When she first emerged on Tokyo's bedroom producer scene in 2011, Sapphire Slows shot to prominence almost instantly, scoring a release on voguish Los Angeles label Not Not Fun mere months after starting out. A full-length album, "Allegoria," followed on the same label in late 2013; and then, like the ...
Security tugs a woozy-looking man toward the exit of Odaiba Ultra Park after he got in a scuffle with another festivalgoer. His opponent, only steps behind, has bright red bumps on his face. He approaches a guard and, with a smile, snaps a selfie. This ...
Call it the end of an era. Last week, AKB48's 49th single "#Sukinanda" sold over 1 million copies to take the top spot on the Oricon singles chart. Besides being the first song in the No. 1 position to feature a hashtag in its ...
"The way music from America and other Western countries got imported into Japan, the roots are different," says Ayatake Ezaki, keyboardist for Tokyo-based quartet Wonk. "In Japan, hip-hop is hip-hop, jazz is jazz, soul is soul — that's how they've been received," he continues. "But ...
Japanese audiences are renowned as some of the world's most respectful listeners, but for musicians accustomed to getting more raucous receptions elsewhere, the experience can be a little unnerving. When New York-based jazz composer Miho Hazama returned to her native Tokyo a few years ago ...
In 2010, the online encyclopedia Drummerworld added a 13-year-old Japanese schoolgirl to its list of the world's greatest players. Senri Kawaguchi had rocketed to fame after posting YouTube videos of herself drumming along to songs from the "K-On!" anime series, wearing the same sailor-suit ...
The ongoing project to rerelease Yoko Ono's full catalog of 11 albums, which began in late 2016, has now reached its second stage with the release of a trilogy of early-1970s albums — taking in "Fly" (1971), "Approximately Infinite Universe" and "Feeling the Space" ...
People rarely geek out over the 10-year anniversary of a specific instrument, but Hatsune Miku isn't your usual music store purchase. The aqua-haired singer serves as the most famous avatar for Crypton Future Media's line of Vocaloid singing-synthesizer software, a program developed by Yamaha that ...
This year's Summer Sonic had its craziest moment on Sunday night when 1980s singer Rick Astley joined the Foo Fighters for the latter's headlining performance. "Come on you motherf———!" Astley bellowed at the thousands of fans gathered in Chiba's Zozo Marine Stadium, with the U.S. ...
"Adults are stupid," says Shinji Okoda, who is better known in Hiroshima as "Guy," the vocalist for hardcore punk band Origin of M and owner of Disk Shop Misery and Bloodsucker Records. At 52, he certainly appears to have some authority in the matter. Just ...
In an age where almost every piece of historical information is available at our fingertips, Thomas Mars and Laurent Brancowitz of the French band Phoenix surprise me with a fact that doesn't seem to exist anywhere on the internet. "One of our first shows was ...
Music on vinyl is enjoying a renaissance, with digital streaming services generating interest in records once more. Japan's electronics and entertainment giant Sony is positioning itself to embrace this latest trend in the music industry, with Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. recently announcing it will ...
Pop star Taylor Swift on Friday won an important ruling in the trial stemming from her allegation that she was groped by a Colorado disc jockey, with the judge dismissing the DJ's rival claim accusing the singer of wrongfully getting him fired. The ruling by ...
