Akiko Yano - 1976 - Japanese Girl

Akiko Yano is a female Japanese pop/jazz singer and also a pianist. This was her debut album (she has another one from this year according to discogs) and apparently it made a splash in the scene for its unique sound. In retrospective I don't think it's that unique considering that in the 70s there were a lot of more experimental Japanese "sort of" mainstream artists but the hype should not detract the actual value of this record. The music is a big salad of all kinds of styles but if we tried we could pin it on psychedelic pop? Maybe? The album starts with a relatively jazzy track that devolves into scat singing solo by Akiko. As we go on with the tracks you'll notice more congas getting ever present.  But they stop and the music take a more Japanese turn in sound. After a while it tones down and when you reach track six it's all happy piano ballad with prog rock weirdness in the back. The album is glued together with a consistently great vocal performance by Akiko in all of the tracks. For some it might be over-expressive but if you're used to jazzy vocals you should not have a problem with this. As with music her singing changes styles often but she seems mostly comfortable in all of the settings. This album is a journey, if you're up for one then you're bound to have a good time. Background listening this is not.

Get it.

Frankie Cosmos ‎- 2014 - Zentropy

Frankie Cosmos is a twee pop project of Greta Kline and she's slowly but surely climbing up the fame steps by recently releasing an album on the Sub Pop label and doing world wide tours. But before all this she made a slew of self-released mini albums from 2012 up til 2014. Zentropy is probably the best of the bunch offering short and diverse songs which are all distinct from one another. Throughout the varied songs a constant form of self-hating and not so serious lyrical themes lurks behind the mainly happy melodies. Overall it's a great little album worth your attention even though some songs feel unfinished but they're all cute. Great for short bus trips.

Get.

Kinoko Teikoku - 2012 - Uzuninaru

Kinoko Teikoku (or きのこ帝国) is a relatively new shoegaze band coming from Japan. They've been very diligent since 2012 releasing one album per year and they've landed a contract with EMI two years ago which should propel them even more into Japanese stardom at least. But back at the beginning they released Uzuninaru as their first proper album.

While their music isn't anything spectacularly new they merge the jrock sound with shoegaze very competently. The overall atmosphere is that unique melancholic feeling that Japanese bands often evoke. The solitary urban feeling oozes in all of the songs that are on this well written album. But despite the somewhat depressing atmosphere the album is paced pretty well. I could never zone out to it, every other song picks the pace after more slower cuts on the album. Never a dull moment and on top of it all the female vocals are implemented to great effect. And they're not high pitched, which is always a plus.

Definitely check this band out if you haven't already.

Get it here.

Rachel Goswell - Waves Are Universal

Rachel Goswell is a name commonly associated with a band called Slowdive. I'm not very familiar with them so I can't really make any meaningful comment but I'll get around to them one day. She played for them the guitar and also sang and she also played in another band called Mojave 3 which is a great band and you should definitely check out their albums. Especially if you end up liking her solo album which I'm sharing.

On her solo album she combined the music of Mojave 3 with some of her own styling and instrumentation. Even though this came out in 2004 the album sounds a lot like the 90s. It's a quaintly melancholic affair with love songs throughout and songs of longing. It's one of those albums that you put on when it's raining outside and you just made tea and you're comfortably snugged somewhere warm. The songs themselves are diverse enough to feel unique in terms of instrumentation albeit being relatively simple in terms of structure. It's definitely varied enough to keep things interesting throughout the album.

Get.

Molly Rankin ‎- She EP

Molly Rankin is the vocalist of a new-ish Canadian band called Alvvays. They released their first album back in 2014 and it was pretty neat. Musically it was laid back dream pop drenched in delay and reverb. Before all that conundrum Rankin did this little EP back in 2010.

Compared to aforementioned Alvvays it's vastly different in style. She EP is a blend of cutesy folk backed by rock instrumentation and sometimes strings arrangements as well. Rankin's voice, much like her melodies, are also cutesy and happy. Although she usually sings about being broken hearted everything is happy and upbeat. It's a short but very sweet trip and the last song is unbelievably catchy so the whole thing is worth checking out just because of that last song.

