CAT5 9075 Posted January 5, 2012 2011 has been a wonderful year for Japanese music & abroad. Here are my picks for the best albums of 2011. I've divided them into 2 parts - Japanese and non-Japanese! Japanese Picks! sgt. - Birthday Sample song: Cosgoda BIRTHDAY is sgt.'s 2nd full album their finest work to date! I've seen a few complaints about there not being "enough guitar" on this record, so if you're expecting your atypical post-rock fare, then you won't find it here. Why? Because sgt. has skillfully transcended the bounds of the genre and become an entity of their own. BIRTHDAY is littered with hints of jazz and even successfully ventures into hip hop on the track Zweiter Weltkrieg, which features Kim from Uhnellys. An engaging record from starts to finish and a definite must-listen! KINGDOM☆AFROCKS - Fanfare Sample song: Anti Violence 'Japanese Afrobeat' may seem like an oxymoronic description , but KINGDOM☆AFROCKS proves that the Japanese are masters of adopting foreign music styles and making them their own. The core of their music lies in Afro-beat, but there's also a bit of jazz and Latin/Brazilian flavor in the mix. This is KA's first studio album after nearly 5 years of performing live, and you can almost feel the energy of their live act on record. An EXCELLENT album with top notch grooves throughout! Naoto Taguchi - Nostalgia Sample song: Hue Absolutely sublime ambient music; a melding of tiny sounds; small, almost imperceptible glitches offset by delicate electronica and meandering piano in the background. There are faint echoes of IDM throughout the mix as well. Listening to Nostalgia, I almost feel as if I'm slowly drowning in a sea of aural bliss. 八十八ヶ所巡礼 - SYG88 Sample song: 悟ri+time Perhaps the most interesting Japanese-rock album I've heard all year. SYG88 is chock-full of off-kilter rhythms, unusual riffs, and flashy instrumentation, yet it's all very accessible and catchy. 88kayso Junrei also has an inherent quirkiness that never seems forced or over-the-top. If you're looking for something a bit different that rocks as hard as anything else, you won't want to miss this. salyu × salyu - s(o)un(d)beams Sample song: ただのともだち salyu × salyu is a brilliant avant-pop collaboration between the jpop songstress Salyu and the renown electronic guru, Cornelius. s(o)un(d)beams sees Salyu exploring new territory and experimenting with her voice, while Cornelius works his programming magic. A fun, highly adventurous record and a welcome new direction for Salyu. I can only hope that this collab isn't a one-time deal. akutagawa - dawn Sample song: ハッピーエンド 2011 saw a ton of bands return after years of silence and akutagawa was one of them. "dawn" is well worth the 5 year wait. There are only 6 tracks, but 40 minutes of emotional-hardcore exellence! nobie - PRIMARY Sample song: arigatou Vocalist and musician Nobie has been active in a multitude of Jazz and Jazz-related projects over the past decade and has at long last released an album of her own. PRIMARY is, hands down, the finest Japanese vocal-jazz album of 2011. Not only is Nobie a skilled Jazz vocalist, but she avoids all the pitfalls that so many Japanese jazz vocalists stumble into. For one, Nobie's material is highly original. With the exception of 3 tracks, all of the songs here are original compositions, while most J-Jazz vocalists churn out entire albums of Jazz standards with no attempt to outdo the original or at least make the song their own. Secondly, Nobie keeps jazz at the forefront - she doesn't attempt to streamline her songs for the pop-crowd, as so many J-Jazz vocalists do. Nobie is one of the best kept secrets of the Japanese Jazz scene, so I'm here to spread the word. This girl is ACE! momigai - MUSIC VOX Sample song: Whales 2011 seems to be a wonderful year for collaboration albums! Momigai is a joint musical effort from hip hop producer DJ Motive and electronic/indie pop and Remigai. Dreamy and colorful electronic arrangements spanning a diverse array of sounds - from jazz and bossa, hip hop, idm, ambient and more. Lovely! YUEY - I My Me Mine Where Is She Sample song: SOS YUEY is an indie-rock trio that has largely gone unnoticed by overseas J-music fans despite releasing 3 mini albums and one full length in the past 5 years. A bit sad considering how good these guys are at what they do. At only 24 minutes long, 'I My Me Mine Where Is She' is short, straightforward indie-rock EP, but it's