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Wagakki Band continue to create amazing music using their blend of traditional Japanese instruments (the literal translation of the word Wagakki) and modern rock tools. The first track is Aria of Life, their theme song for the Anime series Mars Red, while the second, Starlight, is the theme for the Japanese TV drama “Ichikei no Karasu”. Their music certainly lends itself to TV and Movie production with its unique sound, so they have been getting a lot of work in between recording albums and doing world tours.

Hikaru Utada posted her new song Pink Blood three days ago, and it already has over 2 million views. It is the theme song to the excellent anime To Your Eternity, currently airing in Japan and streaming on Crunchyroll. In comparison, her song One Last Kiss was posted on March 8th, and is fast approaching the 36 million views mark. If you don’t already know who she is, you have a couple of decades of her world class music to catch up on.

NECRY TALKIE is an interesting band, sprawling across Art Rock and J-Pop, with a few J-Rock tracks in their collection. The live video from their new album (their second album, they are still just beginning!) has been released on April 28th, the album itself is coming out on May 19th. Tonight I figured I would share a few of their more recent songs, Frog Quest Ⅱ posted on April 9th, Orenitoccha zenbu ga KUSO ni omoeruyo (AKA Mikagi Wants To Go Home) posted on April 30th, and Kininatteiku from May 3rd, all from this year. Enjoy!

One OK Rock’s song Renegades is not only their latest and greatest, but also one of the most socially important songs they have ever done. And this time we didn’t just get the final product; we got a small selection of Making Of videos that cover the engineering and artistic aspects of the creation process. And trust me when I say you need both of those aspects to get an actual viable product by the end of that process.

What you also get a sense of here is just how international a musical project of this magnitude is. When you get beyond a certain point, you aren’t looking for the best folk to collaborate with among your friends or countrymen. You need the best team members from around the world for your production to have a hope of making an impact on a global scale. I think Taka and his band mates have pulled together just such a team for this release. If you have any doubts, watch the second video followed by the final video for the evidence.

Scott Bradlee’s PostModern Jukebox have been around for years playing todays music in yesterdays styles, and they have created a lot of quality music in that time. It has been a while since the last time I have included them here, so I thought we were due for another few tracks. The first song is Blondie’s Call Me featuring the vocals of Tess Mohr in Marilyn Monroe mode. The second is Aerosmith’s Dream On sung by Morgan James in Blues style, while the third is Wham’s Careless Whispers sung by Robyn Adele as a 30’s Jazz piece with a side riff by Dave Brubeck. Some excellent vocalists working with some great musicians, you can catch a lot more by stopping by their You Tube Channel.

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