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Articles: 1, 2, 3

Tracey Re-fragmented
2007-11-02 09:42:00
Canadian filmmaker Bruce Mcdonald is doing something unprecedented with his newest film. - He’s letting the public edit it. Tracey Fragment s, which stars Canada ’s finest actress Ellen Page, is a borderline avant-garde art film with a highly stylized multi-screen aesthetic. In a recent ...
More About: Video , Cinema

Dir en Grey - Dozing Green (for Halloween)
2007-11-01 03:58:00
Artist: Dir en Grey Song: Dozing Green From album: Dozing Green [Buy CD][Website] I saw this video recently and found it appropriate for the Halloween season as apparently did they, choosing late October for the single’s release. This is one of the bands one finds everywhere when one first starts ...
More About: Japanese Music , Allo

Midori - Osaru
2007-10-21 03:31:00
  Artist: ??? (Midori ) Song: ?? (Osaru) From album: ????? (First) Genre: “Romantic Erotic Chaotic Sentimental Death” [Buy CD][Website] Midori is hard to write about. Their sound encompases jazz-noise chaos and sweet ballad. Frontwoman Mariko Gotou screams her guts out, and then squeaks cute little noises, sometimes while writhing ...
More About: Music , Japan , Japanese Music

Mono - The Sky Remains The Same As Ever
2007-10-17 08:59:00
Clip: Lost Snow @ Brussels, Belgium. Given their enthralling live shows, it wouldn?t take much to make a great tour DVD for Japanese post-rock band Mono . All that would be required is a camera, a tripod and the ability to press record. As anyone ...
More About: Cinema , Mains

The Luyas - Cats in a Bag
2007-09-06 20:00:00
  Artist: The Luyas Song: Cats in a Bag From album: Faker Death [Buy CD][Website] Cats in a Bag is a song by The Luyas with an interesting duality. There’s the carefree unabashedness of the vocal melody, like a developing daydream or breezy stroll; while behind it the sky ...

Hertz - Dead Man Walking
2007-08-31 22:11:00
  Artist: Hz Song: Dead Man Walking From album: Mr. Stiff [Buy CD][Website] Hz, or Hu Zhi which stands for tiger in Chinese, is an electronic musician signed to China?s BadHead Records. - A subsidiary to underground powerhouse label Modern Sky. His debut album Mr. Stiff (2002) is ...
More About: Hertz

Skazka Skazok
2007-08-22 07:25:00
Tale of Tales (1978) is a special film. Among its many strengths, I?m particularly amazed by its unique visual style. It is quite unlike anything I?ve ever seen. Yuri Norstein animated the film by shooting images placed on glass planes stacked on ...
More About: Video

New news
2007-08-22 07:13:00
  Been gone for a while but now we’re back with a vengeance and a new writer, Ian Sit. He is coming on board to help raise our posting frequency as we experiment with a new multi-writer format. Together we hope to climb to at least one post per week now! Check out his recent ...
More About: News , Whatever

AIR - Liberal (Japan)
2007-05-20 21:09:00
  Artist: AIR (the one from Japan ) Song: Libera l From album: Freedom 99 Genre: Various [Buy CD][Website] AIR, among other things, is the musical project of Kurumatani Koji. He has put out something like 15 albums, with genres varying wildly within them; something neither the French band “Air” or the ...
More About: Music

Two Spirals - More Ferrofluid
2007-04-23 21:26:00
Nicely synchronized ferrofluid manipulation and music. A soothing liquid world of gently bedaggered monoliths. [Link][Previous ferrofluid]
More About: Music , Japan , More , Ferr , Ferrofluid

Sho Uchida Photography
2007-04-23 18:12:00
  Inviting photography from Sho Uchida with moments of intense stillness. [Link]
More About: Japan , Photography , Graph

Pencil Carving
2007-04-23 17:34:00
  It’s hard to imagine the amount of work that went into creating these tiny intricate carvings. It must take incredible patience and control. There are some very cool ideas. [Link]
More About: Japan , Pencil , Ving

Take-Away Shows
2007-04-21 08:02:00
  “Take-away shows” is a fantastic idea, and it’s brilliantly executed. A combination that warms the bosom indeed. Basically you take high-quality cameras and sound equipment, find a band, and convince them to run away and play a mini-set in some randomly-chosen nearby urban locale. The results are simply fabulous. For instance: Even if you ...
More About: Video , Music , France , Away

He - Empty
2007-04-04 09:02:00
  Artist: He Song: Empty From album: Further Shore [Buy CD[2]][Website] He plays super-tight indierock. He is from Japan. He has tuneful vocals and makes charmingly boisterous and sensitive guitar sounds and clicky crashy drum sounds. He is not boring to listen to. He is worth ...

