Muso Japan - muso japan

The Florist – “Blood Music”

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”:

<br />

Kinoko Teikoku – “Natsuno Kage”

So after what I thought was a really successful single release in “Crybaby” this past June, Kinoko Teikoku have put out another track as they approach the release of their new album Ai no Yukue this November. “Natsuno Kage” (or “Summer’s Shadow”) hit iTunes at midnight Japan time – I’m assuming it’s just going to be another limited digital-only release like “Crybaby” – and my fingers were crossed, as I prepared to hit the play button, that this would be yet another sign of a return to pre-major form.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled the song up is that it’s seven and a half minutes long, making it the longest song they’ve released since “Flower Girl” on their 2013 Long Goodbye EP. You don’t find a whole lot of pop songs drawing on this long, so my curiosity was further piqued. I cleared my mind, got their entire back catalog out of my head, and finally hit play.

“Natsuno Kage” kicks off like a Fishmans-esque dreamy dub track, which is a lot more appealing than the light pop chorus that it transitions into. Similar to “Chronostasis” following “Tokyo” as the second lead single going into Fake World Wonderland, “Natsuno Kage” really slows things down when compared to “Crybaby” (and for what it’s worth, I like it a lot more than “Chronostasis”).

My opinion through the first half of the track is that it has a bunch of redeeming qualities. The chorus didn’t wow me, but the chill-out reggae twist was really pleasant, and Sato’s voice has just been so consistently good that there’s no real need to say anything about that. Once again Kinoko Teikoku show a remarkable ability to fill every ounce of space with sound, and the vocals are a major contributor there. Just as on the previous single, A-chan really gets back to what she does best: creating depth with her guitar work. Even if the track doesn’t quite get back to the early Kinoko Teikoku material that really showcased her ability and perhaps best reflected her own artistic influence, it sure sounds, as we draw nearer to the album release, that A-chan has more freedom than she did on the major debut.

There’s a bit on the track about three minutes in that teases with a bout of rumbling guitars, before transitioning right into that catchy chorus that I didn’t really care about, but by this point in the song has embedded itself somewhere deep in my brain against my will. Again at the four minute mark, things get a little heavier and the song has gone in a different direction…and we’re back to the chorus. As far as I’m concerned, the track could have ended at this point. When that last chorus kicks in, there’s the sense that it is going to crescendo into a big finale. It does build up, but it never quite gets to the point that it feels like it should. It does this for two minutes, actually. I wouldn’t call this a deal-breaker, but the five-minute version of the song is preferred.

I don’t feel as strongly about “Natsuno Kage” as I did “Crybaby”, but after a handful of listens I remain optimistic heading into Ai no Yukue, based largely on the perception that Sato is sharing the reigns with A-chan a bit more. The dream dub vibe worked pretty well, but when we finally get this new album, the hope is that there’ll be a bit more of an edge to it. We’ll see.

There aren’t any links to the new song at the moment, but the title track from the upcoming album is the theme song for the upcoming film 湯を沸かすほどの熱い愛, and is featured in this trailer (starting at the one-minute mark):

<br />

Mississippi Khaki Hair – “1st Demo”

It doesn’t feel like very long ago at all that I was gushing over a promising teen indie shoegaze outfit from Osaka called Whisper Voice Riot. 2015 was a great year for the band, who established themselves as one of the young bands to keep an eye on – and not just in the shoegaze scene. They put out their debut EP, Before the Morning Cleaves Our Night, last fall, appeared at Total Feedback and Kyoto Shoegazer, and seemed to be picking up steam. It was therefore a bit of a shock that this past spring the band announced that their appearance at the 2016 Kyoto Shoegazer fest would be their last. The news was pretty sudden, and I was personally really disappointed to see such a promising young band call it.

There was some consolation, however, upon hearing that three of Whisper Voice Riot’s members, including frontman Taito, would continue making music under a different name. The direction of the new project, called Mississippi Khaki Hair, was a bit of a mystery, but one thing was made perfectly clear: this wasn’t going to be a shoegaze band.