Get it.

Nagisa Ni Te - Feel

Nagisa Ni Te or 渚にて is a folk/rock duo from Japan but surprisingly not from the Tokyo area. They come from Osaka and their name means "on the beach" which is fairly fitting actually. They've been putting out albums since 1995 and this one was released back in 2001. Aside from this album I also heard their debut but I find this one more interesting. First one is more experimental but I enjoy the more melancholic vibe that Feel has

The core of Nagisa Ni Te is the duo of Shibayama and Takeda. They both provide vocals which fits really good with the music that's in the maximum laid back style. The songs are mainly focused on slow acoustic instrumentation but there's enough diversity and experimentation that keeps this hour long album not particularly boring. Some songs tend to draw out though. While essentially being a duo there are lots of songs where more instruments come in. Most of these "session" musicians come from Maher Shalal Hash Baz band which makes sense since both bands are kinda related even in sound. While Maher has a more naive sound to it and feels more simple Nagisa on the other hand has much more tight instrumentation and sounds overall more apt in its songs. Despite that they give me a similar vibe.

Anyway, great album. Check it out.

Get it.

bôa ‎- Tall Snake EP

Serial Experiments Lain was the first anime show that I watched from a source that wasn't the TV and I was stunned that Japanese can draw something else than big eyes and explosions! It still had schoolgirls though! Aside from being an excellent show the opening is something that really stuck with me over the years. I still listen to it today and it is one of few select opening/closing songs from anime shows that I, every now and then, listen (Bonnie Pink's Last Kiss being close second, of all things). First and foremost the song is incredibly catchy but more importantly it's not hyperactive pop or a charade of edgy rock inspired pop. It's a well made, fittingly melancholic, song by a British band that didn't really catch on as time went on. Now that I think of it, I never really bothered with anything else they've made.

Tall Snake EP contains this song in its original form (uncut) and two other versions. One is a Cyberia remix which sounds pretty much like any late 90s electronic-pop garbage and an acoustic version which is great if not even better than the original. The EP also contains two other songs (I don't remember if they were featured in the anime, probably not) that are fun to listen but different from the main showcase.

Get the EP.

There's a video of the song here.

Wishbone Ash - Argus

Different albums evoke different feelings. Some are sad, some are merry and some are deep and thoughtful. This one for me always brings back the feeling of summer and fantasy novels.

Wishbone Ash, as far as I can tell, never really did anything revolutionary in their respective genre. I mean, they're good musicians and all but their music was kinda on the safe side (from what I heard at least). Because of that very fact Wishbone Ash is always nice to have around. It has plenty of nice songs and instrumentals that are always enjoyable to hear and never much cheesy. Since the songs themselves lean on a more poppier sound (which isn't really that bad at all) you'll hear a lot of melodic solos and chorus singing. You know, the usual cliches of prog rock from those days. I always like this album to have in the back while I'm reading some lengthy fantasy novel. For some reason these two things always fit together nicely.

It's trapped in time, somewhere in the endless summers of the 70s. Back when the world was a much slower place. When you could just sit on your porch and listen to some fine tunes.

Have fun!

Advantage Lucy - Station

Since summer is starting to fade away I thought I might share one of my favorite summer time bands called Advantage Lucy. They're a three piece rock-pop band from Japan that released three albums. They're still active (I think?) but they didn't do anything new for a while now. I shared one of their albums before but that was a very long time ago so why not share another one?

This album is pretty much along the same line as the other one. It was released back in 2000 and I think it still sounds just as great. It's so happy and carefree that it makes me just sit around and watch birds shit on my window or something useless as that.