Ayuo - A Stranger
2007-04-03 18:16:00
  Artist: Ayuo Song: A Stra nge r From album: Aoi Genre: Gilded Spacyness [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website] This song is a giant golden Buddha statue floating above some foggy downtown neighborhood. It starts emitting shiny sound waves, making heads turn all over the city. Makeshift rope-ladders are improvised and flung in tandem. ...
More About: Anger , Range , Tran

Vola & the Oriental Machine - Principle of Machine
2007-03-16 03:34:00
  Artist: Vola & the Orient al Mac hine Song: Principle of Machine From album: Waiting for My Food [Buy CD][Website][Song Lyrics] Oh yeah, that blog thing…. Vola & the Orienta l Machine is something of a Japanese indie supergroup, with a formidable lineup including Inazawa Ahito from Number Girl, Aoki Yutaka from downy, ...
More About: Chine

Eksperimentoj - Untitled
2007-03-02 04:53:02
  Artist: Eksperimentoj Song: Untitled From album: Eksperimentoj Genre: Igneous Rock [Buy this CD (seriously!)][Website][On Myspace][Song Lyrics] ?????????????????????? Rock like this is what I’ve wanted to hear. - Aoki Robin (downy, Dhal) I couldn’t agree more. Eksperimentoj is quality music. Probably not since downy, has a band come out of Japan that I have appreciated as much so soon. I definitely recommend you check them out on myspace, and see their video for “note” via Ian’s blog. The thematic tendons that run along the length of the album make picking it apart and isolating a favorite section very difficult. It’s like a complicated personality, having many surfaces of varying character, all of which hint at a larger, more monolithic something hidden beneath them. When I first wrote about Eksperimentoj, the song “solaris” reminded me of a midni...
More About: Men , Title , Peri , Rime

Nell - A Little Sad Story
2007-02-19 16:45:03
  Artist: Nell Song: A Litt le Sad Stor y [Buy CD][Website] Here, with my blessing, some Chinese New Year Korean Indie to hold us over while I contemplate the new Eksperimentoj album and life itself. There’s a point in this song where it convinces me of its honesty. A juncture almost theraminesque and quite sincere, like the seaside escarpmental life of some wind-tossed ribbon. I’m sure you can spot it. I’m honestly not sure what album of theirs this is from and what the Korean name is, since I got it on a home-made compilation cd with this name. If anyone knows, I’d be much obliged to learn.
More About: Tory

Tartit - Aitma
2007-02-09 04:38:03
  Artist: Tart it Song: Aitma From album: Ichichilla Sounds like: Rebirth [Buy this album][Website] I found this song on a site that was hotlinking some of my african hip hop, which I don’t really mind anyway; and somehow it gives me an intense feeling of déjà vu. The place it takes me is somewhere I’ve been before, somewhere in the real world of soil and bones. Somewhere faraway serene, alone, and piercingly gorgeous. Six Organs tread similar climes; but here, instead of wooded stream, we have island cliff. A solitary grove of eucalyptus; and in place of intoxicant mist, a molten sunset that lasts forever. Standing in the channel of light, staring at infinity, it’s the kind of moment that makes people believe in god. No sound but wind in the leaves; the burning earth for you alone. A dirge for the dying of the sun. Image source
More About: Tartit

BOaT - Goodbye my Strange Number 28
2007-01-31 16:35:03
  Artist: BOaT Song: Good bye my Strange Numb er 28 From album: Listening Suicidal Genre: Sedimentary Rock [Buy CD(2)][Website] Short on time, long on things to do. I’m drinking green tea straight from the pot, it’s like a giant mug of keep working. So this will be brief. Here’s BOaT again. A song that piles up in layers like years of experience, and unravels like giving up all your grudges. What does it sound like to you?
More About: Boat , Number 2

Artist: Hikaru Tanimoto ????? Song: Than
2007-01-14 10:22:01
Artis t : Hikaru Tanimoto ????? Song : Thanks to Music!! From album: Thanks to Music!! Genre: Guitaristry [Buy CD][Website] This Hikaru Tanimoto fellow seems to be riding his song like a furry dog-dragon thing à la The Neverending Story (It’s the innocent glee and over-excitement that evokes the comparison.). He seems almost too joyful and excited to be playing it himself; yet, empirical evidence suggests that he really is. At first it’s hard to believe that all the sounds are coming from one kid and one guitar. You hear it pouring out in thick layers like cake-batter, and he’s upending the bowl, licking his lips. He seems giddy with almost surprised love for each note that appears as he flys by them. It’s a joy so devoid of self-consciousness, a delight, not in the fact that he plays music, but in the idea that music itself exists. I thought it refreshing.
More About: Moto

  Artist: Number Girl So
2007-01-14 10:22:01
  Artis t : Numb er Girl Song: Zegen Vs Undercover From album: Sappukei Genre: Id-Rock [Buy this Album][Website][Keikaku Profile] Number Girl is an absolute indie force. Some analogies for your ambience comparison convenience: ? It’s 700 milliliters of cabernet past the hour and you still don’t know or care why you are outside. ? It’s thoroughly dark, you broke up with your parents an hour ago, and you can’t stop staring at the sky with your eyes closed and smiling. ? You are in the fetal position in the back seat of your own car enjoying a distant concert you have been waiting months to attend. It’s simultaneously tragic and liberating that some of the most profound experiences in life either require, or engender, a paradigm shift. They aren’t accessible to everyone, just those accidentally on the cusp. It’s my opinion that Number Girl, like Downy, and much underground music, has a similar, if not par...

