New plenty MV!

This new song is from their 2nd ep which will come out on the 25th. I liked this song immediately; I think there are lots of good things coming this way for this band.

Chara

Chara is a pretty prolific and popular alternative J-pop singer. She's been around since the early 1990s and still going. The most outstanding part of her act is definitely her voice. Sometimes I find it hard to listen to depending on my mood, but you can't deny her unique whispery style.

Also of note she was married to (one of my favourite actors) Tadanobu Asano for fourteen years. She has also done some film work herself and currently hosts a TV Show Ongaku Baka. Keep an eye for her 2011 release Dark Candy.

Yusuke Chiba and Blue Spring Review

A common way people get into music of another culture or language is through movies and television. Most Japanese animes and dramas will feature an artist in either the beginning or end credits and if the show itself is popular, the song will usually be just as popular as well. I don't watch either, but even in Japanese movies you will find a wealth of music. The first instance of this for me occurred when I watched a film called Blue Spring (Aoi Haru) by Toshiaki Toyoda. Toyoda likes to use his favourite bands in his soundtracks, and in this case he used a band called Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. Well I will tell you it was love at first listen.

     The movie concerns a group of teenage Japanese boys attending a low-rate, gang-run highschool. Ryuhei Matsuda plays the main character, Kujo, who wins the title of head boss by playing the "clapping game" you can see demonstrated in the trailer. There is a lot of dirty fighting in the movie, murder and some humour. But the bigger items this film is about is dreams. These boys have no future within the confines of the concrete walls. They are set to live their lives as hard labourers, bums, gangsters or else, in jail. One older boy chased his dream of professional baseball, but in losing a game he loses it all and instead turns to the only thing he knows: gang life. Kujo and his best friend Aoki struggle together in the last term of school to come to terms with the possibilities that forgo them. In the end the two end up butting heads, but I won't ruin the ending. I watched this movie when I myself was nearing the end of my highschool education. I was filled with the same questions, thoughts and dreams, but luckily I am privileged to have had more options than the boys in this film. Still, I related to them and this film defined me for a long time. It caught on to the hopelessness of the future, the struggle to cope with our destinies and the lonely existence that is teenagehood. Naturally, the music only redoubled me feelings towards this film.

     Thee Michelle Gun Elephant is one of my favourite bands. I don't have number one favourites of anything, even colour, but TMGE is easily in my top three. Yusuke Chiba was the lead singer for this group which has been disbanded for a while now. But Chiba succeeded with two other bands Rosso and then The Birthday, both of which have a very similar if not identical sound to each other and its predecessor. All the songs are good. The writing is so simple yet so moving; there is really no other rock music that sounds purer than this. And Chiba's vocals are always so gritty and powerful no matter what sound is backing him. Just from the clip of the film in Blue Spring which plays Akage no Kelly (the Redhead Kelly) I still get that tugging feeling inside.  Here is a clip from ROSSO:

And The Birthday:

Halcali

Halcali are a Japanese female hip-hop duo, their naming being a combo of the members respective names Halca (Haruka) and Yucali (Yukari). They rap and sing together over ballads and dance songs, often with funny, weird and creative backing music. Their style of rapping might sound weird at first, particularly if you're used to American-style rap, but their catchiness quickly grabs you. My favourite album from them is Cyborg Oretachi (I wasn't terribly impressed with Tokyo Groove, their newest one) which I listen to every once in a while with pure joy. And obviously their videos reflect their fun style:

     And how can you not have fun with a song called "It's PARTY TIME!"? And don't tell me you've never wanted to do this in a grocery store:

9mm Parabellum Bullet

 

 This is a band that you will probably like right away if you're a rock fan. The word this band screams at me is ENERGY. Their songs are fast, complicated, interesting, powerful and full of energy. They have a new album due for June 15 of this year, and their last record, Revolutionary, was just awesome. My favourite track from it was definitely Inochi no Zenmai/命ノゼンマイ:

 Which has an absolutely epic ending, so wait for it. I'll be happily awaiting Movement for when it comes out!