The melodies are very light (as expected of such bands) and quite catchy. The trio arrangement fits quite well with this sort of music. Too much instrumentation tends to bog down the melody so this is to me an optimal arrangement of instruments for this type of music. While the album is a bit samey it doesn't really feel all that long so I don't think that's a real issue here. Everything is nice and mellow in the land of Advantage Lucy and they help to bring that mellowness to the listener as well.

Get.

Rainer Maria - Look Now Look Again

Rainer Maria was an emo/indie rock band from the US. They released this album back in 1999 which was a follow up to their (equally good) debut album in 1997. I'm not really into this sort of thing but somehow I stumbled upon this song so I decided to check these guys out and I was actually pleasantly surprised by this because I never really thought this kind of music would interest me. It's nothing special but I really like how it sounds and feels throughout the whole album.

The post-rock riffs, female vocals and instrumental crescendos really do their magic here. The singer sounds sincere although the lyrics aren't really something exceptional. Maybe that's just me but they are standard "I'm fucked up, everything is fucked up etc." so they aren't really impressive or noteworthy but are enjoyable to listen and can be overlooked.


Download.

Ancient Grease - Woman And Children First

I heard some kind of shitstorm is hitting the US? Sorry for my ignorance, I don't really pay attention to the world during summer. I guess I'm lucky with living here because nothing ever happened here when it comes to natural disasters (every other kind of disaster does happen though). I guess the Romans knew their shit when they built here.

I guess this would be a fitting disaster album, even the title suggests what you should do. They were an English rock band and they released this in 1970. It's goes for that blues feeling and the whole album is a fitting soundtrack for an outlaw (or apocalypse). Yeah, it's that cheesy. It has all the usual suspects of this music and they sort of sound like Black Sabbath. Not as dark or brooding as them but when it comes to riffs they are similarly heavy. Especially the second track on this thing which is awesome riffage from start to finish.

Fun 70s rock, nothing more and nothing less.

Download.

Oh and best of luck with everything to everyone who'll get hit by Irene.

Coven - Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls

Coven was an interesting little flick back in the day. Yeah, I sound like an old man. This album and band were pretty much stereotypical cookie cutter product of their time (late 60s and early 70s) with one very distinct trait. Their imagery and lyrics were focused on the occult and satanism. Not very subtle and hidden but completely open and direct. This came out before Black Sabbath did their thing so ironically Sabbath were called a British answer to Coven. Sadly this isn't as nearly as good as is Black Sabbath but it has its shining points.

This whole album is like a silly exploitation movie about Satanism. The last track is actually a whole black mass recorded with chants and everything. Today we find this silly but in those days it managed to spur some controversy which eventually gave them some acclaim. Aside from their gimmicks this is nothing really nothing special and they keep the music in the boundaries of then standards. I don't mean to say that it's bad music, it's just not very innovative or original but it's fairly catchy and the (female) vocalist sounds a lot like the chick from Jefferson Airplane. So in a sense this is Jefferson Airplane that's devoted to Satan in the name of commercialism.

Some more info about it on Wikipedia.

Pulp download.

Ranmadou - Ranmadou

Ranmadou was a rock/sort of blues band from Japan that was active in the 70s. It's one of those bands that are good but they just didn't have any luck and they never made it big.

The whole album is pretty much lighthearted rocking with the occasional blues that pops in from song to song. The 70s vibe is very apparent here so those of you who like rock from this age I'm pretty much sure you'll enjoy this. So get your Ray Ban glasses on, grow some beard and long hair and start rocking.

Highly underrated.

Tracklist:

01. Che!
02. Hitasura
03. Shuppatsu
04. Koi no Akadenwa
05. Kaze ga Pyu Pyu
06. Shasei
07. Okashina Sekai
08. Hitonigiri no Blues
09. Nan no Tame ni

Bitrate: 192kbps
Download.

Ni Hao! - Gorgeous

Ni-Hao! produce the kind of multi-part vocal gymnastics and booty-shaking bass-rock that either delights or irritates depending on your margin of tolerance towards exuberant Japanese child-women.

