Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: Candy Racer / #2021reviews
For years, many people have been criticizing pop icon Kyary Pamyu Pamyu for being too predictable, having next to no variety in her music. Which is true after all, but…
Grim: Totem Song / #2021reviews
Unlike the previous entries in the "A Year In Reviews" series, this one is not an album, but a 7" single, however it is a very special one, the kind…
Newspeak: Turn / #2021reviews
Newspeak's been around since 2017, but I only ran into them about a year and a half ago and I don't really remember the last time a band became such…
Mainliner: Dual Myths / #2021reviews
Mainliner was originally formed in 1995 by Asahito Nanjo (of High Rise) on bass and vocals and Makoto Kawabata (of Acid Mothers Temple) on guitars and a few years, a…
Puffy: The Puffy / #2021reviews
For a long while Puffy, the pop duo of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura was a mainstay of Japan's mainstream music scene, starting with their million selling debut single, Asia…
Mono: Pilgrimage Of The Soul / #2021reviews
Mono's new, 11th studio album, Pilgrimage Of The Soul was advertised as "the most dynamic MONO album to date". And it got me very curious about whether it is really…
Endon: Through The Mirror – complexity meets brutality
Talking about the differences between their first album, Mama and their brand new follow up, Through The Mirror, Endon's singer, Nagura Taichi said in a recent interview with The Japan Times…
Metafive: Metahalf
Metafive started back in 2014 as an all star super-group, formed by Yukihiro Takahashi of Japanese techno / electro pop innovators Yellow Magic Orchestra, including Tomohiko Gondo (from the band…
Bed-In: Rich – a tacky time travel with Tokyo’s trashiest duo
I guess everyone has those guilty pleasure kind of favorites. Things that you know are bad by all standards, but still you just can't stop loving them. For me Bed-In's…
HiGH&LOW – the JPop album of the year
It might sound like a rushed statement to call anything the "... of the year" while only seven months passed, but in this case, it is a pretty sure bet,…