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JAPANESE MUSIC THREAD


Curt McGirt

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Japan had an underground folk movement in the late 60s to early 70s. Japanese musicians, influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, used the imported folk sound to explore their own identity in post-war Japan (something that should be familiar to fans of Japanese pro-wrestling.) While the music sounded like American folk rock, lyrically there was a strong effort to forge a new type of Japanese rock (again, much like Japanese pro-wrestling.) 

Some people are turned off by Japanese folk rock because they can't understand the lyrics. But hey, the Japanese musicians couldn't understand what the hell Dylan was saying either. Here are a few of the artists who stand out to me:

Nobuyasu Okabayashi was known as the "God of Folk" due to his early protest songs. They called him the Japanese Bob Dylan. Like Dylan, he refused to be pigeonholed as an artist and changed styles several times, as well as going into exile on more than occasion. 

He had a beautiful voice:

His second album adopted more of a rock sound. He was backed on his recordings and live shows by an unknown band named Valentine Blue who changed their name to Happy End (kind of like the Hawks becoming The Band after backing Dylan.) This is one of their heavier rock tracks:

Kan Mikami is one of my absolute favorites. He had a sound that was a mix of folk, blues and enka, and an angry, tortured singing style:

Maki Asakawa also had a smokey, bluesy sound:

Not much subtlety in this band's name, nor their sound, The Dylan II:

This is a folk acid. A song about the songwriter fixing some curry rice for himself while the TV carries a news report about the novelist Yukio Mishima's failed coup and ritual suicide.

Masato Minami was Japan's original hippy -- long hair, beard, bandanna, drugs...This one has some English. I believe it's Hosono on bass and Mizutani on guitar, which is exciting:

 

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Hachimitsupai, or Honey Pie, started life as the backing band for Morio Agata, who was a progressive folk artist. They released one LP that was heavily influenced by The Band:

When they broke up due to creative differences, Keiichi Suzuki and some of the other members formed Moonriders, one of my favorite Japanese bands. The premise behind Moonriders is that all of the members are songwriters and producers and are constantly incorporating new sounds and technology. Their early stuff borrowed elements of New Wave, Zolo, Art Pop and Synthpop. 

 

 

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Next up is Boowy, who started as a punk band and found enormous success as a New Wave/Pop Rock act in the mid 80s. They're often credited with the 90s band explosion in Japan, which led to musical instrument sales hitting an all-time high during the 1990s, and some consider them the first visual kei band. They broke up prematurely in 1988. To give you an idea of their popularity, for their farewell concerts at the Tokyo Dome, they sold out all 95,000 tickets in 10 minutes. The lead singer, Kyosuke Himuro, became a big solo star after they broke up.

 

 

My favorite song of theirs with dirty English lyrics:

 

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Today's artist is early heavy metal band, Bow Wow. As you probably know, in the 60s and 70s, Japan absorbed all of the music trends from the West, and by the end of the 70s, Japan was a common fixture on most bands' world tours. Bow Wow began as a hard rock act and eventually morphed into a Scorpions or NWOBHM style band. I'll leave it to the metal heads to determine their worth, but I was always fond of early pre-thrash metal. They eventually hired a new vocalist, changed their name to Vow Wow and moved to England where they worked with ex-White Snake bassist, Neil Murray. They charted in the UK but never really broke through. They tried to crack the American market in 1990 but by that time hair metal was dead and labels weren't kind to hard rock acts. If there's anything worth spotlighting about Bow Wow, it's the work of guitarist Kyoji Yamamoto, who remains underrated in metal circles.

Early Bow Wow:

A track from their most acclaimed album:

A look at them live:

 

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A few more metal bands:

Loudness were pioneers of Japanese heavy metal and the most successful of the bands overseas. They became the first Japanese metal band to tour the States and the first to sign with a major American label. In the States, they worked with producer Max Norman, who had produced Ozzy Osbourne records like Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Their first American release, Thunder in the East, cracked the Billboard Top 100, which no Japanese band had ever achieved. The single "Crazy Night" earned heavy rotation on MTV and became their signature tune:

Earthshaker were an early band on the scene that were more interested in melodic hard rock/heavy metal, and quickly went in a pop direction, but released a couple of decent LPs in the early 80s. 

44Magnum were another pioneering metal band that ended up moving in a different direction, but their earlier stuff had a real Scorpions and NWOBHM feel, which is totally up in my alley:

Sabbrabells were a different beast completely. They are sometimes called the Mercyful Fate of Japan because of their obsession with the occult

Also unique were Seikima-II. They started as a speed metal act and grew more progressive as they went along. This is a late 90s version of their tune End of the Century.

Finally, there's Anthem. These guys were rock solid. They never changed their sound and their discography is the most solid of all these bands. Killer riffs. 

