Category: Uncategorized
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‘I had no idea about the resurgence of Sunset Road’: An Interview With Reiko Takahashi
One of City Pop’s greatest mysteries has finally come to an end. After the 2018 release of Victor Records’ City Pop compilation album, DJ Notoya Presents: Tokyo 1980s Victor Edition, which included the seminal track ‘Sunset Road’, artist Reiko Takahashi has racked up a new generation of fans online. A defining track of the 2020s…
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JP ALT’s Best of March ’26
ผ้าอ้อม99999- Junk Pop Right after going mildly viral for their eccentric music videos and chaotic “acid bass” sound, pa-o-mu99999’s debut LP solidifies the band’s position as one of the more compelling acts in the Japanese Hip Hop scene. JUNK POP takes the listener for a ride through post-apocalyptic landscapes, oddly reminiscent of Toxitown, the main location…
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How did a Japanese idol’s tweets go ‘mildly’ viral abroad?
“Me being viral for only political or English tweets is feeling like I’m Matty Healy when he was active on twitter” – Hanaoka Kureha on her unexpected blow up. Ponderosa May Bloom are a fairly new Alternative Idol group from Tokyo. Production and musical arrangement is handled primarily by the guitarist for the shoegaze band…
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All About Chou-Chou Merged Syrups
“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, in writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.” With these words, Pliny the Elder conveys a sentiment that holds a very intense, very concise flame to it. With Chou-Chou…
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Love, Zombies and Rock ‘n Roll: Revisiting Guitar Wolf’s Wild Zero (1999)
“Love has no borders, nationalities or genders! DO ITTTTT!” Every great band needs a movie to immortalise their exploits on the silver screen. The Beatles have A Hard Day’s Night, the Spice Girls have Spice World, and garage punk power trio Guitar Wolf have 1999’s sci-fi shlock horror masterpiece Wild Zero. Guitar Wolf certainly need…
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JP ALT’s Best of February ’26
Monthly highlight: GEZAN- I Know How Now GEZAN, since formation, have been unruly. Their albums are an amalgamation of different sounds, sometimes so harsh that you want to overthrow the government, sometimes so bright it fills your heart with hope. Meanwhile, the frontman of the band, MahiToThePeople, has been releasing soft folk albums, building a…
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FILM: POST-APOCALYPTIC PUNK: A look at Gakuryū Ishii’s Burst City (1982)
“The city is our ally and we are its warriors. Reject the darkness now and explode with the city!” If I ever owned a dive bar, the film Burst City is what would be constantly playing on the TV at any given moment. Released in 1982 and directed by Gakuryū Ishii (formerly Sogo Ishii), Burst…
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BRANCHING DIVE: Ai Kamano
JP ALT presents its first branching dive— An analytical glimpse and introduction to Ai Kamano of Haisuinonasa. Detailing her influences, her extended world of projects, and all areas of art that can be tied into and interwoven with her vision. When we listen to ‘Logos’ by Haisuinonasa, through the barrage of cryptic guitar repetitions, mathematically…
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In search of lost tunes: Nakasi, the flowing Soul of the East Asian Underground
From Shinjuku to Taipei, Nakasi was the raw, analog heartbeat of the East Asian working class. It was ‘Early Taiwanese Jazz’ that breathed with the working class, a “rustic and urban-rooty” soul fighting its final battle against the silent-roar of the digital age. Shōwa-era Tokyo— a concrete jungle where neon lights intertwined. Before electronic perception…
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Tokyo Flashback: Remembering P.S.F. Records
In the early ‘80s, Hideo Ikeezumi (1949-2017), at this point a bulk buyer for a large record store chain, became increasingly frustrated with the limited and unadventurous selection found in most Japanese shops, and decided to open his own. At Modern Music in Tokyo, Ikeezumi specialized in carrying free jazz, psychedelic rock, avant garde and…