Japanese chiptune producer Foilverb has teamed up with shoegaze unit Sourin – perhaps better known as the solo project of monocism’s Tomoya Matsuura – to put out an interesting new collaborative EP titled The End of Whitenote. With Foilverb’s tendency toward darker, somewhat cinematic chiptune tracks shrouded in non-8-bit instruments and Sourin’s shoegaze backed by chaotic electronic drums and synths, the pairing is a very logical one and the result feels right. The End of Whitenote is unsurprisingly dark and dramatic, perhaps more along the lines of chiptune post rock than the familiar chipgaze standard of The Depreciation Guild. Intro track “Funeral Song” is as good a blend of chiptune and shoegaze as there is, with the 8-bit blips sitting comfortably under the blanket of guitar noise and echoing falsetto vocals without getting too distracting. The mix is solid.
This past April, Japan’s best-known and by far its longest-running shoegaze event, Total Feedback, celebrated its 10thanniversary. Since 2008, the event has been synonymous with the Japanese shoegaze scene, showcasing a combination of veteran and up-and-coming bands from all over Japan. In the spirit of promoting the current players in the scene, the show’s organizer and frontman of quintessential Japanese shoegazers Cruyff in the Bedroom, Yusuke Hata released the Total Feedback compilation on his Only Feedback label on October of the same year. This week, almost exactly 10 years later, a follow-up comp appropriately titled Total Feedback 2018 will go on sale.
Listening to the original 2008 comp, you can get a feel for where the shoegaze scene and specifically Total Feedback as an event were at the time. Bands like Luminous Orange, Plastic Girl In Closet, mash, and My Dead Girlfriend were all regular participants at the monthly shoegaze gathering – Luminous Orange and mash also frequently appeared at Yusuke’s Only Feedback event held at CLUB Que years earlier. Total Feedback 2018 is similarly a well-curated introduction to Japanese shoegaze in 2018, not only providing a good, albeit Tokyo-centric, introduction to Japanese shoegaze, but also showing how it’s branched out internationally over the past ten years.
Total Feedback 2018 is billed as “an Asian shoegaze compilation”, featuring a handful of bands from Taiwan (Doodle, U.TA, and DoZzz) and China (RUBUR). Based around Total Feedback and fellow Japan-based shoegaze event Kyoto Shoegazer, the domestic scene has crossed over with promoters such as Luuv Label (best-known for organizing the East Asia Shoegaze Festival in Shanghai) and Taiwanese shoegaze promoter extraordinaire Shoegazemania, creating a strong community on the eastern part of the continent (it’s worth noting that Hong Kong, while not represented on the compilation, has also been involved in this cultural shoegaze exchange).
The Japanese lineup on the compilation boasts a good mix of old and new bands. Cruyff in the Bedroom, broken little sister, and Lucy’s Drive are the veterans of the bunch, while groups like cattle, plant cell, and SPOOL, and Al Van She’s Coming represent the new wave of Total Feedback performers. Polarizing shoegaze idol group dots also have a song on the comp, and while their contribution to the overall scene may be questionable to some, they are without a doubt an important part of its story.
With regard to the music itself, Total Feedback 2018 is unsurprisingly strong start to finish. The Cruyff track is a banger, and the songs from plant cell, DoZzz, RUBUR, and Doodle are particular standouts. Cattle’s “Kaleidoscope” is a welcome return to shoegaze from a band who drifted to more of a power pop sound after an excellent debut EP. Even the dots track is perhaps their “gaziest” yet. Though you tend to hear quite different styles of shoegaze coming out of different countries – Japan tends to produce a more melody-heavy sound while you often get thicker or more textural shoegaze from Taiwan and China – the flow of the album is very smooth while still showcasing each band’s unique qualities.
Just as the Total Feedback event has been as important a part of the Japanese shoegaze scene as anything else over the past 10 years, Total Feedback 2018 and the original 2008 compilation act as significant snapshots of the genre’s development in Japan. The two compilations bookend a decade of change and development in the Japanese scene, while also representing the one event that has consistently remained as its core.
To celebrate the release there will be a three-leg Total Feedback event featuring bands appearing on the compilation, with the first show taking place in Taipei at PIPE on October 14th and the final two shows at Koenji HIGH on October 27th and 28th. See the flyer below for all of the details.
