Japanese Bands: The List 2
You didn’t think one blog post could cover all your Japanese music needs, did you? Yeah, neither did I. So here I am, after a lot of diligent searching and listening, bringing you more info on Japanese music. Yay!
[Hip-Hop]
Wise
This gentleman appears to have debuted last year with great flow, positive lyrics and fun music videos (Rip Slyme and M-Flo are in the “audience” of the video for Shine Like a Star).
Steady & Co.
A collabo unit made up of KJ and BOTS of Dragon Ash (DA) — the former being head honcho and lead singer of DA, the latter the DJ of DA — Illmari from Rip Slyme and SHIGEO from SBK. They were active around 2001 and released a couple of albums. I only found out about them a few weeks ago, but they had some really cool songs, like 春夏秋冬 (which I looped for a like a week straight), Stay Gold (this song’s lazy mellowness reminds me of LFO’s Summer Girls…some people might not take that as a compliment but I do mean this as a good thing) and Time Erases Everything. As you’d expect from the illustrious Dragon Ash and Rip Slyme, the songs fuse hip-hop and guitar elements very well. SHIGEO rhymes in staccato, nasal style that’s both very distinctive and very catchy.
Flick
I’ve only ever heard one song of theirs, and I can’t find any of their albums, but the fantabulousness of one track, 時代特急/Epochal Special Express alone was enough to get them on my list.
[Unique]
東京事変/Tokyo Jihen/Tokyo Incident
椎名林檎/SHIINA Ringo
SHIINA Apple is the lead singer of Tokyo Jihen, she also sings alone sometimes, but I’ve gone and put them together. I don’t even know how to classify her music. But they use guitars, drums and Shiina’s powerful-in-a-Björk-way-rather-than-a-Whitney-Houston-way voice, and it sounds like jazz and rock’s lovechild.
[R&B]
Lisa
Beforehand, I criticized Lisa for leaving M-Flo. I was mean. I’m sorry, Lisa. For one thing, Lisa’s departure from M-Flo does appear to have impelled the remaining two to do great collaborative work with just about every major female R&B vocalist in Japan, and Lisa for her part has done a wonderful job out on her own. She even raps on some of her tracks: I hate slow music, and (contrary to what I had feared from looking at her album covers) lots of Lisa’s solo songs have not been stingy in the speed department. Rejoice!
宇多田ヒカル/Utada Hikaru
A little slow for me, but…to each their own.
[Rap/R&B/Reggae-Pop Mix]
Orange Range
Okinawa in the hizzouse! Watch the music videos (PVs) to get the most out of their songs. Typically, when I first hear and Orange Range song, I don’t like it that much (there’s just something “missing”), but after watching and enjoying the playful silliness of the PV, the song tends to grow on me as well.
ケツメイシ/Ketsuimeishi
I think these guys are one of the original hip-hop/reggae fusion acts (these are in abundance here) from Japan, and they appear to have been around so long that they’re on break right now. Never fear, they have tons of cool ablums (Chris Rock invented this word) recorded just for you to listen to.
mihimaru GT
Put a very friendly, happy, even kawaii, face on hip-hop, but without making the music suck. Props for that alone.
[Geek/Folk]
勝手に観光協会/Katte Ni Kankou Kyoukai/We Done Gone And Made a Tourist Association on a Whimsy and Quite Without Anyone’s Permission
These guys went around every single prefecture in Japan and composed a funny song about it. Earthy, raw and hilarious. One of the guys in the band is a regular on a late night TV show hosted by タモリ/Tamori, where they have a segment called 空耳コーナー/Soramimi Corner, wherein are showcased sections of famous foreign songs which have lyrics that are prone to being misheard as actual Japanese sentences. ROTFL. I wonder what Snow’s Informer (does anyone remember this but me?) sounds like as “Japanese”…
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quendidil said,
April 20, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Haha, I love Shiina Ringo too.
Gwindarr said,
April 20, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
How ’bout some Chinese music goodness as well?
Also, I don’t think anyone has mentioned レミオロメン. Anybody else listening to them? I’ve really gotten into a few of their songs.
James said,
April 20, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
これを読むときに椎名林檎を聞いていた。
nacest said,
April 20, 2008 @ 9:16 pm
Thanks for including 椎名林檎. She has me addicted （＊＿＊）
Gonna try some of the others, thanks.
vgambit said,
April 21, 2008 @ 1:25 am
You’re still missing Shing02.
saleem said,
April 21, 2008 @ 1:13 pm
Thanks for the list. I second the call for Shing02
A fun way to find Japanese hip hop is through http://last.fm . Just choose type in the name of a Japanese hip hop act and click ‘Play Similar Artists’ (for some reason ‘Rhymester’ seems to have a good group of similar artists). They have tons of Japanese artists on there, from unknown to famous.
note: For some reason (licensing rules?), if you’re in Japan you have to make sure your computer thinks it’s in America to play most last.fm stations . If you’re in America, much more straightforward.
