Tag: 日本

My Dead Girlfriend – “shaman’s daughter”

Word of My Dead Girlfriend hitting the studio reached social media earlier this year, but the subsequent talk of a new release quickly died down amidst a global pandemic and general tumult of 2020.  Fast forward to the early fall, and the news of the band’s upcoming EP “shaman’s daughter”, felt more surprising than it did something we’d been anticipating for roughly half a year.

The journey toward the new EP started in early 2019 when My Dead Girlfriend front man, Yuki Ishikawa, was contacted by indie filmmaker, Yusuke Isaka.  Isaka had begun working on a dark comedy-horror movie called “Shaman’s Daughter” (シャーマンの娘), and, having been a fan of My Dead Girlfriend since high school, reached out to the band about submitting music for the film.  By June, Ishikawa was ready to commit to the project, and from late-2019 to early-2020 the band was working on new material.

Two of the tracks from the EP, lead single “rebirth and karma” and the closer “winter reminds me of you” appear in the film as the ending theme and background music, respectively.  Additionally, plenty of earlier My Dead Girlfriend songs are used throughout.  Though only two of the five songs on the new release ended up in the film, Ishikawa cites the band’s involvement in the project as a major reason that the EP came to fruition – he also noted some interesting similarities between the film’s plot and My Dead Girlfriend’s own worldview – and felt it appropriate to carry some of the image of the film over to the release via the EP’s title and jacket art.

From purely a musical standpoint, “shaman’s daughter” pulls together My Dead Girlfriend’s range of sounds into a very cohesive collection of songs.  For a short-form release, there are a lot of looks into the My Dead Girlfriend soundscape.  “The secret of sunflowers” is a dark, tom-thumping march of an intro that waxes and wanes in intensity, swerving between shoegaze and post punk.  It’s a positively jarring way to kick off the EP.  From there, you get the EP’s signature song, “rebirth and karma”, which is a shoegaze track through and through, pushing the lush guitars to the forefront of the mix, but with a delicate balance between the harsh tones and the fluttering twin vocal melodies that define My Dead Girlfriend’s sound.  “Zaiakukan no nichiyoubi”, the only track on the EP that was not written specifically for the film, is probably the most My Dead Girlfriend song on the whole thing, walking the fine line between blaring shoegaze and candy-sweet pop and boasting the most addictive chorus on the release.

“Iliad” is a fun bit of chaos, going from essentially a simple, pacey power pop tune to a breakbeat-driven guitar tone exploration.  Ishikawa talked a bit about working with engineer Kensei Ogata in the studio, saying, “he suggested a lot of interesting ways to use our guitars and our pedals”.  Whatever those suggestions may have been, you get the feeling that they worked their way into “iliad” as well as perhaps the opening number.  On the other hand, “winter reminds me of you”, is straightforward.  It’s as sweet and nostalgic a pop song as the title implies and you can at least imagine the sort of scene it might be used as a backdrop for in the film.  The dreamy ambient outro is a nice touch.

Overall, “shaman’s daughter” is a really strong effort from My Dead Girlfriend, and the production work of engineer Kensei Ogata really pushes the song quality, through.  Given the relationship of the album to the film, it will be interesting to see how the songs – old and new – will be used there, and that context adds a different and interesting dimension to the release.  At the moment, it sounds like the movie will drop sometime in 2021, though releases can be a bit unpredictable right now.  You can check out a number of different trailers in the meantime if you’re interested.

While talking about plans for the band coming into 2020, Ishikawa spoke of plans for the band’s first performances overseas that were dashed by the coronavirus pandemic.  Even with the situation seemingly improving in Japan in recent months and limited capacity live events resuming, My Dead Girlfriend remains cautious of touring in support of “shaman’s daughter”.  While the rest of 2020 and perhaps well into 2021 maybe be difficult to plan for, Ishikawa expressed a desire to continue making new music and put out a new full album “in the near future”.  Stay tuned.

While there are plans to make “shaman’s daughter” available for streaming on Apple Music and Spotify (with no plans for a Bandcamp release), for the time being it will be exclusively a physical release.  You can purchase copies internationally here.