When Yuragi appeared out of Shiga in 2016, it was as another impressive young Kansai act putting out some catchy, and surprisingly loud, poppy shoegaze. Their debut single “bedside” fit in well with the pop-leaning tone of the local scene. When the band released its first EP, “nightlife” just before the turn of that same year, there was something markedly different about its sound – leads were more sunken into the mix, the previously clean vocals were now echoing from whirlwinds of guitar noise. Over the course of nine months and six tracks, Yuragi’s sound had changed into something deeper and even a bit darker.
On its latest release, the six-track mini album “Still Dreaming, Still Deafening”, Yuragi shows us something totally new. The CD kicks off with wailing clean guitars over a march-like cadence crescendoing into the post rock shoegaze explosion of “Horizon”. On “Utopia” the band goes back to the uptempo, danceable sound of its previous releases, but doing so in a much more massive way. The reworked version of “bedside” sits in the middle of the album, verifying the band’s transition to much bigger sound by keeping the poppy sweetness of the original but making the guitar wash much more prominent in the mix. Lead single “Unreachable” returns to the melancholic post rock style of the openers, before the almost 11-minute “Path of the Moonlit Night” wraps things up in epic fashion, building from a dreamy lull to a raging outburst of swirling guitars before descending into a quiet marching snare that wraps it all up very comfortably.
If I have one issue with “Still Dreaming, Still Deafening” as a whole body of work, it’s that the middle portion of the mini album almost disrupts the flow between the first and final thirds. It’s hard to really complain too much, though, since each of those tracks is ridiculously good on its own. From a songwriting standpoint, this is the most impressive music Yuragi has released to date, and production-wise it’s excellent. The new generation of Japanese shoegaze is moving in a very cool, very loud direction, and Yuragi, along with bands like Collapse, Softsurf, and YURAGI LANDS, is among the most exciting contributors.
You can pick up a copy of “Still Dreaming, Still Deafening” via Amazon (JP), though their previous releases have flown off the shelves so it’s best to do so quickly.
I admittedly didn’t know a whole lot about Tokyo’s BLANCO prior to falling in love with their dreamy indie pop track “Paradise” on Ano(t)raks’ DIE IN POP comp from a couple months back. The uptempo new wave pop track is super dancy and kind of messy, with bouts of tripped out wonky synths. Today the band released it as the latter half of its new two-song single titled “A Place For Youthful Days”. The lead track on the single is a slower-paced blurry psych tune called “Isolated City” that’s driven by some delightfully fuzzed-out bass. Just like in “Paradise” this song has some pretty solid depth thanks to its synth backdrop, though in this case it’s used to create a bit more texture. The male-female vocal harmonies are really solid, too. Check it out for yourself at Bandcamp.
July 10th, 2018 marks the 5 year anniversary of Broken Little Sister’s popular shoegaze tribute to the Beatles. The album, titled Beatless and released under the moniker Meeks, includes ten covers of famous Beatles tracks, but with a dreamy, reverb-drenched twist.
To celebrate the anniversary, Broken Little Sister released three extra tracks that didn’t make the original release. They’re currently available at the band’s Bandcamp page for whatever you’d like to pay.
Tokyo’s Yukla Down put out their first record material in the form of a three-track demo EP titled “In Demonstrationem”. The five-piece, whose lineup includes a member apiece from Si,Irene and Civic, offers a throwback 90s UK shoegaze sound that isn’t all that common in the Japanese scene. It’s pleasantly scuzzy introduction, particularly on the first track, “Torture Me (With Your Kiss)” which sounds both nominally and tonally like something off of Isn’t Anything, but with a turn of the century American emo tinge to it that’s pretty cool. “If You Only Knew” is another textural ripper of a song with more of a groove carrying along the cascade of harsh guitar noise, while “Borealis” is a chilled-out instrumental featuring droning guitars and a simple bongo-tapped beat.
While I don’t bemoan the lack of aggression in Japanese music nearly as much as I used to, I really appreciate Yukla Down’s noisy contributions. The quality of the demo, in terms of both sound and composition, is really solid. The band will be appearing at the July 29th Total Feedback event at Koenji High. For more information you can follow Yukla Down on Facebook and Twitter.
A couple months back, Kyoto newcomers Browned Butter released their first recorded material in the form of a single track titled “Fall”. The song would be more formally introduced via net label Ano(t)raks’ DIE IN POP compilation album. Just this past month the band released a debut 3-track EP of the same via the same label.
