Saturday, December 27, 2014

Top 20 Mixtape 2014


Alright, I disappeared once again. But the year isn't ending without my Top 20 song list! I decided I'd change things up a bit and do the top 20 songs of the year in a mixtape style. The reason is really because I'm too indecisive to truly sort out the best songs in order, so I'll just dump everything in a playlist for you guys to figure it out yourselves.

Essentially, the 20 tracks I've put together are the songs that really made the year for me. Some were plain wow on first listen, some were growers, and some just made me think, "Did I just wet my pants again?" So it may or may not truly represent the best songs of 2014 (as it always have been on this blog anyway), but it's a varied list that will hopefully be an enjoyable one for you guys. Let's go bitches.

p/s. 8tracks playlists of mixtape at the end of the post. Woohoo!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

[Single Review] Mika Nakashima x Kato Miliyah - Fighter

Can someone tell Kato Miserableface to close her damn eyes? They freakin' me out

When I first read the news about Mika Nakashima and Kato Miserableface's collaboration, my body was already activated to pop its pussy to whatever hot dance track they would be capable of dropping us.

This ultimately proved to be a bad idea because of the tremendous disappointment that ensued:

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Mid-Year Reality Check: 5 Albums in 2014 to Check Out

2014 so far has been a year that has truly expanded my horizons. Thanks to schoolwork, my eyebags have a total surface area of 50cm² now, a size I previously thought would never become reality. My 64GB iPhone 5s also maxed out its storage space for the first time ever, which has, of course, sent me into an indefinite period of depression.

I also got to hear some pretty good J-music as of recent times, so here are 5 of the most kickass albums I've heard this year that I feel are worth listening, which I hope will help you tide over whichever sort of depression you're experiencing too. And if you thought 2013 was bad, these albums only solidify that fact further.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Moar J-Indie Prease?!?!?!



I'm hooked.

You guys left me some awesome J-indie music to check out and I LOVE IT! Galileo Galilei (as pictured above) is probably one of my favourite bands at the moment because their music is exactly the kind of music I'm really into right now (especially their PORTAL album; their latest one, ALARMS, not so much) and that other band with the members who left them, FOLKS has some pretty good stuff too.

The peeps over at JPOP Central also recommended me bands like HaKU, androp, Fujifabric, sleepy.ab, Spitz, etc. but none of them has music that gets me quite like Galileo Galilei's do (and the posters themselves said that too, which is pretty depressing) so do keep the suggestions coming because this is the biggest problem with indie music - IT'S SO DAMN HARD TO FIND!

I've also been really into lecca - after getting over the prior shock towards her astonishingly, almost borderline-gross manly voice, she is one talented ho. Would love to hear more Jamaican-inspired dancehall artists like her as well (not a big fan of her reggae stuff tbh, that's one genre I'll never be able to appreciate).

I'll be embedding some videos from these awesome possum peoplez for those who might be interested as well after the jump!

Monday, May 26, 2014

[News] ayumi hamasaki finally wakes up


ayumi hotmesssaki has gotten her shit slightly more together after her ~*amazing*~ collaboration with m-flo for My Way on the latter group's latest album, and she also announced that she's received a copy of Namie Amuro's FEEL and would be stepping up her game for her next studio effort.

[New Release] Kaela Kimura - 10years

CD+DVD | CD Only

It's hard to imagine that it's already Kaela Kimura's 10th anniversary this year, and it's also hard to imagine that when you have her ENTIRE discography to choose from as songs for this compilation album, the fans decided to vote for 90% of the songs that are already on 5years for this album. This is why the artists should choose the damn songs for themselves! 

[New Release] Namie Amuro - Ballada

CD+Bluray | CD+DVD | CD

We all have seen the ballad best album coming when they asked for fans to vote for their favourite ballads a few months ago (huge shocker; who could have guessed?) but as it would turn out, as with every other artist who actually puts effort into making their best albums less half-assed than the very idea of one in itself (I'm looking at you, A SUMMER BEST), Namie just keeps them surprises coming with this hell of a release.

Monday, April 21, 2014

[Album Review] DREAMS COME TRUE - Watashi to Drecom -DREAMS COME TRUE 25th ANNIVERSARY BEST COVERS-

Mass orgy time!

Best albums are commonplace in Japan's music scene, but as far as I know tribute albums are almost unheard of, and there isn't a better occasion that calls for it than for DREAMS COME TRUE's 25th anniversary. DREAMS COME TRUE has been around since FOREVER and I think their music is really unparalleled compared to other J-Pop acts. I don't even know why they don't receive as much attention internationally as their other veteran counterparts like B'z and SMAP.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Celebrating Angela Aki's Bad-Assness


My discovery of Angela Aki's music was pretty much a leap of faith. I had no initial interest whatsoever towards listening to her music even though back then I almost always came across her name on forums because people were always talking about her during the Home era.

