My Recent Obsession (Japan)

 Anyone that follows me on Facebook knows I've been somewhat obsessed with the Asian music scene. I know that I have a fascination to learn new things but it seems that it has almost completely overtaken any of the music I listen to. I stumbled across a video of a guy that seems to have the same issue. I'm sorry that I don't have a link to it. It was interesting finding someone that could articulate what I feel. Now, there were some bands that he referenced and liked that I don't. I'm not a fan of "core" metal. I don't like throat singing. But other than that, we vibed. He brought me some insight that when it sunk in, I looked at Tracy and said, "That's it!" He said that Japanese bands were doing progressive music, something that hadn't been seen since the 70's and 80's in the West. Progressive music has a lot of time changes as well as strong shifts in melody. That is the kind of music I like, music that is hard to dance to. So that explains it.

I wanted to post somewhere my favorite songs with a little backstory. I figured this was a decent enough place. These aren't in any particular order. I have put them in a public playlist, as well as others that I'll come across later. This list will change, but probably not the blog post.

I think the first songs I came acrossed, or were recommended to me by YouTube, was IronBunny. It's some guy in cosplay along with 3 university girls doing the singing. His guitar work is amazing.

In more of a concert song, I really enjoy this song. 


This was more of a college project so the band wasn't around long. One of the women, as I found out later, joined what is now one of my favorite bands, Koiai. It was started by Li-sa-X. Li-sa-X is a child prodegy when it comes to the guitar. She was phenomanal when she was 8 and just kept going up from there. Anyway, Kotano, the woman from IronBunny, became the singer when the band consisted of her, Li-sa-X and Hazuka, a guitarist from Nemophila. This video was one of their first releases.
 
Later, they picked up Kanade, another prodigy but with the drums and the basist from East of Eden. The basist isn't official yet but she shows up in this video.

This interest led me to other more mainstream Japanese bands. The biggest of which was one that I had in my Music queue but I never really paid that much attention to it, BabyMetal. That is until I got into their concert videos. The premise of the band is Kawaii Metal, Cute Metal. These girls started in their very early teens and were now in their 20s. Their concert videos were epic. What a production. This video below is still one of my favorites.

Then I found Band-Maid. Another costumed band but my first video video highlighted the drummer, Akane. Holy cow, she could play. And the lead guitarist, Kanami, was a shredder of the first order. 

This is "From Now On". Great song.

I do have other japanese bands/songwriters that I really like. Here are some of them.

Tuki. She wrote an album of songs when she was 15. I think her singing is excelent and so far beyond what a 15 year old should be capable of. This is the video that got me hooked but her whole album is outstanding. This video stars an actor. There aren't any public pics of Tuki which is probably a good thing. She's still young.



Mone Kamishiraishi. I first saw her when she starred in a J-drama called "An Incurable Case of Love" which, to be honest, was kind of annoying, but I liked her. Like some of the stars in K-drama, I found out she was a singer with, like, 7 albums. So here is a good one. It is such a good message too, even if you can't understand the words.

And another.

 

NEK! Another group of phenomenal teenagers. I even bought one of their streaming concerts just to see how they carried the crowd.

Scandal. They have been around a long time. Great band, great songs. 

Hitsujibungaku. I think they are the Japanese Cranberries. I bought their first concert Bluray when it came out. The drummer is an on-off kind of guy and needs a bit of a break from the tour but he's okay.

Yoasobi. This will give you seizures. She does some anime songs. Well, all of them do.

ReoNa. Great song and video.



Garnidelia. This was first presented to my ears by a cosplayer dressed up like the lead of Spy X Family anime. This is better.