At first listen, the title track follows a pretty standard pattern for Japanese shoegaze with the blaring lead, somewhat subdued guitar backdrop, male-female twin vocals, and the stripped-down verse crescendoing into the bridge. But while this format can be boring in some cases, Browned Butter’s sound has a really good balance to it. The male and female vocal parts complement each other really well and sit really well in the mix. The melodies are catchy and simple.
The album’s second track offers something a little different, playing a bit more like something inspired by “Three Out Change”. It’s more of a deliberately paced guitar rock track, with those excellent breathy vocal harmonies really shining on top of another simple but fun guitar hook.
“Fever”, the third and final song, might be the best of the bunch. Again, it’s pretty different from the previous two songs, featuring more of the elements of a shoegaze tune. The vocals in the verse are chilling and when the song explodes into the chorus they just fit in there brilliantly. It’s a powerful track.
Though a three-track EP is a pretty small sample, Browned Butter showed some good versatility on their debut. The songwriting is really solid and the vocals are stunning. “Fall” is a great start. Let’s hope they keep it going.
When they released their 2015 debut “My Electric Fantasy”, Tokyo-based rock outfit Looprider displayed some impressive versatility in creating a cohesive record that incorporated sludgy hooks and pop-infused shoegaze. Released about nine months later, their second record “Ascension” took things in a quite different direction, drawing on hardcore and harsh noise, while steering clear of any pop influence from the first. Through two albums the band had covered so much ground that predicting where they might go from there was both intriguing and impossible.
When they released their 2015 debut “My Electric Fantasy”, Tokyo-based rock outfit Looprider displayed some impressive versatility in creating a cohesive record that incorporated sludgy hooks and pop-infused shoegaze. Released about nine months later, their second record “Ascension” took things in a quite different direction, drawing on hardcore and harsh noise, while steering clear of any pop influence from the first. Through two albums the band had covered so much ground that predicting where they might go from there was both intriguing and impossible.
Today, the band put out their third album, “Umi”, which predictably veers in yet another new direction. Initially promoted by the band as “an epic post rock concerto”, “Umi” goes beyond that. The album is a single, mostly instrumental 25-minute track that organically flows from start to finish with massive crescendos and lulls.
The opening 5 minutes, which the band uploaded as an album teaser a few weeks prior to the release, is a solid setup to the rest of the record. If “My Electric Fantasy” was a showcase of Looprider’s ability to write catchy, hook-driven tunes, and “Ascension” their talent for tonal brutality, “Umi” brings to light the side of the band that expertly crafts intense music using layers and textures. You get a feel for this in the album’s opening minutes where a number of simple parts are gradually woven together, building up to a dramatic peak where each of those parts explodes to create a beautiful sort of chaos. At about the four and a half minute mark, the double drums really shine through, too.
Just as any good post rock has it’s big crescendos, a sudden come-down and reminder that you need to breathe is just as impactful. While, at first listen, there might seem to be a logical track break – after all, it did make for a really nice standalone edit – the nosedive into the second part feels much more significant as a transition without interrupting the flow of the song.
Over the next few minutes of the album there’s a delicate build-up, again starting very simple and gradually developing with multiple overlapping parts. The lyrical portion of the album kicks in here, during which the origins of life are almost chanted over the course of another crescendo, this time to an epic bout of droning rock en route to a frenetic, solo-driven flurry. The balance between calm and uptempo, soft and thunderous, and the organic, unpredictable flow from part to part does well to conjure the image of the album’s central theme: the ocean.
The closing portion of the album brings everything down to a strong, steady march, before fading out with clean guitars, while the presence of thick, heavy guitars as the backdrop is a reminder of the strength of the album’s concept.
As a listening experience, “Umi” is quite different from Looprider’s two previous releases. However, there are familiar elements from the band’s previous two albums that appear throughout – the occasional grooves and “wall of sound” guitar textures found on “My Electric Fantasy” and the crushing noise of “Ascension” – that are brought together in a unique way, further stretching the boundaries of what Looprider are capable of producing. With the addition of guest musicians to a lineup that’s already proven itself more than capable of generating huge depth in its sound, Looprider have once again succeeded in belting out a behemoth rock album, when few other bands in Japan are seemingly willing to do so.
Looprider’s album release party will be taking place on Wednesday, March 29th at the band’s own Pop Sabbath event at Shindaita Fever in Tokyo, where they’ll be supported by moja and Japanese shoegaze legends Luminous Orange. You can pick up a copy of the CD, which one again features some really nice art from Nasutakeo, at the following locations:
After a stellar debut in 2014, Tokyo’s The Florist have returned with an even better sophomore effort. With Dark Entries,my third favorite album from two years ago, the band burst onto the scene with its own unique sound. In a year when the best shoegaze albums were infused with everything from grunge to post rock to indie pop, The Florist drew heavily on 90s American emo to put together a lush, dreamy record.
