Time to feature some great artists again, haven’t done so in quite some time! Actually that goes for Japanese dramas as well. I have plenty to recommend so expect more in the near future.
So, immi. immi is a Japanese electropop artist formerly known as Mayu Nakazawa. Similar electropop artists are Aira Mitsuki, MEG, Perfume and so on. She released her first single “Cosmic Pink” in 2007 on the iTunes Store which reached an astounding 50,000 downloads in just a week. But it wasn’t until August 2009 when I first found her, when she released her first album, “Switch”.
immi is her own songwriter and composer and she was recently signed by DefStar records and has released two singles since. DefStar is a well known record label that has signed other great artists like Ken Hirai, AKB48 and CHEMISTRY.
Below are her two latest singles, “Wonder” and “Alice”.
If you like what you hear, there’s more available on YouTube if you search for “immi”, but more conveniently available at her MySpace. And if you understand or are a student of Japanese, immi also has an official Twitter account.
Just came across this girl on miette-one’s GIRL SCHOOL blog. Her name is Fujiko More and is a newcomer singer-songwriter. Her first EP was released about 2 months ago and has 3 songs, which you can listen to on her MySpace page. You can also listen to previews of all three songs in the embedded YouTube video!
This is really good stuff in my opinion and I’m definitely looking forward to her future releases.
I also recommend SAWA if you like this kind of music!
I came across an album by a Hong Kong indie pop band the other day. They’re called My Little Airport and was formed by P and Nicole on Elefant Records. They remind me a lot of other bands on the Japanese ABCDEFG*RECORD indie label, with it’s cute electropoppy sound.
But what’s really interesting about them is their album Zoo Is Sad, People Are Cruel. The songs on this album have some really weird titles ^^
bold = favorites! (title-wise)
Edward, Had You Ever Thought That The End Of The World Would Come On 20.9.01
The Ok Thing To Do On Sunday Afternoon Is To Toddle In The Zoo
Gigi Leung Is Dead
Victor, Fly Me To Stafford
Leo, Are You Still Jumping Out Of Windows In Expensive Clothes
I Don’t Know How To Download Good AV Like Iris Does
SAWA is a new artist to me and I’m grateful to have found her. You can hear that she’s gotten her inspiration from many different genres when you listen to her mini-albums, but in her latest, TIME&SPACE, she’s focusing on jazz, house and electropop. She’s working together with FreeTEMPO (Takeshi Hanzawa) so you can expect great tunes.
SAWA – TIME&SPACE cover
I think she has an interesting sound, the tunes are very funky and her voice is great for many different genres. The featured video is called Stars which seems to be focusing on the electropop genre, but I recommend getting a copy of TIME&SPACE and Colors to get the whole taste of her! (EDIT: Video removed from YouTube, replaced with ManyColors)
Strawberry Machine released her third album on the 24th of December. I haven’t bought the album yet, but after listening to the preview (at the bottom of this post) I’m pretty confident that this is her best album so far.
Lovely! Candy!! Dreamy!!! This is the pioneer of girly electropop!! Electric girl from Nagoya, Strawberry Machine’s long awaited 3rd album!! – ABCDEFG*RECORD
For you who don’t know, Strawberry Machine is an indie electropop solo project. The artist behind the name is Akira Okabe (I’m not surprised if you don’t know who that is, but soon you do), a female vocalist from Nagoya (now). I’d say it’s a mix of electropop and super cuteness, so if you’re a fan of that, you should definitely go for it. I like it a lot so I’ll most definitely get my hands on it as soon as possible!
Perfume is releasing their 8th major label single, “Dream Fighter”, on November 19, and here’s the A-side’s PV! It’s good, but it’s not as good as their previous single, “love the world“, in my opinion. To be honest, the PV is pretty boring, they could’ve done better there.
But I’m not gonna complain too much, the song is very good, but the Perfume PVs are usually something to really look forward to.
What do you think? Does it meet the high standard of Perfume?
Sweet Vacation is a fairly new band (formed in 2007) consisting of singer May from Thailand, and Daichi Hayakawa (sound producer). Their sound is a mix of pop and electronic and they sound kind of like a cuter version of Genki Rockets (maybe?).
They’ve released two mini-albums and an e.p. so far, and a bunch of digital releases on top of that. Check out their official website for more information. You’ve probably heard of Sweet Vacation before since they’re very… Internet friendly, but I just had to make sure! Take a look at the links below, they’re pretty much everything you need to get to know Sweet Vacation.
How about some cute anime-/picopop for a change? Horie Yui released her new single, “Vanilla Salt” (vanilla and salt?), and I think it’s pretty good! Makes me feel a bit otaku-ish though, haha! *BA NI RA SO RU TO DE*
capsule’s new PV, “JUMPER”, is here, and they deliver once again! “JUMPER” is the promo PV for their upcoming album, “More! More! More!”, which is set to be released on November 19. I love this song and I’m so looking forward to their album.
Time to feature some great artists again, haven’t done so in quite some time! Actually that goes for Japanese dramas as well. I have plenty to recommend so expect more in the near future.