For information on the film, “Shaman’s Daughter”, you can visit the project’s crowdfunding site here (Japanese language) for details and trailers.

The video for “rebirth and karma”, which includes footage from the movie, can be seen below.

“Shaman’s Daughter” film trailer #1:

The Best Japanese Shoegaze and Dream Pop Releases of 2019

The past few years have seen a steady flow of new and upcoming artists in the Japanese scene.  In 2019, however, the story was more about big name returns and the domestic scene really holding steady with really strong releases from some of its best-known artists.  Tokyo Shoegazer and Coaltar of the Deepers dominated the buzz, we saw a very consistent flow of releases, and the final year of the 2010s felt like a confirmation that few if any genres have been as consistently well-represented as shoegaze in Japanese indie music over the past decade.  It was a really strong year.

Before getting into the best of 2019 lists, there are a couple notes.  First off, once again, this was a really tough year to break down.  Since I crunched the format of these lists into a “best 5” style, it’s been a real challenge.  Sometimes that only applies to the EP portion, but this year all of them gave me trouble.  Also, Tokyo Shoegazer had a massive year, and while their Crystallize reissue deserves all the love it got all over the world, it doesn’t qualify for the list.  Nor does their stealthily released Moondiver album, which was sold on their China tour, but which will likely receive a proper release in 2020.

That about does it.  Here are my best releases of 2019.

 ☆ ★ BEST SINGLE ★ ☆

“Revive” by Tokyo Shoegazer

As I mentioned in the intro, the sudden and surprising return of Tokyo Shoegazer was pretty much the biggest story in Japanese shoegaze in 2019.  Though the Crystallize reissue and Moondiver releases generated more buzz, their “Revive” single featured the band’s first new music in years.  It was an emphatic announcement of their return to activity, highlighted by the epic seven-and-a-half-minute lead track, “Light”.

Indie legends Coaltar of the Deepers had a similar comeback in 2019, which marked the 25th anniversary of the band’s debut The Visitors from Deepspace album.  Having released two new singles in 2018, Deepers’ return wasn’t as big a surprise, but the band teased a new single over the course of their anniversary tour.  The track, titled “HALFLIFE” dropped on digital platforms in early December, and is very much a throwback to the band’s genre-bending shoegaze prime.

From two long-standing veterans of Japanese shoegaze to one of the finest of the latest crop of indie bands to pop up this decade, Luby Sparks followed up a fantastic 2018 with a brand new single in 2019.  “Somewhere” is a gorgeous 4AD-style dream pop tune that jangles along into a super catchy, emotional chorus.  It’s romantic, teenage nostalgia and it’s beautiful.  The single’s B-side is a remix by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie that really piles on the feels.

Lost in all the big comeback announcements was maybe my personal highlight of 2019, which was Osaka’s Ether Feels getting back together two years after splitting.  With a mostly fresh lineup around band leader Tomo Iwashita, Ether Feels put out its latest single titled “Kowloon Sunset” and got back to gigging.  The band picked up right where it left off with its heart-wrenching brand of melancholic shoegaze pop.

The Earth Earth has been pretty quiet since releasing a single in 2016, gigging sporadically around their home base in Aomori, so their latest single was another pleasant surprise this past year.  While nods to early My Bloody Valentine aren’t exactly rare among shoegaze bands around the world, The Earth Earth is one of the few Japanese bands to have consistently gone that route over the years and the results have been excellent.  “Story is Wrong” is nothing new, but it hits the spot.

I’m taking liberties here by adding one more entry to my singles list.  COLLAPSE‘s latest three-track release, “ENDOGENIC REBIRTHDAY”, was actually at the top of my EP list before I realized the band had labeled it a single.  Their sound continues to sit at the heavier end of the Japanese shoegaze spectrum, and on “RITUAL”, they show off a nice blend of contrasting styles in hardcore and shoegaze that isn’t all that common in Japan.

★ ☆ ★ BEST EP ★ ☆ ★

“EASTOKLAB” by EASTOKLAB

As usual there were a number of EPs vying for the top spot on my year end list, but the one that I listened to and enjoyed the most was the self-titled debut EP from Nagoya’s EASTOKLAB.  Their brand of dream pop is some of the most unique in a scene that has a lot of creative takes on the genre.  From dreamy atmospheres, tight grooves, and the ability to seamlessly transition to big blurry guitar walls, EASTOKLAB possesses a diverse sonic arsenal, and frontman Hayato Hioki’s vocal style is uniquely his.

