The first half of 2017 hasn’t produced much in the way of compelling music stories in Japan. By this time last year, we were coming down from the Enon Kawatani-Becky affair, and behind-the-scenes intrigue was bubbling up around SMAP (who broke up at the end of the year). These past ...
Around two dozen people shuffle about the dark interior of Alzar, a recently opened nightclub on the eighth floor of a building in Osaka’s Chuo Ward that also features a capsule hotel and sauna. Most hover near the concrete wall, watching a European DJ ...
“Standing against those that ruin art,” was the tagline for the After Hours festival, which took place across four venues in Shibuya on April 9. The sponsor-free event, curated by the bands Mono, Downy and Envy, featured more than 30 artists from a wide ...
Few figures have played as pivotal a role in the recent history of Japanese avant-garde music as Hideo Ikeezumi, founder of P.S.F. Records, who passed away on Feb. 27 at the age of 67. For more than three decades, Ikeezumi ran the label from ...
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed an Asian-American band to trademark its name The Slants, which had been rejected because it was deemed a racial slur. The ruling is expected to benefit other organizations whose monikers have caused controversy, notably the Washington Redskins ...
Pinning an exact birth date on any genre is a tricky business, but 2017 has been deemed the 100th anniversary of jazz, in recognition of the first recordings released back in 1917. A century after the earliest jazz, “jass” and “jazbo” groups entered the ...
When erhu artist WeiWei Wuu took to the stage at Shanghai Concert Hall on April 30, she delivered a show that could be described as out of the ordinary. The Chinese audience likely expected to see a woman playing the traditional instrument while seated, ...
Taylor Swift is releasing her entire catalog on all streaming services, ending the pop star’s boycott of Spotify Ltd. over her ability to limit her songs to paying subscribers. The albums will become available at midnight New York time Thursday night, Swift’s management said ...
Japan’s 2017 summer music festival landscape has mostly settled into place. The Fuji Rock Festival, after an upbeat 20th anniversary last year, kicked up excitement thanks to a top-heavy bill headlined by Gorillaz, Aphex Twin and Bjork, along with the promise of more left-field ...
There was a time when Japanese music labels were concerned that Ai Carina Uemura’s music sounded too American due to her R&B style. “Like, from the beginning of my career. They told me all the time, ‘People aren’t going to understand that type of ...
Sumiko Iwamuro knows a thing or two about juggling work. She spends her days behind the counter at a family-run specialty gyoza restaurant and one or two nights a month moonlighting under her stage name DJ Sumirock. It is an impressive feat for someone ...
On "Es.U.Es Corporation," DJ Krush's collaborators bring an undeniable energy to the proceedings, and the veteran turntablist responds with some of his grittiest productions since the 1990s.
The final months of 2016 left Yusuke Kawai feeling confused. The electronic artist who records under the name tofubeats came across a BBC news segment touching on the concept of “post-truth” — the Oxford Dictionary named it word of the year and defines it ...