The Kyoto-based all-girl trio were originally comprised of drummer Green Reo and bassists Red Ariko and Blue Yukari, also a member of Limited Express (has gone?). They released a clutch of mini-albums called Red and Blue on Seiichi Yamamoto’s label Ummo Records before their full-length debut Gorgeous on Tzadik in 2005. This was followed by another mini-album entitled New-Hao! in 2006, in which the trio abandoned their bass-bass-drums set-up for a keyboard-driven pop direction.

In 2007, drummer Reo left the band and has since been active in ULTRA Jr. Now reduced to a duo, Ni-Hao! are on an extended sabbatical while Yukari raises her new-born son.

I have yet to find a Tzadik release that I don't like.

Tracklist:

01. Laila
02. Life Saving
03. Night Escape
04. 3.2.1.0! Explosion
05. Hurry Up!
06. Space
07. Miss Fujiko
08. To Do
09. Ne-Ko Bus
10. Sweet Spicy Golden Recipe
11. Ele Shock '04
12. Hello, Hello
13. Hysteric Teacher
14. Panda
15. Maternity Blue
16. Moon
17. Horizontal Line II
18. Look At That (Peach)
19. Trino
20. Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?

Download.

Spangle call Lilli line - Spangle call Lilli line

In keeping with Spangle call’s standard rock instrumentation, their style reaches well beyond downtempo, a relaxed and heavily electronic genre. While the band is often described as post-rock, their sound is more of a compromise between the two. Songs are not bound by verse-chorus convention, but drift lazily, guided by a light melody. The guitars and varied percussion together with numerous (and frequently spacey) electronic additions weave a sound that, while complex, flows very evenly. Otsubo Kana’s wispy vocals contribute an organic piece to the melody as well, while adding to the relaxed atmosphere.

In any case I believe this is more rock than post-rock but what the hell. Very enjoyable and relaxing album. I could not find a proper album cover so a band photo should suffice because it looks awesome. Also I'm not sure about the gender of the person to the right. :/

Tracklist:

01. normal star
02. irie
03. new crawl
04. under north sour
05. error slow
06. august (8)
07. (untitle)
08. u.f.

Download.

Cowboy Bebop - OST, No Disc, Blue and Vitaminless

Sometimes I think, oh yes, I’d move to
Where all the shooting stars are gone
With all of our wishes
How could they bear, oh no, to carry
Around the stupid human hopes
So I’m gonna help, I will!

Give me a key to lock
The door to the secret paradise
There are so many queuing up
And I won’t let them in
Look at them
They are cheeky
They are never worthy to be saved

Sometimes I feel, oh yes, I could do
Almost everything I wanted
And it makes me cry

Lay your heart, lay your soul
upon my magic carpet
now we are flying
to Venus just to kill some time for tea, OK?
Remember, surrender
There’s nothing you can do ‘cause
Love’s such a joke
Like a little Jack-in-the-box, you know
A little Jack-in-the box

The lyrics above are from a song called Flying Teapot and this blog was named after this song.

The anime Cowboy Bebop is set in year 2071. Life on Earth has been demolished due to the fact the fucking Moon blew up! xD Because of that huge amounts of rocks are falling down on Earth (among other disasters that occurred because of this) making life on Earth almost impossible. Thus humans emigrated primeraly to Mars but also to other planets to and space stations. Most people now live on Mars in huge craters that are shilded by huge domes around it and the enviroment in these huge dome like buildings are shaped to look like life on Earth. That's the setting of the story, at least one bit. The story follows a group of bounty hunters who are on a ship called Bebop. The crew consists of 4 humans and one dog. Each character fills the weakness of another character so in whole they make an perfect team (non of them are able to get food it seems haha). I won't spoil much of the plot but just so you know the anime is episodic but the main plot follows here and there giving you just small bits untill the last few episodes where everything starts to unfold. Along with the series there's also an movie, two mangas, two video games (they weren't released outside Japan me thinks) and some questionable live action adaptations.

