Yep it is legit, actually one of the best indie rock albums from last year imo
2 Likes
Kaho Nakamura, one of my greatest music discoveries of last year. It’s a huge mystery to me how she isn’t more well known and popular. This song “Kiitone!” from her 2018 album AINOU gets me grooving every time it comes up on shuffle. Kaho’s soulful vocalization but playful nature mixed with the track’s overall jazzy r&b infused pop makes for a insanely fun track. The music video is also excellent and really fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t0d5eHg8Tc
A blast from the past, Base Ball Bear still rocking after all these years and releasing material, but older favorites like “Tabibito in the Dark” still hold up and bring me back to a different time in my life. A reminder that I can still enjoy this sort of emotional alternative rock sound and that it still hits for me.
New 88Kasyo Junrei, like literally just dropped this song and MV yesterday. They have considerably “toned” or “calmed” down their sound from past albums and really started to evolve their sound. It’s still weird as fuck and out there regardless but with a different energy than their older material. As a fan since the beginning all the way back to their 2007 demo EP it’s nice to know that they are still plugging away and progressing their art even if it might not be as raw or intense as it once was.
This song “泥春” or “Muddy Spring” definitely leans a lot more into their math rock elements with a more melodic approach to the vocals and overall song progression. They’ve incorporated these sounds in their music in past albums but this is more of a full on lean into these styles, while in the past they leaned more heavily into a post-hardcore and psychedelic rock/metal sound as a base with shades of math rock and punk but with a overall let’s say less “polite” song structure. Regardless I like this all the same and I’m excited for a new album hopefully this year.
That Kimetsu no Yaiba Orchestral album is sick, really enjoyed listening through it, nice pickups.
1 Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKtbOp_3IEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQwYfl9buYg
One of my favorite Sawano Hiroyuki vocal collabs, and no surprise it is from the best gundam soundtrack lol I love both versions but as much as I’m a Aimer fan I have to give it to Mika Kobayashi for her performance on the original version. It is full of such emotion and vigor and overall her voice is more suited to the nature of the song and the English lyrics.
The Aimer version is by no means a bad take though, I really like how they slowed it down and added the acoustic backing instruments and overall made the composition more suited to her husky voice and unconventional vocal technique.
1 Like
Too bad she doesn’t have a whole lot of solo albums. She’s got a powerful voice for sure. Whenever I hear or see her name i instantly think about AoT lol.
1 Like
R.I.P. anisong artist Maon Kurosaki (黒崎真音). One of my favorites due to her OP/ED tracks for the Toaru Majutsu no Index series.
*Just realized both members of ALICes. have passed away 
. I haven’t listened to this project before, but they sounded really good.
1 Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJie7dTvbjQ
One of my favorite live performances from any artist, and probably my favorite majiko song. She just really kills this song live and this performance in particular is stunning. Everything from the acapella opening and ending and the almost ethereal breathy vocal style and passionate high delivery of some notes to the expert breath and microphone control and impassioned guitar solo. This one just hits hard and gives me goosebumps when I watch/listen. Kudos to the crowd for being totally silent from beginning to end and not ruining the emotional stakes of the song, and oh boy those lyrics are something special. It gets me every time how sad it is.
Mekakushe, an artist I have been following for a few years… actually since before when she was formerly known as Hirone-chan. Really relaxing music, in recent years she plays mostly a mix of art pop and chamber pop making use of acoustic instruments. Her music has a very dreamy atmosphere with slow starts that build up as the track progresses, her vocal technique very much matches this structure but never quite gets to the peak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ff5aHFpQTw
Probably my favorite WOMCADOLE song. This group has the emotional alt rock sound down to tee and it is a sound that I love. The somber crooning of the vocalist mixed with the melodic strumming and the build up to all hell breaking loose towards the end of the song with the lyrical hook being repeated into abrupt ending. Fuck yeah!
1 Like
Legitimately blown away with how hard this performance goes… Sky-Hi killing it and Tanaka aka Boku no Lyric Boyomi coming in clutch with the accompanying vocals, ahhhh. Why can’t western rap hit like this? From the skillful flow and the pleasing melody and just ridiculous hook, and for fucks sake the lyrics are so thoughtful and actually mean something. This is why I can’t give up Japanese music hahaha it just doesn’t compare.
I’m not the biggest Sky-hi fan but now I’m gonna have to seriously pay more attention to him after this one. Lyric-kun I am already aware of and have his entire discography… actually I might write something up for him soon, maybe.
2 Likes
One of my all-time favorite sawano songs covered by sennarin (who’s also great btw).
2 Likes
note: YT copyright took down the original video I posted, so instead make do with the non orchestral version… still amazing. you might be able to find it on a streaming service.
Such a good orchestral performance this one is… This song in particular blows me away, so beautiful and powerful. Nami Nakagawa slays this performance, her voice is so soft and vulnerable but also solid and forceful when it needs to be. The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra’s rendition of this fan favorite is stunning.
Sounds especially amazing with my HD 800s 
2 Likes
I’ve been liking this album a lot lately. Album : AD:HOUSE 10
1 Like
kind of upset for not finding out about this channel sooner, but I guess perfect timing since these versions are now available for purchase…
RIP, what a legend. I just recently really got into YMO too…
Tangentially music related… Congrats to her!
2 Likes
Ah that’s great news! But I guess this means we probably won’t see any activity from her in the near future, still wish all the best.
2 Likes
Since I am got some time on my hand and wanted to contribute to this thread as a fellow Jmusic lover, I will share the below.
Been rebuilding my library for quite some time since I reverted to FLAC-only files and started using Roon around January this year. I have been exploring Jmusic for the last 8-9 years. It started with Vocaloids for me because the Vocaloid producer makes music sound so unique and busy, I never really heard anything like their music before. Nowadays, I listen to all types of Jmusic like Idols (KA-GA-YA-KI-RA-RI-RA - Aqours featuring Hatsune Miku got me into Idols), Jrock (Band-Maid has been killing it recently, and probably one of my favorite bands right now), Vocaloids (harder to find flac files, but my favorite Vocaloid is Gumi and favorite composer is Giga-P, Mitchie M, Deco27, 40meterP, etc etc), Pop (I really like Giga P x Reol, Ayase x Yaosobi), etc etc. After switching from headphones to 2 channel speakers, I have been just rediscovering Jmusic again and been listening relistening to the collection I converted to FLAC so far. The difference of experience from headphones to 2 channel speakers is so different, it can’t be categorized as the same hobby. It’s like liking NY Pizza vs Chicago Style Pizza, it’s just not the same thing even though they are both called pizza lol. Plus, 45 tubes really make female vocals sound really sweet, it’s really addicting. I haven’t tried 300B tubes as I heard those are lusher, but I am in no hurry as I got a lot of songs to revisit using 45 tubes.
I wanted to take a break and just listen to some new music this season. My favorite new music this season will be listed below. I haven’t listened to all of them, but this one sounds really catchy to me.
My favs so far Spring 2023 release:
Masayoshi Oishi - SHINDA! [Official Video]
Ave Mujica - Deep Into The Forest (Favorite song Spring release so far, super badass song!)
Valis - Mukyu Platonic (Favorite song this season so far)
Neriame – Unmei Kyoudoutai! (Favorite song this season so far)
YOASOBI - Idol (Most popular song this season with 108,300,341 views so far)
SICK HACK - ワタシダケユウレイ
Slash - Yama
Akari Nanawo - Kien Romance
Akari Kitō - Steppin’ Up Life!
Pics of my library so far (like 40% done):
3 Likes
Hell yeah, fresh tracks from kessoku band…
2 Likes