Japanese Music

Mr. OL

Yo jes hummilated yoursef
Joined
Jul 26, 2018
Always enjoyed this same topic in the old forums, so here we go again. Rakim might appreciate it.
I personally tend to lean more toward band-oriented stuff, but you can post anything in here so long as it's Japanese (excluding videogame stuff; there's already a topic for that).
Metal, jazz, rap, soundtrack... I might hold it against you if you dig pop idol junk, but that's allowed too (and I'm shaking my fist at you already).


Grand majority of my favorite bands are Japanese, and there's been a weird surge of interesting, talented, and genuinely artistic bands popping up in the past few years. Really nice to see so much heavy stuff that isn't just noise; most of it is really melodic and technically complex, and I love that.
Only just listened to this band Dimlim for the first time a couple nights ago, and after a few songs I immediately popped onto CDJapan and ordered their first album. Was just expecting some junk metal based on the thumbnail, but good god, it's so much more than that.
The vocalist is obviously a fan of Kyo from Dir en Grey, but goddamn kudos to him for actually being able to pull of that kind of mental chaos with his voice. Very few can.
This is legitimate art.
 
Nice song! Really like melodic stuff like this. His high notes and those arpeggios the guitar is doing are :love:

Don't really have anything I want to share so here's a random shibuya-kei joint that I like. Its in English so I can't understand a word they're saying(LOL) but they do a good job of capturing that summer of love sound.

 
Its in English so I can't understand a word they're saying(LOL)
Genuinely made me laugh, especially once I listened to the song.:ROFLMAO:
Good groove though. Surprised when I looked it up and found it was from 2003. It sounds so much more 60s-by-way-of-the-90s.


I'm consistently digging this band Xaa Xaa lately. They strike me with an almost early-Mucc vibe most of the time, but slightly less depressive. Or rather, even when they do have depressive songs, there's usually something "colorful" about them.
Case in point this freakin song. I'm sure I saw an english-subtitled version somewhere, and even though it's a pretty simple love song, the lyrics are beautiful. You won't usually hear me compliment a love song like that (generally the most basic and formulaic of song concepts), but hey, there you go.
Wish I could actually find the single online so I could buy it.
 
Well, I've been through a phase there with "BABYMETAL". Especially their first album is quite complex on the instrumental side so I had a lot of fun listening to the album in detail. I only understood about 20% of the lyrics... but the music is nice - if you like metal.
 
I’m a huge fan of Tatsuro Yamashita, who was recently featured in yakuza 6. I’m also a fan of X-Japan, L’arc~en~ciel, Luna Sea and the Visual Kei genre as a whole.

I’m also into old school J-pop like Speed, Morning Musume, and TRF
 
The more hardcore fans of idol groups in Japan end up buying dozens, 100s, of the same CDs just for the tickets for things like events, voting, handshake events, among other things. AKB48 fans have some crazy support with deep pockets. They do produce some decent music admitedly.
 
So I'll just start by saying this band, Mamireta, is not particularly good.:LOL:
I'm not going to argue that they're technically proficient or call them amazing or anything.
I just have to say that they're easily the single most "punk" thing I've seen in years.
See, punk was originally all about not giving a shit, rebelling against norms, and purposely doing things "incorrectly." It was a counterculture movement, but somewhere along the way some idiot kids decided it qualified as a legitimate genre. So then you have people actively trying to sound "punk," even though specifically trying to live up to something is completely opposite to what punk is supposed to be. Essentially, all modern punk bands are victims of irony.
So it's not that this band sounds "punk"; their style isn't punk at all.
It's more that they embody exactly what punk was originally supposed to be, attitude-wise.
And there's a really weird kind of appeal in that, even if I fully recognize that they're not technically "good."


That's all a really long way of saying that they're consistently fun to watch/listen to. And the vocalist actually break dances at live shows, which is the most uncool-yet-awesome thing I've ever heard.
 
This song is so relaxing to me. The video has some pretty bad 80s cliches but the vocal and overall vibe are top notch.


Fun fact: the lead singer is now one of the commentators on Terrace House lol
 
I’m a huge fan of Tatsuro Yamashita, who was recently featured in yakuza 6. I’m also a fan of X-Japan, L’arc~en~ciel, Luna Sea and the Visual Kei genre as a whole.

I’m also into old school J-pop like Speed, Morning Musume, and TRF

Re Visual Kei, Versailles might be the most impressive band I've ever seen. Certainly, there are more technical bands, but I can't think of another band that can perform with their technique while remaining so tight in a live setting, all while maintaining melody and ear-worm hooks throughout. Even more impressive when you factor in they must be pissing sweat in those costumes.

