One of the two best Ska bands in Japan, Ore Ska Band got together when they were in the same high school, and have been making good music ever since. The first song is the title track of 2014s Carry On mini-album, while the second is 2009s What a Wonderful World.
It has been a while since I have posted any thing by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, so I figured since they have a new track I was about due to feature them again. The song is called Easter and was posted at the end of March. As long as I am mentioning them again I thought I would throw a couple of old favorites on as well, so the 2nd track is 2012’s After Dark, the third is the visually silly Well Then, See You Again Tomorrow.
The playing field is wide open; Bikini Warriors? Ghost In The Shell? All of the options are open, including Survive Said The Prophet: Ashes, Ashes. The track below is Radical Radio from their first full album All the World’s a Stage, doing the song The Guide of Rock. Check them out, and let me know what you think.
The Novembers are a Japanese alternative rock band formed in 2005 who have released 8 albums and an assortment of singles and EPs so far. Their sound is unique and complex far beyond what you would expect from so few instruments, reminding me of Pink Floyd or Brian Eno. Their acknowledged musical influences include David Bowie, Einstürzende Neubauten, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Jesus and Mary Chain, L’Arc～en～Ciel, Erik Satie, Stereolab, Nam June Paik, The Flaming Lips, and a host of other truly creative folks. They just released “TOUR Romancé” LIVE AT STUDIO COAST, and I thought this might be a good time to share a few tracks from them. The first one is Romancé, the title track of their current endeavor, the next is Xeno from the same project, the third is their 2014 release Meursault and the last is The Iron Dream from 2013. That was the same year they formed their own music label MERZ (not that you can do anything on that web page without a set of the deeper links), and a year after their music became available on iTunes. These are only a few of the songs they have to offer, if you enjoy any of these continue to explore their collection, you will find a lot more to like.
No, it is not a joke; the new Ulfuls song has Muppets, and it is a treat to watch! They had meant the name of the group to be Soulfulls, indicating the style of music they wanted to go for, but somehow it didn’t work out that way. And because one’s too many (and a hundred ain’t enough) I figured I should include a few more tunes from the band, so I just had to add 2014’s near-Beatles track, 2008’s hit Samurai Soul, and finally another 2014 song One Mind; Enjoy!
In Each Hand A Cutlass, also called IEHAC, is an Indi instrumental rock band from Singapore playing a very nice strain of fusion. They blend progressive rock, ambient, jazz, metal, and post-rock to paint sonic landscapes for us to explore and experience. They came together out of a number of other successful bands in 2011 and did an Indi release of A Universe Made Of Strings, their first album, which was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden. Their latest album, The Kraken, was recorded, engineered, mixed and produced by Brad Wood (if you don’t know him, he has done Smashing Pumpkins and Veruca Salt, among many others) at The Lodge in NYC. The first track shown here is Marauder, which is from that first album, the second tune is Satori 101 recorded live at ST Session.