Mississippi Khaki Hair got right to gigging in early May and this past Friday released a 3-song demo EP. They released two-thirds of the EP a week or so in advance on Soundcloud, and my first thought was that it wasn’t a massive departure from some of the dancier WVR stuff. There is much more of a groove to the new project, though, but it didn’t seem different enough to necessarily warrant a completely new project. “True Love” is a romantic, synth-laden blend of new wave and shoegaze, while “Phone Call” has a distinctly Strokes-y vibe to it, with overdriven vocals and prominent guitar lead paced by a consistent four on the floor beat. “Silence Like A Shout” is a bit more along the lines of the latter – another lo-fi indie rock dance track.

The demos are really rough, and Taito acknowledges this along with the fact that this is pretty much just a sample to show people what the new band is all about. When I asked him why he scrapped Whisper Voice Riot to start a new project, his answer was simple: “I couldn’t be satisfied with WVR.” In addition to members being busy and it being difficult to consistently write music, there were creative issues as well and Taito stresses the goal of MKH is to make music that’s more original. “Whisper Voice Riot’s music was derivative, and I didn’t want it to end there. The two new songs we posted are really traditional, but, combining shoegaze, post punk, and pop music, we are getting ready to show people what we’re all about.”

This is just the beginning of Mississippi Khaki Hair as a band, and, just like WVR, they’ve gotten off to a pretty fast start. Physical copies of their demo EP are only available at gigs at the moment, but there are plans to release it digitally on Bandcamp and potentially sell physical copies online as well. In the meantime, the whole thing is up on Soundcloud. It’s still a demo, but you can get an idea of what the band is going for, and it’s a lot of fun. My personal favorite track – it’s probably not a coincidence that it’s also the song that most resembles WVR’s music – is “True Love”. You’ll be wanting to keep an eye and an ear open for these guys, so be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Kinoko Teikoku – “Crybaby”

When I started this blog in early 2012 I was completely in love with Kinoko Teikoku. Just about everything I tweeted was gushing praise of their music, and when I finally moved to Japan that spring it felt like fate that they were playing in Nagoya a mere weeks after I would arrive. Seeing them at Club Rock n Roll is still one of my favorite live experiences ever. Their music was powerful and emotional, and really struck a chord with me.

Fast forward to the spring of 2015, when it was announced that Kinoko Teikoku, whose previous album was extremely hit or miss, I might add, would release their major label debut in the form of a single called “Sakura ga Saku mae ni”. The track wasn’t very good, nor was the subsequent full-length debut “Neko to arerugi”. Kinoko Teikoku had changed, and I was balancing the feeling of being happy that they found success with the disappointment that they seemed to have left behind a majority of the qualities that I, and a growing global fanbase, had come to love. Sure Chiaki Sato’s voice was still gorgeous and the songwriting was fine. What I missed the most was the power and edge that they had done so well that made way for unexciting pop tracks. It didn’t feel right and I was just about done.

It might be the reason I completely missed the news that last week Kinoko Teikoku had released a limited digital single (I’m assuming it’ll only be up for a short period of time) called “Crybaby”. As I do with everything they release, I bought it on iTunes, a sense of apprehension and a little bit of hope that something might be different. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a pop track, there’s no doubting that. The verses are cute and gentle, and the chorus plays like a melancholy J-pop ballad, but there’s a lot more substance surrounding it. There’s a harshness to the guitar tone that’s returned from Kinoko Teikoku tracks past, and from right around the 3:10 point the song really starts to feel like a throwback to their earlier stuff. There’s even a bit in the buildup to the track’s climax that sounds an awful lot like the intro to fan favorite “Yoru ga Aketara”. In past interviews, A-Chan had been pretty outspoken about her love of 90s alt rock and shoegaze, and their first few releases had really reflected that. In “Crybaby” it feels like there is a perfect balance between Sato’s desire to make pop songs and A-Chan’s affinity for big, edgy guitars.

