Ian Martin - The Japan Times

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Ian Martin

Ian Martin is a freelance writer covering music and pop culture. He has been active in the Tokyo music scene as an indie event organiser, DJ and label owner since 2004 and has been contributing to The Japan Times music page for almost as long.

For Ian Martin's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture

The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Jan 31, 2013

Diamond cries 'murder' on the dancefloor

In its Jan. 12 edition, the Japanese business magazine Diamond Weekly decided to ring in the new year with a 10-page feature titled, "Who's Killing Music?" It was the topic of much discussion and reaction in the music business, and the article even made the agenda during a meeting of the Japanese music industry's trade group the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Dec 27, 2012

Pop embraced conservatism in 2012

The 2012 general election might not seem to have any bearing on the state of pop music in Japan, but there was an eerie similarity in the way both the electorate and the pop world turned back the clock and wrapped conservatism in a neurotic embrace.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Nov 29, 2012

The coming influx of an idol workforce

Much has been made in the media over the problem of Japan's aging population and shrinking workforce. But there is another demographic time bomb, at the heart of Japan's most militantly youthful sector of society, just waiting to explode.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Nov 8, 2012

No problems with Nisennenmondai's contradictions

There's a basic disconnect at the heart of Tokyo's Nisennenmondai. A series of small contradictions run through nearly all aspects of what the instrumental trio does, but they add up to make it one of the most intriguing bands to come out of Japan's underground and experimental-rock scene in the past decade.

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Oct 25, 2012

Western stereotypes may explain Japan's Psy-lence

Amid all the excitement, analysis and general horse-dancing hoo-haa over Korean musician Psy's smash hit "Gangnam Style," one story that has provoked a certain amount of head-scratching among fans is the song's relative lack of success in Japan.

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Aug 30, 2012

The customer is always right, but that's what's wrong in Japan's live-house scene

The roundly despised pay-to-play system in place throughout most of Tokyo's live-music scene, and to a slightly lesser extent in many other cities, is something I've written about in this column before.

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Jul 26, 2012

Fuji's Rookie A Go-Go stage holds an antidote for the same-old rockers

The Fuji Rock Festival kicks off tomorrow with its dependable mixture of ageing rockers from abroad, a handful of predictably chosen Japanese acts, and just a smattering of blogged-about buzz bands. This year in particular, the joy I felt upon the demise of Oasis has been replaced with the dread of the hydralike horror of two separate Gallagher-fronted bands as headlining acts on two successive days.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 12, 2012

Various Artists "Ripple"

It seems that every indie scenester in Japan wants a piece of Nagoya these days. Buzz is growing around the city's bands, and it's fast becoming an essential first stop away from home for Tokyo artists and DJ events. One of the reasons for this new love affair comes from the efforts of the label Knew Noise and its parent record shop File Under Records. As well as introducing Japanese audiences to the likes of Comanechi and Bo Ningen from the U.K., Knew Noise/File Under has acted as a focal point for many of the best bands in Nagoya. A new compilation showcasing the city's talent is a long overdue document of the scene.

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Jun 28, 2012

Japanese acts still find wonder in Can's 'Lost Tapes'

It's rare that a band whose most celebrated recordings were originally released almost 40 years ago can generate excitement among classic-rock fans, prog-hating punks and musicians whose parents were still in elementary school at the time — but then Can were no ordinary band.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 21, 2012

Kiwa Kiwa Festival

Emerging in March of this year promising to "challenge the limits of 'independent,' " Kiwa Kiwa — a music website and promoter (and cafe, curiously) — launched in a flurry of activity including disc and live reviews as well as columns from a quartet of local Tokyo indie musicians. It was a bold move with the end of Snoozer magazine a year ago still hanging over a music scene in which indie-music journalism tends not to do a great job convincing fans of its value.

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

May 31, 2012

Perfume needs to walk a fine line on its path overseas

As Japanese pop culture is increasingly dominated by insular subcultural groups with little interest in what's happening outside Akihabara's otaku haven or Shibuya's gyaru mecca, the news that electro-pop trio Perfume had moved to major label Universal and made its music available online to overseas audiences was a breath of fresh air that gave even the most cynical hacks at JT Towers a glimpse of hope for a long overdue international J-pop success story.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 26, 2012

2NE1 "Collection"

With Korean idol groups now saturating the Japanese pop market to the extent that the initial breath of fresh air and rush of slick, electropop energy is passing, it takes a more seasoned kind of fan to differentiate between the legions of immaculately rehearsed Girls' Generation clones. But with Japan slow to respond with forward-thinking pop of its own, the task falls to another Korean group to blow K-pop apart.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Mar 29, 2012

A tale of two paths to indie success

Tokyo postpunk quartet Otori is an archetypal product of the city's underground live-music scene. The band's sets feature a machine-gun rattle of drums, slashes of guitar that explode in fierce climaxes, and bursts of scattershot vocals that teeter on the brink of hysteria — the kind of music that gouges tortured metaphors out of music writers like jagged shrapnel as they struggle to describe it. In the end, though ... you just had to be there.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 15, 2012

capsule "Stereo Worxxx"

While electronic duo capsule's hit 2011 album "World of Fantasy" was undoubtedly a development of ideas introduced in earlier songs such as "The Music," it was also a discrete (if frequently indiscreet) work in its own right: a near-concept album linked by a uniform 128 bpm tempo, a relentlessly hedonistic atmosphere and a focus on beats, dynamics and nonsensical sloganeering over conventional melody- and lyric-based pop songwriting. New album "Stereo Worxxx" has more in common with 2010's "Player" — more a sandbox for musician Yasutaka Nakata to play around with and refine ideas from various parts of his earlier work.

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Feb 23, 2012

The not-so-odd coupling between noise acts and J-pop

From mod rockers The Who covering the "Batman" theme, through punk pranksters The Dickies taking on The Banana Splits, to former Megadeth shredder-in-chief Marty Friedman's transformation into J-pop svengali, there has always been a flirtation between the fiercer and heavier outposts of music and its trashy, bubble-gum fringes.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE

Jan 26, 2012

Shibuya style with an Akihabara twist?

Shibuya-kei was one of the defining features of the music and fashion scenes of the 1990s, and it helped spawn the idea of "Cool Japan."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Dec 22, 2011

Five freshman acts to watch out for in 2012

Formed in April 2011, Hysteric Picnic could be set to make a splash in the Tokyo indie scene with a sound influenced by 1970s/'80s British new wave, echoing Joy Division and Young Marble Giants in their simple but memorable melodies and arrangements.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Dec 22, 2011

Natural disasters rock year in music

The year 2011 in Japan was undoubtedly defined by the triple disasters of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear crisis. The impact of those catastrophes was also felt across the entire entertainment world. The industry pretty much put itself on hold for the remainder of March and subsequent fundraising efforts were made by everyone from the biggest stars to owners of even the tiniest bars.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Dec 8, 2011

Whatever else you might say about idol trio Perfume's new album, "JPN" is a title fraught with possible meanings. Is it a postquake rallying cry? A doomed attempt to reach out to overseas audiences following the use of "Polyrhythm" in Pixar's pointless "Cars 2" flick? A kick aimed at the waves of Korean idol groups who have recently stolen Perfume's electropop crown?

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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