Photo: theflorist.info
After a stellar debut in 2014, Tokyo’s The Florist have returned with an even better sophomore effort. With Dark Entries,my third favorite album from two years ago, the band burst onto the scene with its own unique sound. In a year when the best shoegaze albums were infused with everything from grunge to post rock to indie pop, The Florist drew heavily on 90s American emo to put together a lush, dreamy record. Thanks to an addictive signature song in “Middle of Winter” and a strong push from a number of overseas media outlets, The Florist’s debut attracted a large international audience and thus a desire for more music. This June, The Florist obliged with the release of Blood Music.
The day of the album’s release The Florist simultaneously released videos for co-lead singles “Disintegration” and “Halcyon”. The former, which kicks off the record, picks up right where the band left off on Dark Entries. The latter is a bit colder, though the jagged guitar line eventually makes way for the warm, thickly textured sound that fans of The Florist have come to expect.
While the first half of the album is really solid – “Sadness Like Water Raining Down” is my personal favorite of the first five songs – it’s the portion of the album that comes after the beautiful instrumental interlude, “Untitled”, that really defines this album.
“Marigold” is a flurry of squalling guitars and drums, the intensity of which balances so incredibly well with the high, harmonized vocals. This is also the track where those guitar leads showcased on the first album really shine. The emo influence really shows about halfway through when the bridge kicks in. The song is a bit harsher than anything they’ve done to this point, but still incorporates familiar elements.
If “Marigold” was a reintroduction of The Florist’s familiar guitar leads on the new album, “Ghosts” is where they really shine. If I had to choose one song to make a lead single prior to Blood Music‘s release, it would have been this one. The galloping first 45 seconds bursts into a blurry mass of guitar, highlighted by a bending lead reminiscent of the one that drove “Middle of Winter” so well. Guitarist Yosuke Shiina’s ability to craft a gorgeous tone and weave it through each track is what really sets The Florist apart from other shoegaze bands in Japan. “Ghosts” is the band’s best showcase of that fact to date.
The pace picks up and takes a bit of a danceable turn with two melodic tracks in “Sweet Decadence” and “Weird Dreams”. At first listen it sort of felt like a poppy palate cleanser after a couple of emotional, harder-hitting songs, but both tracks really grew on me, especially “Weird Dreams” which, if I’m ranking the songs on the record, is right up there with “Ghosts”.
The light atmosphere of closer “The Last Dance” nicely wraps up an album that, as a whole, tops their debut release. While Dark Entries may have had higher peaks, Blood Music is a more consistent effort. It’s a more tonally explorative record that manages to remain cohesive with a very natural flow to it. As was the case with their debut, Blood Music figures to be on many a “Best of the Year” list when all is said and done.
Blood Music is available on iTunes and Apple Music, and physical copies can be purchased via Japanese Amazon (international shipping is available).
Here is the video for the album’s first single, “Disintegration”:
After a couple years of trying to hunt down their music, I was finally able to get my hands on a release from Sapporo’s Edy Two Arc. The CD, titled Kurakute, Oto no nai Tokoro (暗くて、音のないところ), is actually an 8-track split, featuring two tracks apiece from four Sapporo bands.
http://edy-sapporo.jimdo.com/
After a couple years of trying to hunt down their music, I was finally able to get my hands on a release from Sapporo’s Edy Two Arc. The CD, titled Kurakute, Oto no nai Tokoro (暗くて、音のないところ), is actually an 8-track split, featuring two tracks apiece from four Sapporo bands. Edy Two Arc, who prior to a sudden name change last month simply went by Edy, lend a dark, heavy shoegaze vibe to a comp that features everything from math-y funk to melancholic pop. Though the band has been around for a few years, they’ve been largely inaccessible with a limited web presence and live-exclusive releases.
Edy Two Arc have managed to remain something of a mystery, despite frequently appearing Total Feedback events and opening for Ringo Deathstarr in Hokkaido. Their songwriting is by no means adventurous, but their sound is very comfortable and should hit the spot for fans of big, billowy shoegaze with a darker vibe. About five months or so ago, the band posted the two tracks they submitted for the split on Soundcloud. Check them out below.