skillfully executed and highly infectious! YOK - Days with hearts Sample song: レモネード There were a plethora of quality Japanese folk albums released in 2011, but Days with hearts is easily the most memorable of them all. Newcomer YOK pretty much came out of nowhere and blew me away with her sound. Days with hearts has a surprisingly Western indie-folk sound, which is not something you often hear in Japan. YOK has already garnered comparisons to Western folk heavyweights like Vashti bunyan, Cat Power, gregory&the hawk, and even Joanna Newsom. With such an impressive debut, I'm very much looking foward to her future output! Senkawos - On the Ground Sample song: ねじれる視線、交えるふたり Senkawos is a Jam-band of sorts with a pretty ambitious sound. They masterfully take on post-rock, math-rock, jazz, funk, hip hop and even folk, yet with all these different sounds On the Ground is a cohesive albums that flows seamlessly. Anna Yamada - Colorful Sample song: loopway With a very late December release, this album just BARELY made my list, but it's no less deserving of a spot here. The aptly titled Colorful is indeed a colorful assortment of gorgeous acoustic instrumentation and delicate electronics with Anna's ever-pleasant vocals leading the way. An incredibly beautiful record that borrows pieces of ambient, post-rock, and folk, yet maintains an overlying indie-pop sensibility. Also worth noting: Anna writes & mixes all of her own music. 緋と陽 - 燃えて泣く鳴る Sample song: 映斜晩窓 hitohi plays an epic mixture of hardcore and post-rock with a few mathy passages here and there. They keep things fairly progressive and employ vocals sparsely - vocals which, interestingly, are very folky and 'tribal-like' in tone. Also interesting is the bands use of a contrabass - which adds to the melancholic overtones of their songs. With each track hoovering around 8 minutes, this mini-album is a lot to digest in one sitting, but proves to be rewarding upon repeat listens! Tyme. × Tujiko - GYU Sample song: 神様のバケーション Yet another collaboration album. This time between Tatsuya Yamada/tyme. (who is also in the band MAS with the violinist from sgt) and the ever-intriguing Tujiko Noriko. The music is heavily electronic with nods to trip-hop, IDM, and ambient. A few tracks lean towards the pop side, but they never quite make it there as tyme.'s intricate electronic wizardry offsets Tujiko's unusually optimistic tone. A magnificent record that might just appeal to fans of electronica on all ends of the spectrum. THE ACT WE ACT - いってきます Sample song: I.F.M Taking ques from John Zorn's Naked City, THE ACT WE ACT plays some of the most chaotic hardcore punk around. Their cacophonous sound is topped off with some wonderfully obnoxious noise-saxophone. Never a dull moment on this record! スガダイロー - スガダイローの肖像・弐 Sample song: 寿限無 While the major players of J-Jazz (soil&pimp, indigo jam unit, quasimode, etc) have all produced underwhelming records this year, 2011 has been a great year for the underdogs of the scene. Experimental Jazz pianist Suga Dairo has produced one of the most interesting Japanese Jazz albums of the year. Constantly weaving in and out of free-form jazz (often several times within the same track), Suga Dairo's compositions are unpredictable and will either excite you or frustrate you. Fortunately, I think he's struck a happy medium on this record. For every 'left-field' moment, there's also a moment of accessibility. The tracks featuring Tony Chanty are particularly tame, as Suga suppresses his insane piano skills to allow her sultry vocals to shine. A wonderful record, but an acquired taste. 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CAT5 9075 Posted January 5, 2012 Non-Japanese Picks! Arms And Sleepers - The Organ Hearts Sample song: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye Rich and profoundly textured ambient/trip hop. The Organ Hearts is the 3rd album from this American duo and the first one from them to gain a permanent position on my playlist. Bâton Rouge - Fragments D'eux Mêmes Sample song: Cloaca Intense, full-on emo from France - highly melodic, highly energetic. It doesn't get much better than this. Blood Ceremony - Living With The Ancients Sample song: Coven Tree Inspired by 70's occult rock, Canada's Blood Ceremony fuses elements of stoner/doom, psychedelic rock, and folk. Their vocalist is female, which is a bit of a novelty in this area of music (but a welcome trait for female-vocal