For the first time in a while I’m really pleased with a Kinoko Teikoku track. If “Sakura ga Saku Mae ni” was the prelude to a bad album, I really hope that “Crybaby” is a sign that things are heading back in the right direction.

The single is currently available on Japanese iTunes, though I’m not sure if there will be plans to release it on the US store. It also appears to be available on Recochoku.jp. Here is a brief teaser that’s been posted on YouTube.

<br />

Juvenile Juvenile – “Perfect Lies”

In the Japanese indie scene, the mingling of indie pop and shoegaze is something that happens pretty frequently. The former has been riding a steady wave of popularity for a while now, and the latter is oft-misunderstood but nevertheless enjoying an ever-growing resurgence of its own. These two genres, vague as they may be, are a perfect marriage. However, like a lot of bands who dabble in shoegaze, there are plenty who scoff at being called a shoegaze band. In situations like these, we just slap on the “dream pop” tag and voila, tricky genre debate averted. Osaka has consistently produced top notch indie pop bands in recent years, so its no surprise that it’s also the home of Japan’s finest dream pop band. The foursome is as good as anyone at creating jangly pop tunes and drowning them in reverb and hazy background noise. Their latest mastery of the style has come in the form of a new single titled “Perfect Lies”.

“Perfect Lies” is one track off the upcoming double A-side 7-inch single – the opposite side is titled “Planet Heaven” – that was announced last week. It will be the band’s first single release, and first new music since 2014s Our Great Escape album (which, for what it’s worth, topped my best releases of the year list). The single, which will be released on August 10th in clear blue vinyl via Flake Records, was produced by The Bilinda Butchers’ Michal Palmer and will be accompanied by a bonus CD featuring remixes by Jesse Ruins and Teto 2.

“Perfect Lies” is a pretty, thickly layered, melancholy track, consistent with the vibes of the ultra-dreamy “Just Like You Do” from Our Great Escape. The most attractive element of Juvenile Juvenile’s sound is the depth that they create, not only with their big, lushly layered guitars, but with frontman Masami Tsuchiya’s breathy vocals. What they lack in edge (only mentioned here because of my general affinity for the super loud) they more than make up for in their desire to fill every last square inch of space with sound. On “Perfect Lies” they do just that, even keeping the leads that normally carry their tunes a bit more subtle. Juvenile Juvenile is back at it, and I’ll be looking forward to hearing “Planet Heaven” in the near future.

There’s not a whole lot of info on where the single will be available, but be sure to follow the band on Facebook and Twitter for more info. And if for some reason you haven’t heard their previously released music, you can find it on Juvenile Juvenile’s Bandcamp page.

Sapporo Shoegazers Edy Two Arc

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.

Citrus Nowhere – “A Nightmare Before She Sleeps”

By now it’s no longer much of a secret that Tokyo’s Citrus Nowhere are regarded as one to keep an eye on in the Japanese shoegaze scene.

By now it’s no longer much of a secret that Tokyo’s Citrus Nowhere are regarded as one to keep an eye on in the Japanese shoegaze scene. I wrote as much in my 2016 preview piece at the beginning of the year, and the band’s commitment to not only putting out more material – seemingly the endgame for a lot of promising young bands here – but to gigging and ironing out any remaining wrinkles in their live game has been a really positive sign.

The band had a bit of a coming out party in the form of a self-titled EP and release party alongside fellow passengers on the raging war wagon that is the new generation of Japanese shoegaze bands, Yukino Chaos. At the gig, which took place in Nagoya, there was a sense that everything was still being figured out. It wasn’t super tight, but you got a feel for what they were doing. I enjoyed the opportunity to see them. It didn’t feel like a finished product. To be fair, it was also the band’s fourth ever show.