 

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Probably my favorite Japanese band of all, RC Succession began as an acoustic trio that covered R&B songs. They eventually developed into a strong live band and by the late 70s took on a more electric sound and a glam rock image centered around charismatic frontman, Kiyoshiro Imawano. In 1988, they famously recorded a covers album with anti-nuclear lyrics that EMI Toshiba refused to release being a subsidiary of the same Toshiba Corporation that builds nuclear reactors. They released the album on another label and it shot to number one on the Japanese charts. 

Here they are with Ameagari no Yozora ni -- in my opinion, the greatest Japanese rock song of all time:

A small sample of some of their other songs:

 

 

And their cover of Summer Time Blues w/ anti nuclear message:

Imawano sadly died of cancer in 2009. 40,000 people attended his funeral. 

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Since @ohtani's jacket got the basics pretty well covered I'll help fill in the more extreme side of Japanese metal that hasn't been covered already. There were two pretty killer thrash bands back in the '80s, Casbah and Jurassic Jade: 

 

As hardcore and metal tranformed into grindcore, one specific band became an international legend: SxOxB

There are quite a few death metal bands that cropped up, starting with Necrophile and Transgressor, but my favorite of the lot are these guys who put out one killer album and some lackluster stuff after. 

Not metal, but I can't believe I've let this thread go this long without noting the legendary GAUZE~!!!

One of my biggest musical regrets is giving away their Prank Records EP because I didn't "get" them back when I got involved in the local punk scene and picked it up at a show. GAVE IT AWAY FOR FREE. How fucking stupid can you get...

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I could do an entire thread about how much I love Sabbat, and posted some of their stuff on page one, but I forgot about their ridiculously great NWOBHM side project, Metalucifer

Seeing them live with a German guitar player who was the spitting image of Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap is one of the greatest musical memories I have. Singer Gezol stage-dove right on my head! Quite the experience for a 19 year old kid. I even got to talk to him in broken English and had a picture taken, which unfortunately isn't digitized, but I still have a copy of in a box somewhere. Apparently at their previous American show he was running around drunk and completely nude on the fairground the gig was at, haha. Not a surprise considering he typically wears just a thong and boots when Sabbat plays live. During our show he was wearing a denim vest completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, covered with patches -- there was not a single inch of fabric in between them.

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I posted some Sigh on the first page but here's their best album (IMO) in its entirety. They started off as a black/thrash band, primarily obsessed with Venom, but with a love for modern classical music, jazz, psychedelics, etc. evolved into one of the strangest and most intriguing bands on the planet. Every album is totally different and totally awesome.

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Thanks for the history lessons, Ohtani's Jacket. I have been listening to nothing but City Pop and adjacent movements for the past 3 or so months. It's helped me move away from wallowing in depressing shit during a pretty rough period. While a lot of it is disposable saccharine stuff representative of the bubble economy and the style itself so nebulous, it's fun and there are some truly incredible songwriters, most of which you covered (the YMO boys and Yamashita).

I can't find a tonne of info on Keiko Kimura but I love this track and she is stunning. I'm guessing she was a model who released a few albums before marrying and settling down. 

Another I've been enjoying lately. Asakura is pretty great. 

One last one, by one of my faves, Toshiki Kadomatsu:

 

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2 hours ago, Jiji said:

I can't find a tonne of info on Keiko Kimura but I love this track and she is stunning. I'm guessing she was a model who released a few albums before marrying and settling down. 

Her Wiki page says she went to a Christian girls school and was a Keio University graduate, so she must have been an ojou-sama. I believe Mari Sugi and Mariya Takeuchi also graduated from Keio. She was part of the light music club, which I guess is where her career began. She did eventually marry. She was a Barbie collector and wrote a manual about vintage Barbie dolls, and it looks like she wrote a novel. 

Grindcore vs. City Pop! I'm digging it. 

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@JijiHere are a few male pop artists you may or may not have heard of:,

Motoharu Sano is one of my favourite City Pop acts. Like a lot of the City Pop artists, he was a talented singer-song writer, and his records are full of experimentation and excellent musicianship. 

Yasuyuki Okamura tried to emulate Prince and other American R&B singers with his delivery. This song doesn't quite capture it, but his music is hard to find on YT:

Yutaka Ozaki was famous for his sweat-drenched, emotionally anguished live performances. He died tragically young at the age of 26 under suspicious circumstances. This is one of my favorite songs of all-time, Japanese or otherwise:

 

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I'll also add some punk, post-punk, no wave, whatever you want to call it:

Friction was formed by two Japanese musicians who had spent some time in New York playing in the no wave scene there. They released their first album in 1980 produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame. IMO, it's one of the best Japanese records I've heard. I'm not sure if this single captures the full sound, but check it out:

The Stalin was a punk band started by Michiro Endo, who was famous for creating as much mayhem as he could on stage. The Stalin grew more hardcore as they progressed, though guitarist Tam left at the end of '83 to form Gauze, who are usually credited as Japan's first official hardcore punk band. The Stalin starred in Sogo Ishii's landmark film, Burst City, and became recognized as the leaders of the Japanese punk rock generation.

