indigo 389 Posted October 25, 2016 (edited) I always associated (Japanese) city pop with these bands with young male members with trendy clothes, colorful caps or beanies and guitar straps adjusted a bit too tight. And chill chunez. jk but not rly ...So bands that have already been mentioned like yogee new waves, the fin., never young beach (notice the marine theme, maybe it should be sea pop? beach pop?) I have to agree with the blog post on city pop being more about the certain vibe and aesthetic rather than a similar sound. Edited October 25, 2016 by indigo 2 CAT5 and fitear1590 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
beni 2149 Posted October 25, 2016 I'm finding it kind of funny because apart from certain acceptations, such as the fin., Winnie and Special Thanks, I find very few such groups to be Western sounding. Even outside of this case. If anything ones that are obvious such as Jin Akanishi and I Don't Like Mondays are clearly influenced by it. And that's only because I end up associating them to like the Asian equivalent of Western bands (the fin. with the 1975, Special Thanks with sum 42 e.c.t). I actually find the big Jpop names such as Utada and Namie Amuro most Western, anything smaller I just can't hear it. So I'm in an agreement with fitz. I obviously am no expert on this. I also always thought the term "City Pop" was a way to group these indie acts of a similar sound together. Also am surprised that acts like (((Sssurrounddd))) weren't mentioned. But again my reasons for including them isn't because I think they're Western sounding, but similar to Awesome City Club and such. Like I brought up with I Don't Like Mondays, there's more obvious Western sounding bands outside of this, so I'm a bit confused with it. It's definitely nice there's a label for these bands, but explaining it as Western, I can't get behind. Save for a few of them, sure. But only because of little things, when there's others that have a much more obvious Western influence. Now I get the club joke... lol. 2 CAT5 and fitear1590 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted December 8, 2016 The new Ayano Kaneko song is so sweet! <3 It also looks like miaou released visuals for one of the songs on their recently release EP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted December 23, 2016 The new D.A.N is smoooooooooooth! There's also a new ent album out in January! 2 Tokage and DeithX252 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted February 28, 2017 Massdre are back! Song is ok, but it's just good to hear them back at it PENs+ also released an MV for the fantastic "North park"! 1 Original Saku reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 1, 2017 About the city pop discussion from earlier; seems like SPARK!!SOUND!!SHOW!! make fun of it with 'Urban kill' which is kind of a camouflage (usually they are more on the rock side). At least the refrain goes; 'Urban kill the shity city pop' - so I guess I see what they did there Maybe late to it, but a PV I recently fell in love with; COMezik - Imagination The pace change to a more subtle tone just on the right parts work for me, I can dig it. 1 CAT5 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CAT5 9075 Posted March 3, 2017 New SuiseiNoboAz is dope. Looking forward to the album! 2 indigo and Tokage reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 3, 2017 Mona Monica have their first Mini Album out today. Her voice seems to be quite Ringo-ish at times btw (not that I'd compare them, but it might be of interest)... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 5, 2017 Kaimy Plants - #45 I haven't listened to a thing like that for a while now, genre/style-wise... A very nice and fuzzy sound-wall, washed out vocals, reminds me a lot of early downy (especially the vocals). Pretty neat from the 2:40 mark on. Bonus point for the female drums. 2 indigo and Tokage reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
indigo 389 Posted March 5, 2017 ^ Great stuff! 1 whitegrey reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tokage 5930 Posted March 11, 2017 Not sure if ANY of this has been posted before, i'm too lazy to go through >15 pages of content just to post a bunch of vids, but i found some things ppl may like if they dont know about it already... Something about this band's sound somehow gives me アルカラ vibes, can't quite place what it is, though... But they sound cool Female-fronted band, don't know much about 'em, there's just two vids on their official YT account. Some pretty alright guitar noodling here and there though I'm 100% sure @CAT5has shared some of these guys' stuff on here in the past. Indie band whose sound (at least on their earlier material, IDK much about their newer stuff) for some reason sometimes reminded me vaguely of certain Angura Kei sounds This reminds me v. strongly of Hitorie, are they connected in some way? 1 Original Saku reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 17, 2017 YESMAN have a new PV up: It's totally on the simple & happy / poppy side (I'm always a bit sceptical on stuff in that direction - cuz most of the time I just can't 'feel it') but her vocals save it for me, they have that special something making it authentic. The slower more silent part starting around the 2:30 mark is way nice imo... Anatari also did a new one: The PV itself is not that exciting (to put it simple)... But I can always dig this kind of music style - it's nothing fancy/new style-wise (I've heard similar sounding stuff before) but has a nice pace and feeling to it - works for me. and shibaigoya put their 1st PV up: Now that one... It's pretty strange stuff... I think it's excellent tho - I gave it a few repeated spins at least, which is not a bad sign. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 20, 2017 I hate to *spam* this thread (it deserves love from more people!), but well - can't help it... D; This time more on the calm and 'Sunday-music' side genre wise; with all the mathy-influnce in focus nowadays I don't mind putting on some indie-pop in between, especially on Sunday... sasaguchi so-on orchestra - waga tsukimi ru kun sō fu This one went under my radar earlier this month somehow... But now I'm really glad I found it; it is definitely one of the nicest music videos I've seen in a while. The freeze-style perfectly fits the overall mood, the facial expressions are full of both joy and sorrow, the whole setting and story is wonderful with interesting characters and the multi-instrumental backing that chimes in slowly -> I can watch this over and over again... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 23, 2017 The new last girl HIKASA one is also pretty nice... They've just released a mini-album. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted March 26, 2017 And HEMP SHOCK DRAGON have a new PV I've overseen last month... Very interesting style imo. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted April 12, 2017 solarium - kimi ha oboreteiku sakana They have 3 singles out so far and I have high hopes for future releases, definitely on my 'to follow'-list. Female vocals, light use of electronica (even glitch elements), some piano, 3 minutes in the guitar turns shoegazey... They're pretty much down my alley, especially this one. The single is available on bandcamp btw; solarium03.bandcamp.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
violetchain 912 Posted May 8, 2017 Aki from NOA's new band finally uploaded a full song <3 1 whitegrey reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitegrey 115 Posted May 26, 2017 Just noticed Odile will release their debut album 'WARMDUSCHER' (xD if you know the german meaning) with 10 tracks on Zankyo at 12th of july No PV's as of yet, and no full song samples, only two previews (Zankyo YT & Soundcloud) - but from judging those I guess it will be something I can dig. Official web: https://odile.themedia.jp/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-956643704 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jaymee 405 Posted May 27, 2017 (edited) I caught Hinato Chiruran at this year's SXSW and they put on a great show. Yumiho (vocalist) was definitely channeling that Shiina Ringo vibe during a few of the songs they played. Edited May 27, 2017 by jaymee 1 whitegrey reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
plastic_rainbow 2162 Posted May 27, 2017 (edited) really good grunge and shoegaze band i discovered a while back. i'm having no luck finding music from these guys, but they're a neat doom metal band with traditional enka female vocals. these guys are pretty cool too. @CAT5 i think you might enjoy this? Edited May 27, 2017 by plastic_rainbow 2 whitegrey and Tokage reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amoz 34 Posted June 1, 2017 New Melancholic Sharaku: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robkun 4184 Posted June 1, 2017 Classic J-indie, anybody? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
indigo 389 Posted June 8, 2017 (edited) SuiseiNoboAz just released the MV for my favorite song by them! Edited June 8, 2017 by indigo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
violetchain 912 Posted June 9, 2017 (edited) I'm not totally sold on the song yet, but it's great to see Danablu making actual videos. Hopefully they'll end up on a label soon so I can actually buy their stuff... I miss Aki's flailing, but I guess I've got that WESN video for that. Edited June 9, 2017 by violetchain Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
violetchain 912 Posted December 6, 2017 I was a little worried that they were losing their touch, since I wasn't really feeling the video tracks from their last album, but I love the MVs from the new one. They capture both sides of their appeal really nicely. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
