion and promo here and on Youtube! 日本のバンドの音楽について紹介するYoutubeチャンネルを持っています✌️ contact: [email protected]
Seattle, WA
Joined October 2017
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My review for today is on the amazing album titled "邁進！孤独地球外生活" courtesy of multi-instrumentalist and singer PostmodernHippie that manages to surprise and astonish with every word and every note!
Watch Here:
youtu.be/Ebon9oLtUKg
KataConor retweeted
October's Monthly Listening is out for my readers! A round-up of new Japanese releases I enjoyed this month from BHS Svve, e5, narugile and more
thissidejapan.substack.com/p…
King Gnu US tour
🔥King Gnu US TOUR '27🔥
King Gnu’s First-Ever US Headline Shows Announced📢
March 26, 2027 - The Wiltern, Los Angeles
April 2, 2027 - Brooklyn Paramount, New York
<King Gnu US TOUR '27 Official Website>
⏩clubgnu.com/US_tour27/
<Ticketmaster Ticket Link>
🎫LA：ticketmaster.com/event/09006…
🎫NY：ticketmaster.com/event/00006…
#KingGnu
Strangely enough, I've realized that as I've been making my list for Song of the Year contenders that I have almost 4 times as many as I did last year.
Btw my video releasing this weekend is a review of the latest Hakushi Hasegawa album 👀
youtube.com/@KataConor
KataConor retweeted
Cobalt boy 1st Album『SANSO』セカンドプレスリリースパーティ「屋内熱帯の夜 vol.11」
🌴この日に先行発売します🌴
2026.11.8(sun)
@shimokita_THREE
OPEN/DJ START 18:30
LIVE START 19:00
LIVE Cobalt boy
Superyou
DJ ERO-SUN
前売りご予約[email protected]
-New Music Listening List 10/28-
It’s rare for me to start off a listening week with a single, but this new one from Cwondo titled “Pecha Kucha” is such a beast that I can’t help but begin with this. One of my favorite aspects of Cwondo’s music over the years is his ability to blur the line between rock and electronic music as he often mixes both in ways that I would have never in my life thought of. For instance his work with his band No Buses often takes on drum patterns that are very stereotypical of electronic music, while the guitar work often emulates the sound and feeling of sampled guitar loops as heard very often throughout their album from last year “NB2". This aspect was inversely a defining factor of his solo album from last year as well titled “Memoride 2” in the way that it incorporated his own guitar recordings as MIDI keys that he used to construct the wonderfully crazy assortment of electronic tracks on that album, and it’s also what’s making this new song so enjoyable for me too.
This time however, Cwondo is playing with with sampled vocal snippets a bit more to great effect. I’ve listened to this song about 15 times and even still, I can’t quite catch every voiceline that’s being thrown at hyperspeed at the listener because of the very tight manner Cwondo has implemented them on this song. The production here is absolutely incredible and it saddens me that I can’t quite verbalize why because this is just so unlike anything I’ve heard before. He recently mentioned working on "Memoride 3” and if this song is any indication, it’s looking like we might be in for one of the defining works of his already markedly prolific career.
qurumaru are back with a new EP with this one being titled “float”. I’ve been a fan of theirs since last year as I really liked their EP they had released at the time, and I last talked about them when they released a single titled “sway” a few months ago which has ended up on this EP also!
As always, the band is very much in their bag when they’re making gentle sounding indie rock with a heavy dose of melodic guitar riffs in the background. Back in my July writeup of their single, I compared the band to 雪国 (Yukiguni) which was apparently very spot on as the lead singer of that band, 京英一 (Eiichi Kyo) took some time to praise this new release on Twitter this week as well! Unlike that band though, the songs here are a tad bit more uplifiting and positive sounding, but manage to strike a similar emotional level from everything including the soft instrumentation, intimate lyrics, and powdery vocals.
As a resident of Seattle, I can totally see myself enjoying this at any time over the next few months when the view of all of the streets are consumed by early morning fog and the toasted smell of a corner cafe’s morning brew. Of course, there’s no wrong time to enjoy an EP such as this and I know it’s one that I’m going to returning whenever I get a craving for a unique sounding project such as this.
We’re back with another single from the upcoming second album from Mei Semones and this new one titled “2 Hands” is awesome! This new song sounds like a refinement of her math rock and midwest emo aspects that have taken somewhat of a backseat in her music lately. It features this sound for the majority of its runtime while still adding some of the group’s jazz sensibilities as complimentary flourishes that keep it in line with similar sounding songs in her discography. Frankly, I think this is the best balance her and the band have ever struck in regard to their constant shift between jazz and math rock, and I really hope this carriers over into the rest of the songs on the new album as well.
If you still haven’t had a chance to join the Mei Semones hype train I think this acts as a great entry point! If nothing else, this continues to show that Mei is one of the coolest guitarists around at the moment and I’m really interested to hear more from this album!
So I just finished my second listen of the new やさしいみらい (Yasashii Mirai) album titled "やさしいせかい” (Yasashii Sekai) and I have to say I’m very much into it. However I will say, the sound of this album was not marketed to me very well…
I mean that as a joke and this is in no way the fault of the band or even the label, but I really was not ready for the true sound of this album given that it’s listed as “J-Pop” on Apple Music which really through me for a loop. Sure it’s a little poppy, but this is essentially an acid jazz and rap album, and it really kills it on both of these fronts!
I guess I do hate to spoil that for you a little bit as the first song is very similar to a lot of popular J-pop music, but it’s difficult for me to not talk about how much I loved the rap sections provided by 夢句 (Muku). He’s only a small part of the equation however, as the backing band and primariy vocalist in charge of the more conventionally sung verses are doing a fine job all on their own as well. Many of the songs here carry a very audible latin vibe with some even verging on bossa nova which I thought sounded great!
I’m very partial to most acid jazz albums that release, but I especially liked the song “DISCO” largely due to how it sounded like it could easily be off of Jamiroquai’s 2017 album “Automaton”. Lead singer 松本レン (Ren Matsumoto) is also doing a great job of sounding like Jay Kay there as well! I hate to spend all my time yapping about comparisons, but I also liked the Suchmos sound the band had on the song “flower”.
All in all I think this is a really enjoyable able for all kinds of music fans and I think it’s a great first album too.
So far I'm through three of this week's new music releases and 1 in particular is unexpectedly super duper mega cool
KataConor retweeted
Interesting idea alert: A bookstore with shop cats carries a range of trading cards depicting their hard-working felines. 🐈
📸 Twice Sold Tales (Harvard Ave, Seattle)
I'm going to talk more about it in my listening thread tomorrow but this new cwondo song is insaaaaane dude