 
One of the earliest underground metal bands in Japan (not their first album) :
 
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One of the earliest underground metal bands in Japan (not their first album) :

Quite loving that! Tnx!

Always was a Dir en Grey fan. Though mostly prefer stuff like ys. showed, more heavy less hard core. There are some decent Chinese metal bands out there too, but will leave that for another thread.
 
Quite loving that! Tnx!

Always was a Dir en Grey fan. Though mostly prefer stuff like ys. showed, more heavy less hard core. There are some decent Chinese metal bands out there too, but will leave that for another thread.
You're welcome. I didn't think that anyone would be into this actually but wanted to add them anyway. They're not as big as some of the others mentioned here of course. More underground. But they have been active since the early '80s and this album also has a distinct Japanese theme (lyrics, some melodies). I was able to see them live before and talked a bit to the vocalist and guitarist afterwards. Unfortunately the language barrier got slightly in the way to ask more about the Japanese scene etc. I don't know much about the Chinese metal scene though. I once heard a black metal band from there around 1999 but not much more than that. It's easier to find Norsk black metal så klart ;)
 
You're welcome. I didn't think that anyone would be into this actually but wanted to add them anyway. They're not as big as some of the others mentioned here of course. More underground. But they have been active since the early '80s and this album also has a distinct Japanese theme (lyrics, some melodies). I was able to see them live before and talked a bit to the vocalist and guitarist afterwards. Unfortunately the language barrier got slightly in the way to ask more about the Japanese scene etc. I don't know much about the Chinese metal scene though. I once heard a black metal band from there around 1999 but not much more than that. It's easier to find Norsk black metal så klart ;)
Hah! Of course, and Finnish metal (I'm half Norwegian half Finnish, never stood a chance of not getting into metal...) I didn't know much Chinese metal before living in Beijing tbh, it's a lot underground, but the bands are cool and you always get to speak to them after shows. Maybe because they're not that big and just excited that people are excited?

That's cool that they've kept at it for so long! Really enjoying their soundscape (been listening to your link all through twice now!), there is some good quality metal there for sure. I love the incorporation of classical (Japanese) feel too. Do you know any similar bands???
 
Its not the same as Metal-Metal (as it is a sub-genre of alternative), but RIZE is still my favorite band out of Japan; their distinctly Nu-Metal sound (especially prevalent in their first few albums) is wonderful to my ears and Jesse's got an awesome voice.

He's branched into a more straight alternative direction with his other band, The BONEZ, but their stuff isn't bad either, if not a bit derivative.

Youtube is blocked at work, but I'll attempt to upload:

 
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Hah! Of course, and Finnish metal (I'm half Norwegian half Finnish, never stood a chance of not getting into metal...) I didn't know much Chinese metal before living in Beijing tbh, it's a lot underground, but the bands are cool and you always get to speak to them after shows. Maybe because they're not that big and just excited that people are excited?

That's cool that they've kept at it for so long! Really enjoying their soundscape (been listening to your link all through twice now!), there is some good quality metal there for sure. I love the incorporation of classical (Japanese) feel too. Do you know any similar bands???
Yeah, the Finnish scene is also well known. As you said, it was almost unavoidable that you would get at least some interest in metal with that background ;) I seem to remember that you lived in Beijing by the way but can't remember if it was you who said it or someone else after you stopped posting. Being able to talk to the bands is maybe one of the advantages of smaller gigs by the way.

I know of a few other Japanese bands from that era but don't know if they are really similar. The band Sigh use symphonic elements, movie score influences, weird parts, some Pink Floyd-like elements etc. Later albums expanded the progressive parts. I talked a few times with the vocalist Mirai on a metal chat around 2000 (he talked a lot about horror movies). There's also a connection to the Norwegian scene actually. The original guitarist of Mayhem liked them and signed them to his label.



@Truck_1_0_1_ RIZE didn't sound like a typical Nu metal band to me actually. Probably due to those alternative elements.
 
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I agree they don't have a Korn or Limp Bizkit sound, but the rap over heavy chords in a good half of their songs, would qualify them for that.

I mean, Crazy Town and Methods of Mayhem are considered Nu-Metal as well and they (well, Crazy Town mainly) don't really have the LB sound either.
 
Do As Infinity remains my favorite band. (Just not their newer stuff for the most part.)


I just started listening to this band today. Love shoegaze and these guys seem really good.

 
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