Jinmenusagi: ALXVE
Jinmenusagi is finally back in form with his first full solo album in a decade! The Tokyo-based rapper's ALXVE is officially a follow-up to his 2014 offering, LXVE, which was the album that put…
Coldrain, Noisemaker, Revnoir @ Barba Negra, Budapest, 2025.12.06.
It was almost exactly ten years before this shows when I saw Coldrain for the first time: in late October, back in 2014, when they played in Vienna, at a…
Palastleben: Manufacture
There were many excellent releases coming out of Japan in 2025, but if I had to pick one as the absolute I would probably pick this one. The debut album…
f5ve: Sequence 01
During the last couple of years Japan's pop girlgroup scene went through a rather drastic change, with nearly all groups from the former generation disbanding and new ones taking their…
The People In Fog: Too Much Knobs And Cables
Yoshifumi Sodeyama has been a mainstay of Japan's electronic dance music scene for about two decades now and while with his better known moniker, DJ Sodeyama he explores techno music with…
HANABIE. @ Dürer Kert, Budapest, 2025.11.23.
HANABIE. became one on the biggest international sensations to come out of Japan in the last couple of years: their completely unlikely blend of extreme metalcore and cheesy J-Pop went…
“From that moment, all our worries disappeared” – an interview with HANABIE.
This email interview with HANABIE. was conducted in November, 2025, around the time the band played its second show and first ever club show in Budapest, Hungary. The show took place…
Mono @ Turbina, Budapest, 2025.11.24.
You would think that it is kind of difficult to write anything new about a Mono show. I mean, the band's been touring Europe for over 20 years now. This…
Genre-bending, loud rock and a brand new album – an interview with Paledusk
Paledusk released its first full album today, so this is a perfect time to finally share the interview conducted a few weeks ago in a small dressing room, just a…
One OK Rock, Paledusk @ Budapest Arena, Budapest, Hungary, 2025.10.30.
One OK Rock, one of Japan's biggest rock bands just wrapped up its European tour, which wasn't just another EU tour, but also a very important landmark for them. The…