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November 22, 2024
 

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Ian Martin
Ian Martin is a freelance writer covering music and pop culture. He has been active in the Tokyo music scene as an indie event organiser, DJ and label owner since 2004 and has been contributing to The Japan Times music page for almost as long.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 6, 2009
Yolz in the Sky "Ionization"
Osaka postpunk quartet Yolz in the Sky's new album "Ionization" follows on from the best moments of their self-titled 2007 debut with a series of insistent dance beats and reverb-heavy guitars underscoring the relentless harangue of the echoing, ranting vocals. This time, however, Yolz in the Sky take...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009
Sweden's SideChild takes center stage
"There was this one guy whose name meant something like 'flat' in English, but Google translated it into Swedish as 'lesbian', which caused me a bit of confusion at first."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 9, 2009
The past and present of bands tearing up Japan's underground scene
Old school: Notable for Koichi Makigami's distinctive, Kabuki-influenced vocal style, Hikashu were, alongside P-Model and The Plastics, one of the defining bands of Japanese new wave and technopop, although from their poppy debut they quickly tacked in a more experimental direction. At Drive to 2010...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 9, 2009
All aboard for Drive to 2010
It's Aug. 28, 1979, and the audience dutifully files into the old Shinjuku Loft livehouse to take their places, seated on the floor in preparation for another night of quiet musical appreciation. This time, however, something strange starts to happen. People keep coming in, the audience have to shuffle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2009
Refashioning the J-pop scene
Yasutaka Nakata is bouncing around like some kind of postmodern electro Tigger in front of a sea of adoring fans, almost uniformly young, beautiful and well-dressed. His DJ set taken in large part from his group capsule's own music, with the odd track thrown in by electro-tinged idol pop phenomenon Perfume...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 7, 2009
Nobuaki Kaneko "Orca"
Best known as the drummer from Japanese rap-rock band Rize, but also having made a name for himself as an actor, Nobuaki Kaneko delivers his first solo album caught between his position as a relative newcomer as a musical mastermind and a celebrity status that demands a certain degree of profesionalism...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2009
Perfume "Triangle"
In a pop industry where music is usually a mere marketing tool to help sell an idol's image, Japan's busiest producer, Nakata Yasutaka, has pulled off a rare success by the way his music utterly subsumes the identities of Perfume's three female members, turning them simply into girl-shaped robotic campaign...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2009
Enter the dance-rock dragons Shikari
"We were really worried before they came over 'cos England's so s--t," says Rob Rolfe, the drummer from British post-hardcore/metal/dance fusion band Enter Shikari of their anxieties before embarking on a 2008 tour with their friends, the Japanese punk-metal group Maximum the Hormone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2009
Kirihito "Question"
With a reputation for furious, hypnotic live performances, and a sound that evades all attempts to pin it down with the usual genre cliches, Tokyo-based duo Kirihito have gradually carved themselves a position as legends in the underground-music scene despite only releasing albums sporadically over the...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 24, 2009
Mahiruno "Generic Music" (Perfect Music)
What separates most modern Japanese progressive rock bands from their British 1970s counterparts is that they hone their sound through live performances rather than through months of expensive recording-studio time. As a result, when they do eventually make an album, the recording represents more or...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 24, 2009
Ryukyu Underground do it with feeling
"You should be able to go into any sort of club and not be sure exactly what to expect," says Keith Gordon of Okinawan-styled electronic duo Ryukyu Underground, as he sits drinking tea in his record label's office in Aoyama, central Tokyo. "You should be surprised every once in a while."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2009
Managers beware: Herren hits Japan
"That's always been their therapy: to bring it together, at least for themselves, in their own environment and their own space. You know, like flowers and rainbows, beautiful people everywhere, and everything's nice."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 20, 2009
Who the Bitch
Comprising guitarist/vocalist Ehi, bassist Nao and drummer Yatch (the group's sole male member), squeaky-voiced punkers Who the Bitch formed in Tokyo in 2006. Since then they have made a name for themselves with their slick, harmony-infected take on the kind of quirky, chirpy garage punk that fans of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 27, 2009
Beat Crusaders "Very Best Crusaders"
Rock music in Japan tends to treat a band's move to a major label as a kind of year-zero moment, by which all their previous material is airbrushed from existence like disgraced Politburo members from old Soviet photographs. It's tempting to see this best-of compilation by Japanese punk-pop group Beat...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 27, 2009
Beat Crusaders "Very Best Crusaders"
Rock music in Japan tends to treat a band's move to a major label as a kind of year-zero moment, by which all their previous material is airbrushed from existence like disgraced Politburo members from old Soviet photographs. It's tempting to see this best-of compilation by Japanese punk-pop group Beat...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2009
Worst Taste: as stupid as they wanna be
"I like bands that are energetic and stupid. And with no sense of fashion. We hate fashionable bands whose music is no good."
CULTURE / Music
Nov 21, 2008
Capsule "More! More! More!"
Often dismissed in their early days as a poor man's Pizzicato 5, Capsule nevertheless quickly formed a reputation for themselves as torchbearers into the new millennium of the 1990s Shibuya-kei boom. However, as Pizzicato 5's Yasuharu Konishi's flirtations with manufactured pop as a producer working...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 31, 2008
Monoral feed on Halloween horror
'A lot of the companies we signed to disappeared, basically," says Ali Morizumi of pan-national rock duo Monoral, musing on the mysterious curse that has followed his band around.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2008
Explosive new anime packed with surprises
'I was looking to do something different, but at the same time if it was too unique, it could fail," says Masayuki Miyaji, director of PlayStation Network's new anime series "Xam'd: Lost Memories." "But then if it fails, that might even be more fun."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2008
Sound and vision — the eclectic end of anime theme tunes
Despite a prevalence of cute, otaku-friendly theme songs, with many recent ones providing dance routines for budding cosplayers to learn (look up "Hare Hare Yukai" on YouTube to experience the true horror), "Xam'd: Lost Memories" isn't the first time that an anime has drawn musical inspiration from rock...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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