Haruna Kimishima knew her music had found an audience overseas when her Twitter DMs began to fill up with English.
"Japanese fans tend to not react to me directly, especially when compared to foreign listeners," says the 23-year-old artist, who records as Haru Nemuri. "They listen and, if they think it was good, they message me directly. I've had a lot of those this year."
Kimishima's tracks are grounded in rock but often incorporate elements of hip-hop and electronic music, and her vocal delivery moves from delicate spoken word to primal screams. In a year where the West hasn't paid much attention to Japanese music in general, it has been that formula — which she deployed brilliantly on her April full-length debut "Haru to Shura" (the title is a nod to a collection of poems by Kenji Miyazawa titled "Spring and Asura") — that has gotten her noticed.