This month Citrus Nowhere released its second EP, this one titled A Nightmare Before She Sleeps, as a free download on Bandcamp. At first listen its hard to ignore the release’s raw production value. The fuzzed-out guitars dominate the mix while the drums are faint enough in the background to guide you hazily through each song. There’s a playful poppiness to what’s going on below the layers of noise, and I found the combination more interesting than their previously released work.

The intro track “Beautiful Lies” is a persistent, free-flowing wash of droning guitars. It’s a refreshingly unstructured song with a bit of a subtle jangle and light male-female vocal harmonies fluttering around. There’s some pop there, but it’s subdued for the sake of noise.

“Blue Enemies” is another that stuck out, perhaps because it’s got a bit of a different vibe from the rest of the EP and it sits right smack in the middle of the five songs. The beat on this track is infectious and the band does well to create a haunting mood from some trippy textures and subtle falsetto vocals.

As a stand-alone, Citrus Nowhere’s A Nightmare Before She Sleeps is really enjoyable, but the production will definitely be a turn off for some. In context though, this EP is a step in the right direction, muddying things up in a scene where too many bands try to keep things super clean. It’s their willingness to experiment and not shy away from the harsher side of things that makes these guys, in my opinion, such a key member of this new wave of Japanese shoegaze bands.

You can pick up A Nightmare Before She Sleeps, as well as their self-titled EP, on Bandcamp for free.

Shun Tanabe – “March of Ghosts”

I’m willing to argue with anyone that the Japanese Shoegaze Group on Facebook is the best place for discussion on the topic. Through the group people are not only able to introduce bands to a pretty sizable community, but plenty of artists in Japan have a dedicated platform through which they can get their own music out to an eager and thoughtful audience. The most recent gem to be discovered here is the solo project of one Mr. Shun Tanabe.

Tanabe – whose Soundcloud profile simply mentions that he’s a company employee who records when he finds the time – quietly released a couple tracks online over the last month or so. “Standing on the seashore” is more of a chilled out, dreamy piece and it’s pleasant enough, but “march of ghosts” is a track that got my attention from the first chord. It’s a sweet, somewhat melancholy track with nice space compliments of a warm, ambient backdrop wafting around simple, strummed acoustic guitar chords.

It appears that this is about the extent of what Tanabe plans to do with the project, but as long as he continues to put out music like this I’ll be listening. At the moment he’s just got the two tracks, but there will be some more soon so stay tuned and give him a follow on Soundcloud.

Looprider – “Ascension”

It was just last August that I was writing about the debut from Tokyo newcomers Looprider. My Electric Fantasy was a diverse record, with the band exploring any number of sounds from shoegaze to pop to sludgy, grimy, at times doom-y rock. With their sophomore effort, titled Ascension, released on May 4th via Call and Response Records, Looprider has taken a different and more direct approach to annihilating your eardrums.

Photo by Matt Schley (http://www.mattschley.com/)

You get an idea of what to expect when comparing the covers of their two releases, both of which were done by Tokyo-based artist Nasutakeo. My Electric Fantasy‘s vibrant pink cover art is contrasted pretty starkly by Ascension‘s black and white. The wide-eyed manga-style character on the cover of the first album appears on the second, however it’s a more tormented version this time with severed arms, a distraught-looking face, and sort of creepily ribboned torso spiraling downward. By setting the physical CD cases right next to each other, you are presented with one of the themes of Ascension: the violent destruction of pop.

Musically, Ascension is brutally loud. There are no shoegaze-y pop tracks, nor catchy melodic palate cleansers to be found on the record. “N.E.C.O.” is a noise track featuring drawn out chords and distorted screams over a backdrop of ambient fuzzy static. Tonally, it’s a fitting introduction to the album, which picks up the pace starting with the following tracks, “Fantômas”, “Doppelgänger”, and “Science ≠ Evolution”. There’s a major hardcore influence here and some really nice depth, compliments of a ferocious blur of guitars, overdriven growls, and raging drums.