This happens to be my favorite anime of all times (seriously it is, there's no other except maybe Angel's Egg but that one is more for the soul) so I managed to collect most of the soundtracks and bootleg soundtracks that got out one way or another. I'll be posting 4 here and in the future I'll post some other ones (like the 5 cd limited boxed edition but that will have a post of its own because it deserves it!).

The anime has numerous refereces to jazz and most episodes are named after Jazz songs and similar. Naturally the soundtrack is like that as well. All soundtracks are made by a band called The Seatbelts led by the all popular Yoko Kanno who writes the music (she also did music for several other animes like Wolf's Rain). The music is quite diverse to say at least. For example the opening song is an wild and hectic jazz while the ending is an mid paced rocky ballad. While the main areas of music in the soundtrack is jazz and rock they aren't afraid to venture into other genres which gives this soundtrack an high replay value.

For now I uploaded 4 sountracks which are:

Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack

Tracklist:

01. Tank (3:31)
02. Rush (3:35)
03. Spokey Dokey (4:06)
04. Bad Dog No Biscuits (4:12)
05. Cat Blues (2:37)
06. Cosmos (1:37)
07. Space Lion (7:13)
08. Waltz For Zizi (3:32)
09. TPiano Black (2:49)
10. Pot City (2:15)
11. Too Good Too Bad (2:36)
12. Car24 (2:51)
13. The Egg And I (2:44)
14. Felt Tip Pen (2:41)
15. Rain (3:24)
16. Digging My Potato (2:22)
17. Memory (1:30)

Download.

No Disc

Tracklist:

01. American Money (1:08)
02. Fantasie Sign (5:20)
03. Don't Bother None (3:41)
04. Vitamin A (0:11)
05. Live In Baghdad (3:23)
06. Cats On Mars (2:47)
07. Want It All Back (4:02)
08. Bindy (2:19)
09. You Make Me Cool (3:11)
10. Vitamin B (0:11)
11. Green Bird (1:55)
12. Elm (5:05)
13. Vitamin C (0:07)
14. Gateway (2:58)
15. The Singing Sea (4:40)
16. The Egg And You (3:45)
17. Forever Broke (3:34)
18. Power Of Kung Food Remix (Tank Remix) (5:30)

Download.

Blue

01. Blue (5:05)
02. Words That We Couldn't Say (3:30)
03. Autumn In Ganymede (3:55)
04. Mushroom Hunting (3:19)
05. Go Go Cactus Man (2:38)
06. Chicken Bone (4:57)
07. The Real Man (4:01)
08. N. Y. Rush (5:05)
09. Adieu (5:40)
10. Call Me Call Me (4:43)
11. Ave Maria (5:50)
12. Stella By Moor (1:09)
13. Flying Teapot (3:33)
14. Wo Qui Non Coin (3:44)
15. Road To The West (2:56)
16. Farewell Blues (5:32)
17. The Real Folk Blues (5:56)

Download.

Vitaminless

Tracklist:

01. The Real Folk Blues (6:17)
02. Odd Ones (3:11)
03. Doggy Dog (3:17)
04. Cats On Mars (2:44)
05. Spy (2:04)
06. Fantasie Sign (5:01)
07. Piano Bar I (3:20)
08. Black Coffee (3:15)

No link available.
Just so you know apparently there's a new live action series in the make. Info here.

Advantage Lucy - Echo Park

Advantage Lucy plays songs influenced by 60s janglepop, Swedish pop, and pretty much anything else that makes people feel good. Presently comprising vocalist Aiko and guitarist Yoshiharu Ishizaka, the group was formed in 1995 as a four piece, named Lucy Van Pelt after the Peanuts character of the same name. A fixture on the indies scene, Lucy Van Pelt released several records on the God’s Pop Records imprint, growing their fan base countrywide through frequent club gigs, in-store appearances, and other special events. Great music to listen on sunday afternoon.

