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!
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.
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.
I chose the video above for visual effect because it is the music video, but I recommend playing the video below if you want a better quality (by far) listen:
I'm trying not to post too much Turkish music here as I want to preserve variety, but it was impossible to ignore this song when I heard it. In truth I have a lot of Tilbe's albums, and even the one that this song is from, but I'm an avid user of the "shuffle" option on my mp3 player which means sometimes I don't hear all the tracks of a given album. So I only just heard this today and was pretty much wowed. From what I can gather the title means "Commemoration of a friend" but I haven't looked at the actual lyrics. No, I am wowed by the awesome instrumentation! This is why I love Turkish music: the chord progression is quite simple and very typical of Turkish songs, but there's this wonderful rock kick to it that I love. The sound to me is very reminiscent of 60s rock-pop tunes, but the added violins and Tilbe's voice make it a little more modern and unique. I wouldn't think to listen to a Tilbe song with electric guitars in it, but here I can really see how her voice works well with it's kind of gravelly quality. Tilbe has a tendency to be one of those weepy singers (she is not the queen of this, note; the queen of the weepy voice is Umut Ayürek) but her voice is totally in the right mode here. Love it.
"Elza's Ocean" one of, if not the most successful Ukrainian bands. Here they sing "Відпусти" a better known song, a little older. I can not get a good translation on the lyrics. From what I garner it's about someone who cannot be yours. You can tell it's a very sad song, of course. I really love the singer's voice. A lot of the rock they make is a bit mainstream sounding to me like something I could easily hear on the radio here, but the singer's gravelly voice makes me like it especially. You can see my Russian favourite Zemfira covering the song in the side bar. I will definitely be posting about her one day. Here is also another song I like by them, a bit newer too.
