expect delay
Japanese idol-gaze heroes RAY announced details of their fourth album yesterday, and after 2022’s Camellia, which took their album naming convention towards the floral, they’re back to colours – White will be out on October 1. They’ve expanded their influences since their 2020 debut Pink, which owed more than a debt to their former incarnation […]
I’ve mentioned before that my descent into the deep, bottomless rabbit hole of Japanese shoegaze began in early 2022 with For Tracy Hyde’s final record Hotel Insomnia, but navigating the scene over there – which goes back 15 to 30 years, depending on which thread you pull on – is no easy task, particularly when […]
It’s impossible to get into the Japanese music scene even a little without encountering the world of idols, and by extension, alt-idols, which basically is the combination of idols with alternative music genres (see: Babymetal). It’s strange and fascinating and actually quite entertaining live – I saw Planet After The Rain at a shoegaze showcase […]
Shoegaze and J-Pop don’t initially seem like the most obvious of bedfellows but it turns out that loud, churning guitars and the super-saccharine sound of Japanese idol groups can be like chocolate and peanut butter. At least that’s the case for the premier – and maybe only – J-pop idol/shoegaze crossover act I know of, […]