That was when I made a trip down to HMV at the ~*tender age*~ of 12 in early 2007 and chanced upon her Home album and thought, what the heck, I'll just give this caucasian-looking chick a shot (Clearly back then torrenting or downloading wasn't exactly a thing I knew about - I was a law-abiding citizen alright). I even wondered whether or not she made English or Japanese music because of her name and perceivable race lol.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with her music. Back then, my Japanese music knowledge wasn't exactly great (the only artists I listened to were ayumi hamasaki and Utada Hikaru, and back then I actually disliked Koda Kumi) so listening to her organic, light piano pop songs were somewhat a breath of fresh air. To date, Home probably remains as one of the best Japanese records ever made, at least to me. At one point, I even considered learning the piano because I was so captivated by her live performances. Of course, I was too lazy to actually make that happen.

As of today, Angela Aki has officially embarked on an indefinite hiatus from her Japanese music career to enter a music college in the United States, and I have also embarked on an indefinite period of depression. But you know what they say  don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened (woohoo for clichés)!

Angela has undeniably left behind a kickass tapestry of songs for us to always remember her music by and more often than not, we tend to undermine just how talented Angela Aki is. She never needed glamour whatsoever to support herself  her music was all it took, and that is exactly how badass Angela Aki is. Chances are, she can outsing all of your faves any time of the day, and can probably outmassage your faves too (after playing the piano for so many years, imagine just now much force her fingers can exert on your aching shoulders? holy shitballs)

But let's not mope over the Japanese music industry's loss of talent and celebrate her existence by talking about the number of fucks Angela Aki really gives everybody.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

[Album Review] Koda Kumi - Bon Voyage

"Yeah all u bitches be trippin up on this shizz right here"

I believe one thing fans need to realise by now is that Koda Kumsies does not give a single flying fuck about reinventing herself anymore. Gorl is old enough to do what she wants to do, and Bon Voyage is the very result of that. This predominantly dance pop record proves that Kuu has done it right again and isn't trying to prove anything other than to have fun in one of her most cohesive efforts since forever.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Sakanaction gives me satisfaction



I love fish and I love getting action, but god knows what took me so long to know about sakanaction. Lately I've been really into alternative rock / electronic music and was always curious whether or not there were Japanese equivalents of bands belonging to that genre. After scouring through a few blogs about indie music I chanced upon this music video and was extremely impressed that this group has managed to find a balance between both genres AND actually has a decent-sounding male vocalist.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

[CD Packaging] Koda Kumi - Bon Voyage (CD+Blu-ray)



Soooo due to very embarrassing reasons my 5-year-old PC has overheated and subsequently died so I was not able to plug my 7-year-old digital camera (also embarrassing) in and import photos (and since it's so damn ancient, I can't simply import them to my MacBook either) so y'all will have to deal with my shitty iPhone photos for now.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

ayumi hotmesssaki's latest hot messes: I Don't Care / I Love It



ayumi hotmesssaki is ending off her 15th anniversary with... wait... nothing?!?! No tour announcement, no album seemingly in the works, and only an upcoming countdown live DVD slated for release?! I'm dramaticising this shit for nothing, but I always find it amusing how Ayu really ~*doesn't care for anything*~ and just makes me love her all the more.

[Album Review] Kato Miliyah - LOVELAND

"MMMM GIMME SOMMADAT SWAGHETTI YOLONESE OM NOM NOM NOM" 

Prior to listening to Kato Miserableface's music I only knew three things about her: she's been around since forever, she frequently makes very questionable cover choices and looks miserable all the damn time. With her looking like that on the HEAVEN album covers, knowing that I'm definitely going to hell actually puts me at ease.

LOVELAND piqued my interest because I was pretty impressed when I stumbled upon one of the songs (UNIQUE), and went on to listen to the album previews which seemed not bad. Plus, there's something mysteriously alluring about the cover. Probably the pasta. I love me some pasta. Case in point for Kato Miserableface's miserable face? She still looks miserable even when she's eating PASTA.

Friday, February 21, 2014

[New Release] Koda Kumi - Bon Voyage


CD+Blu-ray | CD+DVD | CD Only

If you've been in tune with J-Pop news unlike me, you would've known that Koda Kumsies will be releasing a new album as per usualz and just like how it's titled Bon Voyage, it would seem that she's also bidding farewell to her budget over at avex because the covers look terrible!

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