Davis Bynum said,
April 21, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
I’ll second the recommendation for レミオロメン. I’ve loved them ever since watching 1リットルの涙 (1 Liter of Tears). I think a lot of their songs are probably too slow for khatz’s tastes though.
Harvey said,
April 21, 2008 @ 4:22 pm
Haha, when people ask me what Japanese music I like, Shiina Ringo is usually the first name I say. She’s really something else.
Sometimes I mention Ulfuls, an old-school Osaka rock band that sings in Kansai dialect. They often sing about Osaka itself which is always fun.
Also, I like Soil & Pimp Sessions. They’re a heavy-jazz band. I’ve seen them live twice in small venues. Great great stuff.
You can also get your hands on lots of new Japanese music at hearjapan.com, I recently picked up some DJ Baku over there, a DJ I have caught live in Osaka. Good stuff!
Harvey said,
April 21, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
Hey for Chinese music, look up Cui Jian. He was considered to be the father of rock in China. Great stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_Jian
Great great stuff!
krusher said,
April 22, 2008 @ 10:41 am
Breif list of Hard Rock / Heavy Metal bands that sing in Japanese:
Seikimatsu - Cool & old Traditional band: http://www.seikima-ii.com/
Gargoyle - Thrash Metal band with Folk elements: http://firstcell.net/gargoyle/paso_index.html
P.P.P - Two girls singing traditional Heavy Metal, you can download all of their songs from their site: http://www.geocities.jp/tgcqm159/
Aphasia - All girl hard rock band: http://www.aphasia.jp/
Onmyo-za - Female-fronted Symphonic Metal band, they sing about Japanese Culture: http://www.onmyo-za.net/
Kinda hard to find good bands that sing in Japanese, the stuff I’m into is almost always in English, but they’re out there!
Mark said,
April 23, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
I’d definitely recommend Funkymic and the Saturdays rism, 韻シスト, cro-magnon (excellent live) and will second the call on Soil&Pimp. Note, the second two suggestions are a bit short on the lyric front, but who knows you could go to a gig, meet cool Japanese people and have an amazing conversation in Japanese about cool music…
AJ said,
April 25, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
Good call on posting ケツメイシ! I’ve loved them for a while now. They pretty much rock my socks all over the place.
I also checked out 東京事変 and they are amazing! I’ve only rarely listened to Shina Riingo, but now I love her.
Also, thanks for bringing up Rip Slyme again. I got some of there stuff now and I’m addicted. And also for the mention of Steady & Co. Those guys are amazing! I’m definitely picking up their CD as soon as I get back to Japan in a month.
Finally, I don’t know if it’s been mentioned, but スチャダラパー is absolutely amazing. Check anything out by them. If you want a couple of free songs, just post here and I’ll upload a torrent sample.
Harvey said,
April 28, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
I second スチャダラパー!
AJ said,
May 1, 2008 @ 4:16 am
http://www.cultureuniversal.com/jk/tracklists/track_flick.htm
Check out that site, Khatz. Apparently Flick has three singles out (two songs on each). They’re probably due up for an albums soon then, no?
khatzumoto said,
May 4, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
@Harvey
ええねん！
Stephen said,
May 12, 2008 @ 6:18 am
I discovered Tokyo Jihen recently and FELL IN LOVE. Man, what great music! I agree that they’re almost unclassifiable, but the album ‘Variety’ definitely shows roots in 70’s progressive rock to me.
I happened upon this great indie band called Bon Voyage that classifies themselves as ‘ Pop / Lounge / Indie’, but they have a very nice, flowy, unique sound. Every song of theirs makes me feel good. http://www.myspace.com/bonvoyageweb
Through BV I also found a great shoegazer/rock band called Lenno (http://www.myspace.com/lennojp). Their EP is not available outside of their shows as of yet, but they’re working on ways to sell mp3s.
Stephen said,
May 12, 2008 @ 6:19 am
Hmmm, it didn’t link right. http://www.myspace.com/lennojp
Mallory said,
July 23, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Anyone listen to SOULHEAD, or Lecca, or Aya Kamiki, or ZONE?
Mallory said,
August 30, 2008 @ 5:41 am
Hmm…maybe not…
Does anyone know of any good Japanese female rap artists?
valentina said,
October 5, 2008 @ 9:34 pm
Hi!!! I LOVE THIS BLOG!!AMAZING !!
I would like to invite all of you to listen another GREAT BAND called: RENTRER EN SOI…..
They have a theme for their music… ‘return in yourself’… that’s what their music do…
THEY ARE AMAZING and Satsuki (the voice of the group) put his soul when he sings.
They deserve to be listened.