expect delay
I don’t know much about re:lapse, save for the fact that all the members have previous tours of duty in other bands in the Tokyo shoegaze scene and they’ve put out a series of terrific EPs since the Fall 2021, helpfully self-titled and sequentially numbered. The first was a pleasant if rather unremarkable slice of […]
My appreciation for Tokyo’s yuragi predates my J-gaze obsession, so they certainly helped lay the groundwork for where my head is now and deserve some (more) props. This live clip comes from the October 2021 release show at Shibuya WWW for their sophomore effort For You, Adroit It But Soft; it’s an album that certainly […]
“Influenced by Kinoko Teikoku” is basically a J-gaze subgenre – or maybe a synonym – and one of the current leading lights of that style is Hammer Head Shark, a Tokyo quartet especially good at their forebear’s combination of sonic aggression and angsty vocals, with a healthy dose of snotty youthful rebellion added for good […]
Despite being probably the heaviest rotation artist for me in the past year and having discovered them through my investigations of Japanese dreampop, I’ve not written anything about Hitsujibungaku because, well, I don’t really think of them as dreampop. As I mentioned in my 2023 wrap up I’d grant you adjacent, maybe, as Moeka Shiotsuka […]
From the relatively familiar to the new , Hokkaido’s Plums, who despite being wholly un-Googleable, have put out a number of excellent EPs of fuzzy power pop since 2019, including a new one just this past February in Life. At least those exist on streaming, and they’ve got a YouTube channel so folks can stumble […]
The first post from Tokyo proper – Kon’nichiwa! – should be the band that kick-started this whole J-pop/J-gaze obsession that’s been going on hereabouts for over a year, and is in no small part one of the reasons I’m here right now (don’t tell my family) – the dear departed For Tracy Hyde. I’ve celebrated […]
Nagoya duo Blurred City Lights are one of the newer Japanese dreampop artists to have caught my ear, with their debut album 天使のいない街で (In A City Without Angels) one of the genre highlights of the year so far. Though quite fresh-faced and with an unabashed bedroom studio aesthetic, they’ve crafted a debut that demonstrates both […]
Get yourself ready for some J-gaze/adjacent goodness as I head to Japan tomorrow for a two week jaunt across Tokyo and Osaka. In lieu of any sort of in-depth content, I’ll just stretch the equivalent of a playlist out over the duration, starting with one the godheads of the scene, Kinoko Teikoku. This tune, fitting […]
On paper, this should have been a huge deal – a collaborative album between the musical mastermind behind alternative godheads Cocteau Twins and frontman for shoegaze legends Ride – but Universal Road, the 2015 release from Robin Guthrie and Mark Gardener, didn’t seem to make much of an impression on anyone. Part of it was […]
If you thought you’d somehow missed out on Daughter’s tour to support last year’s Stereo Mind Game, don’t fret – you didn’t. Aside from a single in-store performance at London’s Rough Trade last year to mark the album’s release, the trio haven’t played a live show since November 2017. And while disappointing for fans, it’s […]
