japanese

Just came home and not in the mood to write a lot, so enjoy th’s cute little nugget from Japenese singer/songwriter Shugo Tokumaru. Off 2007’s Exit, folktronica?

Today is the start of the holiday week in Istanbul and to celebrate the holiday spirit here’s the second part of our 5 Star Monday series with all kinds of cheerful bluegrass, ska and world music from Charlie Haden, The Clarendonians, Horst Jankowski et al.

Sawako’s sound incorporates looping, field recordings, gentle noises all modified and blended in a chiming drone sound. It’s easy to make it noisier and darker since noisy music tends to sound dark. That’s probably why there are so many crap dark ambient acts. Her latest effort is a testimony to this bright chiming sound, bringing to mind Alvin Curran’s classic Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden from 1974, or recent works by Stars of the Lid.

Private School is not an electronica project but it’s a lo-fi hiphop trio with similar Powershovel aesthetic. Touches of 90’s triphop, raw and sparse beats, simple synth melodies and rapping on top!

Takagi Masakatsu is a Japanese music and video artist. His music combines very playful piano loops and other sounds with samples of nature and outdoor environments. Foot steps, children playing, and various other sounds are mixed into his tracks from samples he has gathered from all over the globe. His visual work is very creative as well.

Most of the time, press text of albums are full of cliches and unneeded banter about the past accomplishments of the band with vague words and praise. Here I was today trying to write a short intro to A&E’s new album Oi! released on the avantelectronic label Sonig.

If you’ve never heard of their name, they have taken the riot-grrrl vocals and mixed them up with freestyle non-compositions and raw noise aesthetics, Japanese style. Here’s 2 short songs from their 2005 album Kore Ga Mayaku Da on Tzadik and some live videos of them wreaking havoc on Youtube.

They’re both Japanese. Let’s just get that fact out of our way at once. Why oh why are japanese so good with jazz? It’s probably the same as electronics. They take revenge from the western world by doing the things they take from westerners better than the west. Yes, don’t be fooled by their smiling toy faces, Japs are mean little bastards when it comes to jazz.