lovers like me ; P) Living With The Ancients is a vast improvement over their first album - in terms of songwriting and production. Felicity Groom - Gossamer Sample song: Fire And Brimstone Excellent Debut album from singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Felicity Groom. Melancholic folk/folk-rock with a bit of an ethereal quality to it. There's something mesmerizing about Groom's vocals; she seems to almost float through the music - never competing with or outshining it. For a debut album, there's an uncanny of amount of maturity and depth to this record. Kimbra -Vows Sample song: Limbo Beat-heavy, "boom-bap" pop really isn't my thing, but if you keep your ears open, you're bound to hear a musical revelation. Such was the case with this album. Kimbra takes everything I dislike about pop music and somehow makes it likeable. It's almost as if she's taken leftovers from the past decade of pop music, mixed them up, re-cooked them and somehow made them into one fresh serving. Her vocals, the production...everything on this album is on point. I'm seriously surprised at how much I enjoy this one! London Elektricity - YIKES! Sample song: Elektricity Will Keep Me Warm (feat. Elsa Esmeralda) There is one, and ONLY ONE, reason that I tried this album - Elsa Esmeralda. I'd fallen in love with her smooth, sultry vocals prior to hearing this, and almost fainted when I discovered she'd be featured on this album. Thankfully, London Elektricity is actually GREAT at what he does - making drum&bass. The songs featuring Elsa are the obvious highlights for me, but the purely instrumental tracks are great listens as well. Mechanical Bride - Living with Ants Sample song: By Night The debut album from Lauren Doss aka Mechanical Bride. Beautiful, elegantly crafted folk-music. There's an enchanting atmosphere to this album - it's simple and soft, yet incredibly haunting. Monogrenade - Tantale Sample song: Escapade Yet another amazing debut - this time from French-Canadians, Monogrenade. Their sound is a bit hard to pin down. They play a mix of folk, rock, and electronica with a sort of cinematic feel. They utilize a rather wide sonic palette, producing some incredibly lush musical arrangements. Tantale is a wonderful piece of work that may very well tickle your imagination. mr. Gnome - Madness in Miniature Sample song: Capsize mr.gnome became a new favorite of mine in 2010 and their new album has further solidified that position. It's hard to believe that this husband-wife duo can create such powerful, atmospheric music on their own. Vocalist/guitarist Nicole Barille has such a captivating voice, ranging from a lullaby-like croon to emotive wails. Her sugary vocals create a surreal contrast with the post-rockish explosiveness of the instrumentation. Madness in Miniature is mr. gnome's best work yet! Nicola Conte - Love & Revolution Sample song: Black Spirits The latest album from Jazz guitarist, DJ, promoter, and producer Nicola Conte is, hands down, my favorite Jazz album of 2011 - Japanese releases included. The album is wonderfully composed, featuring a diverse array of guest vocalists that bring ever more life to the already zestful instrumentation. Fraught with tunes that are lively enough for the summer and warm enough for the winter, Love & Revolution is the perfect soundtrack for anytime of the year. Rachael Dadd - Bite the Mountain Sample song: Rice Triangle Intimate and thoughtfully crafted folk-music. Dadd plays a variety of instruments including the clarinet, piano, ukulele, banjo, organ, guitar and percussion - all of which serve to give her music a very earthy, organic feel. Bite the Mountain is a gorgeous folk album that doesn't rely on any kind of digital wizardry, yet instead showcases the natural beauty of Dadd's talents. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Soul Time!, Vol. 1 Sample song: He Said I Can Top notch tunes from the soul/funk revivalists Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. They may be a contemporary band, but they crank out material that can contend with classics like Aretha and JB! Shona Foster - The Moon & You Sample song: Where We'll Go Debut album from the The Scotland-born, Yorkshire-based singer-songwriter, Shona Foster. The Moon & You reminds me a grim fairy-tale. The songs are beautifully sung and composed, yet there's an overlying darkness to it all. I'd even call a few of them creepy. Though even with the sinister overtones, the album is still highly imaginative, with each track offering something new. Yet another surprising debut and another artist to keep an eye on! SPC ECO - Big Fat World EP Sample song: Gone SPC ECO (pronounced Space Echo) are a Brittish "nu-gaze" band that incorporate elements of dreampop and electronica. In some ways, they remind me of a less experimental 101A. This EP only has 6 songs, but each one is QUALITY! Stateless - Matilda Sample song: Ariel The long-awaited 2nd album from stateless. Their first, self-titled album was excellent, but this record brings the band soaring to new heights. Chris James, lead singer of stateless, describes the album as "a strange and beautiful dreamscape,” and he's right. Matilda is a Dark, surreal, and cinematic amalgam of different genres. FANTASTIC! Thao & Mirah - Thao & Mirah Sample song: Teeth Thao & Mirah is a collaboration between singer-songwriters Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn and Thao Nguyen. Mirah is the more experienced and refined of the two, while Thao has an uncouth quirkiness about her. Surprisingly, the two actually compliment each other well. Thao & Mirah is both a fun and introspective folk/indie-pop album. This Is The Kit - 1st Ep Sample song: Krülle Bol Even though this is just a small EP, This Is The Kit has officially become a new a favorite of mine. They're an amalgam of everything I love about folk music - beautiful female vocals, lilting melodies, and organic instrumentation. Fantastic! : ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
toshii9245 0 Posted January 5, 2012 Concurring your statements concerning 88kayso Junrei, Salyu x Salyu, and Mr. Gnome... Though, frankly speaking, I don't really get what's so special with Sgt.'s BIRTHDAY... Yet. It was nice, indeed; so far I have only given it a spin, and I still thought Capital of Gravity was better. I need to listen to it more, perhaps. Haven't had the chance to listen to Akutagawa's Dawn yet.. I've been wanting to hear hitohi's 燃えて泣く鳴る so bad for I liked their song from a V.A. made by Aion back then, but since they're pretty [if not really] obscure, I have to put that aside. ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miasma 162 Posted January 6, 2012 Awesome list, CAT!! I can't agree more with you on sgt, momigai, London Elek, & mr. Gnome's albums, they're some of my fav releases of 2011 too~ Also, this reminds me that I've been putting off listening to Baton Rouge's album for a loooooong time. Gotta get around to finally giving that album a spin, because I've heard nothing but good things about it. Anyway, I really liked the preview song for Stateless' Matlida (and couple others), definitely gonna give that a try soon! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lukrecia 22 Posted January 6, 2012 Ah, totally forgot about the new Stateless album - I guess I should give it more time. However, even though our lists cannot be more different, you have a great selection, going to check some of the albums! ;o Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fitear1590 2414 Posted January 6, 2012 Glad to see 88 kasyo junrei, salyu x salyu and kimbra! Of the stuff I wasn't familiar with, nobie and THE ACT WE ACT seem the most intriguing from your Japanese list. THE ACT WE ACT especially, since this is what I wanted natsumen to sound like. I also want to check out Felicity Groom, mr. gnome, and Shona Foster from the non-Japanese list, since they seem right up my alley, and I seemed to have "ignored" my "western" tastes a bit in 2011. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted January 6, 2012 Though, frankly speaking, I don't really get what's so special with Sgt.'s BIRTHDAY... Yet. It was nice, indeed; so far I have only given it a spin, and I still thought Capital of Gravity was better. I Capital of Gravity wasn't bad, but I can only recall 2 tracks from that release. For me, BIRTHDAY is sgt.'s most interesting album - it's cohesive, yet every track stands out on it's own. On their past releases, they'd have just 1 or 2 standouts, while the other tracks were nice, but forgettable. fitear1590 - that's interesting that you wanted natsumen to sound like THE ACT WE ACT...their styles are pretty different o.0 Miasma - if you liked momigai, Tyme x Tujiko is somewhat similar. You can check out samples here: http://ototoy.jp/_/default/p/24256 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