plenty

I cannot read Japanese, and Google translate has done nothing for me. This band is so small known so I can't really find much English material about them. Google says that the song means "Gin, sing for me." Now, knowing the Japanese that could totally be the name of a song, BUT I doubt it. But the info is in the video description if you're interested. I found this band a while ago, thanks to BounDEEtube on Youtube, and their songs grew on me. And kept growing on me till I was a bit swollen. However, only just NOW have I found their album! So I've yet to give it a proper listen, but it's good so far. Only..this song isn't on it? Hmph.
      From what I can gather, they're in the same league as andymori in terms of their indie cred, and I'm pretty sure their fanbase has grown and is growing quite well. So let me just say, this video does weird things to me. I don't know what about it, but it makes me feel odd. I adore the androgynous beauty of the singer, the foggy atmosphere, the play of light and shadow. Also the song is great (give it more than one listen, if you can). All together it just gives me chills, but that could be my sentimental nature. It makes me miss Japan, that's for sure.
     I think what I love about a lot of Japanese music, particularly the rock/indie rock is that the musicians are not afraid to use weird or complex chord structures. You can see it demonstrated here especially in the chorus - even the baseline is quite interesting too. That extra technical musicianship just makes the song meatier for me and will almost always make me a fan.

http://www.plenty-web.net/

Clammbon

Technically this song is a remix by Nujabes of a Clammbon song - so it's a good thing. Nujabes is amazing (R.I.P.) and check out his stuff. But this post will focus on Clammbon, another amazing alternative pop band from Japan. I think this group has a lot of character in their sound. At times it's jazzy, at others just pop, rock, techno and altogether fusion. The singer is also very unique as well (though personally I can only listen so long myself). They've got a large discography with lots of different sounds throughout, so it's worth an exploration.

Quruli

I love Quruli. I...could listen to them for ages. Only now am I getting off my lazy butt and...years after having a bunch of their music am I combing through to make sure I have it all. And I don't. Bad fan. What I do have of theirs, I loveee. Every track, I tells ya. So invest in Quruli. There's not much to say about them. They're quite successful, one of the top pop bands in Japan. The sound is nothing spectacular in and of itself - simple guitars, drums, singing, etc. But there is magic to their work, I think. Just the right emotions, solid songwriting, carefree singing and technical instrumentation: it all works so well.
     I haven't bothered to watch many of their videos, but from what I see they're fun too! I'll post another good one below, but make sure you listen to much more than this!

Chitose Hajime/元ちとせ & Kousuke Atari/中 孝介

Chitose comes from Amami Oshima, which is responsible for the style of singing you will notice about her, as it is particular to that region. She uses various falsetto effects to achieve this sound; I don't know what a proper term for it would be, but I simply call it "fluting." This song is Kataritsugu Kotou and was the first song I heard from her and fell in love. Her voice is just stunning - a true instrument.
     Kousuke sings in virtually the same fashion as she. I joke that he is the male version of her, though he is not as popular (but deserves to be!). His voice is just as finely tuned, and definitely has a smooth texture that makes me melt. Here is his song "Hana."

Mika Nakashima/中島美嘉

The song and video I have uploaded here is "Over Load" which is a decent song, but definitely not her absolute best. I'm using it because most of her music seems to have been removed from Youtube (so...yeah). Her most famous track is probably "Yuki no Hana" which is a damn good ballad that I still enjoy from time to time. I love all the songs she did for her movie "Nana" a couple years ago.
     Well, let's introduce her properly. Mika is a pretty well-known J-pop artist. I latched on to her right away when I was first learning about Japanese music. When you first dig into another culture's music, you're most likely to come across pop, pop and pop. So having alternative pop artists like Mika are great gateway artists for better stuff (not that pop is necessarily bad). Mika's earlier stuff definitely had more jazz, reggae and big band influence which I also liked, but she has evolved with lots of different pop sounds and harder rock sounds. She's a bit weird at times, especially in her aesthetic, and she is also so very beautiful. In Nana, she wasn't too bad an actress either. So if you're interested in J-pop and wanted someone a bit meatier, please check out more of her!

Japan Week!

I have decided, in appreciation for my seemingly undying love of Japanese music, that this week is Japan week! I'll make about two posts a day for some artists I'd like to cover. Hurrah, let's begin!