"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 ...
The 20-year career of Envy went nothing like what a band out of Japan's hardcore scene would have expected. The members never predicted chumming around with Scottish postrock act Mogwai, or landing a track in a Shiseido cosmetics commercial. And two decades later, on ...
It has been a year since post-hardcore group Fact released an artist photo with the six members' faces revealed. Before then, the band always wore traditional Japanese noh masks. "We wanted our fans to listen to our music without having to care about how we ...
"There are people who like aggressive music the way they like sports, but I think 'hardcore' is about being self-aware of what you're doing, about how to create your own space," says Tadashi Hamada, manager of independent music label Daymare Recordings. "That's my first ...
When making music, Tokyo punk/metal hybrid act BBQ Chickens like to keep things short. The quartet have yet to craft a song that lasts two minutes. A handful of their cuts don't even break the 10-second mark. The band will tour across the country this ...
