Stumbled upon this band a couple of days ago called Presence of a soul. It’s a Japanese post-rock/shoegaze band lead by the famous female singer and composer YUKI, who also handles the guitar, keyboard and Mellotron. Together with YUKI are three guys, Yoshi on guitar, Masamune on bass and Mitsugu on drums.
Being a fan of post-rock, shoegaze and YUKI, I find it a bit weird that only found this band a couple of days ago. They’ve been active since 2005 and their latest release is their second full-length album Blinds, which is pretty amazing. I love how they start off very slow with sad atmospheric sounds and vocals that gradually evolves into really powerful shoegaze. They’re like a mix of miaou, This is Your Captain Speaking and Alcest.
sink low from Blinds
Well, I’ve only listened to Blinds so far so I have a lot to catch up on. You can listen to more of their songs on their MySpace.
Oh and if you have any recommendations of good Japanese post-rock/shoegaze bands please let me know!
monocism is a shoegaze/dream pop band which was formed in 2005 by Tomoya Matsuura (vocals and guitar) and Yoshiaki Kitamura (guitar).
They describe their music as something that’s in a relation of harmony and intoxication. And they try to express a pleasant feeling when getting “dead drunkin’ and indescribably melancholy”.
They haven’t released much yet, their official website says that there are two mini-albums, both however are listed as their first mini-album, but one of them is self-titled and the other one is titled “hatsuki”, so there should be two! More available on their MySpace page.
Even though miaou is fairly well-known I think I should mention them, since they’re one of my favorite bands of all time. So here goes!
miaou is an instrumental post-rock band that was formed in 1999 by Tatsuki Hamasaki and the two sisters Mayumi and Hiromi Hasegawa. Their debut album, “happiness”, was released in 2003 and was quickly followed by a tour together with the Australian indie rock band “Art of Fighting”. In 2005 they released their second album, “MAKE THESE THINGS ALRIGHT”, an album that made miaou mark themselves with a unique style in Japan because of their wide range of instruments.
In 2006 they released an e.p. called “painted e.p.”, which in my opinion is one of their best works.
Their latest album, “all around us”, was released in 2008 and is definitely a must-have! All albums are available at their official website (see link in the end of this post).
I myself ordered their latest album as you can see, and even got a lot of freebies too! If you want to hear more of their songs, I suggest that you check them out on Last.fm or on the discography section at their official website.
goche’ is a Japanese shoegaze/post-rock band. I don’t really have a lot of info on the band itself, but so far they’ve released one EP and two mini-albums. Their latest mini-album, “Laundry”, was released in 2007 and I’d say that they sound a bit like a mix of sleepy.ab and HARTFIELD.
This is their PV for “Shunkan no Sequence”, the first track on “Laundry”. And again, thanks to my friend Mathilda for the recommendation!
First off I’d just like to say thank you to Flaffer and my friend Mathilda who recommended this band to me. I’ll just have to spread the word, ’cause this band is sweet!
Asobi Seksu is actually a band based in New York, but their singer, Yuki Chikudate, is Japanese and often uses Japanese lyrics. Asobi Seksu is a shoegaze/dream pop band and yes, the name is a bit odd, since it means something like “sex for fun”.
The band was formed in 2004 and they debuted with a self-titled album, followed by a second album, “Citrus”, in 2006.
nanocycle is shoegaze band based in Tokyo, Japan. Their debut release “something burning” was released on October 24th, 2007. I bought their album directly from abcdefg*record’s shop, even got some freebies in the order so be sure to check them out!
HARTFIELD is a Japanese shoegaze band formed in 2000, their sound is very dreamy and it’s very nice to just sit back and relax to. I can’t get enough of them!
Just a couple of days ago I received my second order for this month. This time the order came from abcdefg*record which is mainly an Indie pop/rock label but also carries a few electro, post-rock and Shibuya-kei artists.
The order contained a t-shirt and 2 CDs, and of course some freebies. The first CD I decided to get was pasteboard’s album ‘glitter’, an old time favorite of mine that I never bought (shame on me!). The second CD is a shoegaze band I recently found out about, through abcdefg’s MySpace. The band is called nanocycle and reminds me a bit of miaou and pasteboard, even though they’re more upbeat.
The freebies I got this time was a sampler CD with 16 songs from various bands from the abcdefg*record label. There’s a few really good songs on it, so I’ll have to look some of those artists up. Besides that I also got a few badges, no stickers this time though.
Anyways, if you like shoegaze or indie rock/pop I recommend nanocycle and pasteboard! Samples are included at the end of this post.
Don’t you just love ordering CDs from indie and smaller labels? They always add that little extra surprise that makes you even happier. Like usually I only expected to get the CD I ordered, but I was oh so wrong this time. Besides the album I actually got an extra CD from their live show at shibuya o-nest, two flyers, three stickers and a personal note.
So let’s talk about miaou.
miaou is a mostly instrumental post-rock band that were formed in 1999 by Tatsuki Hamasaki and the two Hasegawa sisters, Mayumi and Hiromi. Their debut album ‘happiness’ was released in 2003 and quickly after that they started their first tour together Australian indie rock band Art of Fighting. In 2005 they released their second full lenght album, ‘MAKE THESE THINGS ALRIGHT’, an album that gave miaou a unique style because of their wide range of instruments. The band has ever since been releasing new CDs and touring both in Japan and internationally.
Stumbled upon this band a couple of days ago called Presence of a soul. It’s a Japanese post-rock/shoegaze band lead by the famous female singer and composer YUKI, who also handles the guitar, keyboard and Mellotron. Together with YUKI are three guys, Yoshi on guitar, Masamune on bass and Mitsugu on drums.