Rocket K - Super Drunken Christmas
2007-01-03 22:18:01
Artist: Rock et K Song: Super Drunk en Christ mas From album: DEPARTURE OF THE GROOOVIE DRUNKER Genre: PunkDistortion [Buy CD][Website] I’m going to post this in the past so that it seems more date-appropriate, better late than never eh. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and new year and all that. Mine was good, though busy and probably not super drunken enough… ah well. So I searched my library for something season-esque and this is what I came up with. It’s Rocket K, it’s super distorted, super drunken, and probably somewhat super Christmas in its own way.

Peterpan Complex - You Know I Love You
2006-12-24 10:09:01
Artist: Peterpan Comp lex Song: You Know I Love You Genre: Kpops From album: Transistor [Buy CD][Website] This song by Peterpan Complex sounds like a younger and korean version of muse meets radiohead sung from a more optimistic outlook, and played through rose-coloured speakers. He insists that you know that he loves you, but does he believe it himself? Is he clinging to what he knows out of a fear of change or disappointment? Is he advocating his love in denial of its triviality when, deep down inside, a feeling of transience is tearing him apart? Well, I don’t think there’s any reason to think so. Then again, there’s no reason to discard the possibility. Also: merry Christmas eve! You know I love you.

Envy - Left Hand
2006-12-24 04:08:02
Artist: Envy Song: Left Hand ????? From album: All The Footprints You’ve Ever Left And The Fear Expecting Genre: Epic-core [Buy CD][Website] This is Envy, whom I have mentioned previously. This image is from the same photographer, another dynamic slice. I’m not sure what to say about such a staple of Japanese melodic-abyssal-shoegaze-core except that they are worthy of the often carelessly-slung descriptor, “epic.” Not just in adjective form, but in the original noun form as well. In historical epics all the feelings and understandings of a culture, all their thoughts about the world and mankind were condensed, redacted, and molded into a narrative structure that attempted to approximate the outlook of the society. It seems that much the same object and process are evident in Envy’s records. Tumult and anguish show their faces, but so do awe and quiet serenity and a proliferation of emotion that seems to evidence a near-total sel...

Yoshiharu Ota - Photography
2006-12-20 16:05:01
  Previously I mentioned that Toe’s photographer Yoshi haru Ota was exceptionally good. Then Martine told me that he was brother to the singer of the band Envy, which I’ve long enjoyed. So now, I found more of his stuff and indeed, continue to be impressed. In his band photography especially, he manages to extract moments of particularly potent visual lyricism from the maelstrom of a live show, and presents them in single slices of radiant time. The more I look at them, the more I realize that they don’t “feel” silent. Or rather, their stark silence belies, in shocking contrast, an atmosphere with sound at its core. It’s impossible to imagine the scenes without inferring a feeling of aural energy permeating that place and time; everything is drenched with it. Check out his website, “scape for us” and blog for more of Yoshiharu Ota and his excellent work. [Link][2][3]
More About: Photo , Photography , Graph

Radwimps - EDP
2006-12-17 16:04:02
Artist: Radwimps Song: ??????????????????? From album: ?????????????? Genre: Poppunkcore [Buy CD][Website] I don’t have much time on me, but here, have a fun video of a little girl destroying a city with a whiffle ball bat. Her soundtrack could very well fit in on one of these “edgy” American radio stations.

Apogee - Yakan Hikou
2006-12-14 04:02:03
Artist: Apogee Song: ???? (Yakan Hikou [Night Flight]) From album: ???? [Buy CD][Website] This video “Night Flight” blends Apogee’s silky synthpop with a nicely edited milieu of cosmical and mythological yet whimsical imagery; and to quite a charming effect. Not much pop catches my ear these days, but this song and video have something special. The album link is to their first full album “fantastic” which has a newer version of the song. The original is from their single of the same name.

Scott Wade - Dust Art
2006-12-12 16:01:01
  Very interesting stuff here, you may have seen already. Dust art from Scott Wade , who erodes his artwork into the dust layer on his minicooper’s rear window. Very talented, rendering even such classics as the “Mona Lisa” and “Girl With a Pearl Earring”. Lots of great images in his gallery. [Link]

Toe - Everything Means Nothing
2006-12-11 16:00:02
Artist: Toe Song: Ever ything Means Nothing From album: The Book About My Idle Plot on a Vague Anxiety Genre: Instrumental Subsequent Rock [Buy CD][Website] I should have posted Toe a long time ago; they have stood out as one of the best Japanese instrumental bands I’ve heard since I started looking. They have an unfading talent for constructing glittering twilight braids of melody that twinkle and flow in swaying coils. I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by their website, and most especially by the photography section which strikes me as containing some of the absolute finest band photography I’ve seen anywhere. Foremost among these are the photos by Yoshiharu Ota which are worth a post in themselves. The photo-viewer on Toe’s homepage is big and beautiful, the photos saturated with color and movement; and it has a nice elegant interface too, whose concept I might appropriate and adapt for myself at some point. So, I’m sortof ...
More About: Thing