“Kaboom!” is six-seconds of blast beat grindcore a la Anal Cunt that leads into probably my favorite section of the album. “Sekai” keeps the record trucking a blistering pace before slowing down into the chugging title track. What I really like about “Ascension”, apart from the fact that it’s heavy as hell, is the showcase of my favorite element of Looprider’s sound on this CD. Everything slows down and that aforementioned depth in the form of persistent feedback and squealing guitars really shines through. Also it reminds me a little of older Sepultura, which is awesome. “Mustafar”, presumably named after the volcanic planet on which Obi-Wan Kenobi dismembers a young Anakin Skywalker, scores big points both for its relentlessness as well as the reference – surely no mere coincidence that the album’s release date happened to be Star Wars Day. Finally, “667” closes everything out with seven-plus minutes of harsh noise.

Even at its heaviest, My Electric Fantasy was a very clean-cut album, production-wise. On Ascension things are much more raw and the album feels very organic. Over the course of nine months, Looprider has shown some tremendous diversity and, impressively, has done so at a consistently high level. The new record demonstrates a pretty big change in approach and style, but over the course of two releases Looprider has shown an affinity for doing things loudly. This time around, however, by shedding previous elements of pop in their sound, that loudness is accompanied by an unrestrained aggressiveness resulting in a brutally chaotic and extremely cohesive album.

The release party for Ascension will be held this weekend, the 7th, at Koenji Niman-Denatsu in Tokyo. You can purchase the album at the following websites (international shipping is available). They’ve got some pretty sweet shirts for sale on Bandcamp, as well.

Here’s the video for “Mustafar”. There are some pretty intense strobe effects, so viewer discretion is advised.

<br />

Collapse – Self-Titled EP

L to R: Kohei, Tomoko, Satoru, Shibuya ( Source )

In my constant search for Japanese shoegaze bands a little more willing to go hard in the paint, I came across a little known band from Saitama called Collapse, thanks to a poster in our Japan Shoegaze Facebook group. Though the band was formed by bassist Kohei in 2013, a bunch of member changes hindered any sort of momentum until Collapse finally established its current four-piece lineup with the additions of guitarist and vocalist Tomoko, guitarist Satoru, and drummer Shibuya. Three or so years of settling culminated in a hot start to 2016 for Collapse, who, in addition to gigging regularly, released its debut self-titled EP on Bandcamp. Shortly thereafter, the band started selling physical copies of the EP via its newly established online store.

At first listen, I immediately appreciated the heaviness of Collapse’s sound. In their biography they describe their sound as the combination of elements of “stillness” and “floating” from shoegaze and the “violence” and “speed” of metal. The result is a sound perhaps more similar to the recent western model of shoegaze than the pop-heavy style that continues to dominate the Japanese scene. There’s balance though. The tonal aggression is contrasted by Tomoko’s sweet-but-not-too-sweet vocals that sit just right in the mix. The melodies are poppy, but they’re not too prominent. In that respect Collapse reminds me of a somewhat more balanced version of AZMA.

“Syrup” and “RIP”, the EP’s opener and closer, respectively, are the two tracks on the album that really stand out. Each really showcases the band’s ability to just pour on the waves of guitar noise with catchy vocal melodies woven in. “Yellow” doesn’t quite keep up in terms of pace, but doesn’t lack for explosiveness. The third track on the EP – conspicuously titled “Intro…” – is just a brief ambient interlude before the screaming finale kicks in.

The debut EP from Collapse isn’t perfect, but it’s a really good start. I talk about my desire for more aggressiveness in the Japanese shoegaze scene in just about every other blog post, and Collapse has come through for me. It’s recommended that you pick up the EP on Bandcamp. At the moment it looks like physical copies are only available for purchase within Japan. You can check out Collapse’s homepage or follow them on Facebook for more information.

<a href="http://collapse-jp.bandcamp.com/album/self-titled-ep" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Self Titled EP by COLLAPSE</a>