The Waterfalls’ 2016 self-titled release garnered a lot of attention in the Japanese indie scene, and this past year they put out a double EP release consisting of “In the Blue Lagoon” and “Youthlight”.  There are some subtle differences in style between the two EPs, but overall over the eight tracks that they released they showed more of the outstanding songwriting that we saw on the debut.

My troubled relationship with idol music has been well-documented to this point, but I really enjoyed “Blue”, the debut EP from RAY.  Shortly after ・・・・・・・・・ disbanded, RAY emerged as the new face of shoegaze idol music (under the same management as their predecessors) and promised a highly-anticipated collaboration with Ringo Deathstarr.  They delivered just that on the new EP, the lead single of which, titled “Meteor”, was composed by the Austin shoegaze trio’s Elliot Frazier.  With two more tracks composed by Azusa Suga of For Tracy Hyde and Yusuke Hata of cruyff in the bedroom, RAY’s focus on quality songwriting over gimmicks is a positive sign.

Formerly known simply as kano, Tokyo-based bedroom producer azsakano put out another EP full of whimsical dreamy pop tunes in 2019.  Just like her previous works, “Romantics” features some really nice layering of textures and sweet vocal melodies soaked in reverb and sunken deep within the mix.  Azsakano is an expert at crafting lo-fi dream pop that is simple on the surface but gives the listener a lot to dive into.

On their latest EP, “square”, Nagoya’s mishca do a lot more texturally than they have in the past, while staying true to their very mellow, straightforward approach to songwriting.  If there was one knock on the band in the past it’s that they didn’t develop songs enough to really carry the slow, methodical backbone of their music.  Musically, “square” offers considerably more dynamic range, and the male-female vocals complement each other really well.

 

★ ☆ ★ BEST ALBUM ★ ☆ ★

“New Young City” by For Tracy Hyde

This can’t be much of a shock.  For Tracy Hyde had a lot of competition this year, but their third full length album, New Young City, sits atop this list.  Once again, For Tracy Hyde drew on western shoegaze and dream pop and Japanese pop influences and pieced together an album that is loaded with energy and emotion.  As a body of work, its structure is similar to that of their successful sophomore effort, but New Young City shows the band going even bigger with its sound.  It’s loaded with song of the year contenders.

SPOOL‘s self-titled full length debut seemed like a lock for the album of the year throughout most of 2019, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say it actually was.  It’s a powerful, well-produced album that demonstrates some really versatile songwriting.  SPOOL goes from deep and dreamy to dark and edge, infusing their shoegaze sound with elements of 90s US alternative rock and playful dream pop.  This was the breakout we were waiting for from the four-piece.

Monocism‘s Fukou album was the band’s first proper release since the end of the previous decade, and one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.  Over the past few years, frontman Tomoya Shiono has been working on some wonderful solo material under the moniker 宗凛 (Sourin), and monocism’s new album plays like an extension of that with its stuttering, mathy beats blanketed in thick, dreamy layers of noise and fluttering guitar leads.

Taffy once again had a quietly solid year, highlighted by their fifth studio album, Deep Dark Creep Love.  As is often the case with a Taffy release, there’s nothing groundbreaking about the album, but producing good shoegaze in 2019 is largely based on taking elements of the genre that have been done in the past and working them into something interesting.  That is what Taffy do so well and it’s why their new record is an excellent listen.  Their rendition of Bowie’s “Never Let Me Down” is gorgeous, too.

The final spot on this list was the hardest to decide on.  Cattle, Smokebees, NOAH, and a lot of other bands put out really good albums, and Kiiro Records’ FOREVER SHOEGAZE double release was probably the label’s best compilation to date.  But I’m going with Polly‘s latest release, Flowers.  Produced by The Novembers’ Yusuke Kobayashi, Polly’s third album is gorgeously dark and dreamy with tremendous depth thanks to a combination of airy guitars and synths.