 

Inu were a new wave/punk rock band from Osaka that split after one acclaimed album (and several badly recorded live albums), but their lead singer Ko Machida has legendary status in Japan, not only for his music but for his poetry and novels. They didn't really do singles, so here is their one and only album:

 

 

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Summer trio jams!

Akira Inoue, Hiroshi Sato, and Masataka Matsutoya made an album as Seaside Lovers. It's breezy jazz, funk pop from the '80s. Classic City Pop. This track seems like straight up Hiroshi Sato.

You've got Hosono of YMO and Happy End (once city pop season of summer is over, I will delve more into Happy End), Shigeru Suzuki also of Happy End, AND Tatsuro Yamashita, the king of Japanese pop from what I've heard, all collaborating in '78 for an album called Pacific. Holy shit.

Yet another Yamashita breezy, happy-go-lucky pop song. Dude churned these out in his sleep. Shin Tokyo Rhapsody is still my favourite of his, but he's just got so many quality pop hits. AND he wrote Mariya Takeuchi's records after they married in '82, I believe. 

This song has Yamashita's fingerprints all over it.

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Jagatara were a unique rock band that blended elements of funk, punk and reggae. They broke up in 1990 after band leader, Edo Akemi, died from accidental drowning in the bathtub. Here's a live TV appearance where GISM run in and start a fight.

Downtown Boogie Woogie Band, known as DTBWB to their fan, and later Downtown FIghting Boogie Woogie Band, or DTFBWB, damn sure knew how to boogie.

Show-Ya were an all-girl metal band who tried desperately hard to crack the US market as a female version of Loudness or Vow Wow, but could never seem to impress the right people. It's often said their pop sensibilities held them back. You can hear that on their biggest hit, Genkai Lovers:

Sheena and the Rokkets emerged from Fukuoka's Mentai Rock scene (named after mentaiko, a popular dish in Hakata.) They considered themselves a punk band, but once they began working with Haruomi Hosono, he pushed them in more of a new wave direction. This is one of their early hits. Great song:

 

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1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Here's a live TV appearance where GISM run in and start a fight.

To give this some context, GISM vocalist Sakevi was a notorious shit-starter. He'd do things like fire blanks into the crowd, throw cinderblocks, they did performance art with flamethrowers, and he apparently attacked someone who bootlegged GISM on the subway (and probably still would. GISM records are impossible to find otherwise unfortunately). You'd think being into punk might be a little tamer in Japan but it was just as violent in the '80s; the singer of Zouo gave an interview in MRR once where he said he'd always carry a weapon, usually some kind of club with him, all over the place and whack people with it. 

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Another great Japanese band, the short-lived New Wave/Post Punk band, Rosa Luxemburg:

They produced two great albums then broke up over creative differences. The lead singer and bassist formed Bo Gumbos, who also rocked:

Speaking of rocking, lately I have been getting in Panta & HAL. Panta was the force behind the radical punk group,  Zunou Keisatsu. When they broke up, he moved towards a more New Wave sound, but it was just as great:

 

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The Roosters were a punk rock band that came out of Hakata's Mentai Rock scene. They started off as a blues rock band (the name comes from  Willie Dixon's  Little Red Rooster) and morphed into a punk/new wave band as they became confident in their songwriting abilities.

Eventually, they became a full-on post-punk/new wave act that was influenced by groups like Echo and the Bunnymen with a P-MODEL inspired keyboard sound.

Unfortunately, the front man, Shinya Oe, suffered from mental health problems that required hospitalization. After he left the group, they carried on for a while but eventually disbanded. Great band.

 

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On 8/4/2020 at 5:03 AM, Jiji said:

One last one, by one of my faves, Toshiki Kadomatsu:

 

I listened to this album last night. What an opening track. I prefer night life city pop to the summer vacation stuff and that is one heck of a track.

Y'know what might be the ultimate city pop tune? The theme tune from Kimagure Orange Road. This can only have been spawned in the 80s:

 

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I almost had a seizure during that intro to that song. Fun one though, thanks for sharing!

Kadomatsu is nice because his albums are really solid and they're not just filler for the singles like I'm scared 99% of Jpop from the '80s is going to be. He has some absolute funky bangers though. And he could do the breezy summer pop just as well as anybody not named Yamashita. 

My favourite night life city pop song I've come across so far:

Yoshida rules. I had already posted that in my city pop blurb in the poptimistic thread but it deserves to be in this thread.

Yasuko Agawa is a dreamy jazz singer of a pretty high calibre. This whole album is so listenable. Fantastic stuff. 

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