Tracklist:

01. グライダー (5:31)
02. spur line (3:45)
03. Anderson (3:55)
04. 朱い夏 (3:16)
05. 遠い日 (4:44)
06. 潮騒 (5:17)
07. is this love? (4:00)
08. splash (6:03)
09. planetaria (3:44)
10. everything (8:13)
11. time after time (3:41)


Get.

Hako Yamasaki - Tsunawatari

Ah, I have a weak spot for old Japanese (surprise surprise) pop. :(

Something along the lines of Morita Doji, but not quite like her. Don't get me wrong they are both great singers but they differ in voice characteristics a lot. For example Moritas voice is soft while Hakos voice is much more passionate and determined but they are both rooted in melancholic sound in their songs (atleast it sounds like that to me). Musically is also awesome. It has everything 70s music needs (those famous rock organs (if they are called like that :o), electric guitars etc.) but there are also songs that are just acoustic guitars and Hakos lovely desperate voice.

Tracklist:

01. Mukaikaze (5:21)
02. Shiroi Hana (5:20)
03. Himawari (3:20)
04. Tenjo (5:34)
05. Help Me (4:20)
06. Hitori Uta (3:42)
07. Harmonica fuki no Otoko (3:37)
08. Tsunawatari (5:36)
09. Utaitaino (4:12)
10. Tanjo Iwai (7:04)
11. Yurusarezaru Koi (5:05)

Download.

Asobi Seksu

Asobi Seksu (formed in 2004) is a New York City, United States based dream pop/shoegaze band. Singer Yuki Chikudate often incorporates Japanese lyrics into her songs. The band’s name in Japanese consists of two words, “asobi” meaning “play” or “for fun”, and “sekkusu” the Japanese imported word for”sex” . Their sound has been said to draw influence from the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s to early 1990s, which was coined to describe the textured and effects-heavy sound of alternative rock in that era. The band consists of Yuki Chikudate (singing|vocals), James Hanna (guitar, vocals), Haji (bass guitar|bass) and Ben Shapiro (drum kit|drums).

Asobi Seksu released their eponymous debut album in 2004. The band regrouped with a new rhythm section for their second album, Citrus, which was recorded in Gigantic Studios, New York City with producer Chris Zane.

One Little Indian Records re-released the band’s first album Asobi Seksu and the follow-up Citrus in 2006.

Highly recommended.

Citrus

Tracklist:

01. Everything Is On (0:17)
02. Strawberries (3:57)
03. New Years (3:01)
04. Thursday (4:17)
05. Strings (5:27)
06. Pink Cloud Tracing Paper (3:27)
07. Red Sea (7:45)
08. Goodbye (3:44)
09. Lions And Tigers (4:08)
10. Nefi + Girly (4:37)
11. Exotic Animal Paradise (4:06)
12. Mizu Asobi (2:40)

Download.

Asobi Seksu

Tracklist:

01. I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me (3:07)
02. Sooner (3:45)
03. Umi De No Jisatsu (2:23)
04. Walk On The Moon (4:33)
05. Let Them Wait (2:47)
06. Taiyo (2:01)
07. It's Too Late (7:17)
08. End At The Beginning (4:21)
09. Asobi Masho (1:25)
10. Stay (5:02)
11. Before We Fall (2:39)

Download.

Stay Awake/Then He Kissed Me 7''

Tracklist:

01. Stay Awake (5:31)
02. Then He Kissed Me (2:33)

Download.

Piana - Eternal Castle

Lovely and relaxing mixture of electronic music. Nothing wild and energetic just smooth sound of glitch electronics and guitar. Very good music for relaxing. Also, her voice is very unique (I guess), high pitched a lot kinda sounds like a baby.

Tracklist:


01. With The Sea (1:32)
02. Norway (4:23)
03. Two Of Us (5:56)
04. Snowflakes (6:54)
05. Ancient Note (4:41)
06. Hydrangea (3:29)
07. Beyond The Season (6:30)
08. Prayer (3:29)

Download.