Another interesting Japanese band is The Flickers, the first track is White Heat from their 2011 mini-album Wonderground. The next track is Lovender from their new album released this past June. So is the final track, but I have not managed to figure out its name.
Yet again with a kick ass song and a great video, Avengers In Sci-Fi are an amazing group. This time around the songs start with Sonic Fireworks, and the visual storyline is every bit as good as the musical one. I wish every group did this well at presenting their creations. The next track is Yang 2, another world class piece of music coupled to another astounding video. This band is worth your time to check out, they have a bunch more music you will want to add to your collection.
I don’t really know how else to describe this group, The Neatbeats. The song is Twistin’ Time With You, and it sounds like what you would have heard when you hopped in your Tardis and bopped back to hear John, Paul, George, and Ringo play a gig in Tokyo in 1965. And it’s not like they didn’t know it, as the second video proves. Yet another proof that music in all its formats is universal.
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu continues to produce surreal music videos in Akihabara and kawaii overdose clothing in Harajuku, and here is the proof. This video was posted on Wednesday and is called Mottainaitoland, and as always, Kyary’s is the only face you will see. The other track is also from this week and also a bit uptempo strange, the band CAPSULE doing their track Control from their new album CAPS LOCK.
Japan is far from the only country in Asia, and the culture is influenced noticeably by their neighbors, including the Middle East. The band Beats Antique does the best job I have heard so far at fusing Middle Eastern musical styles with western rock and jazz, and does it from an Alternative Rock perspective. Kind of like Daft Punk Meets Scheherazade. Not as surprising as it might be, considering the band is from Oakland, California. Here is a taste of their recent live performance on KEXP, Seattle’s amazing NPR-style music station.
Someone took the stand alone Mario Paint Composer and transformed the Daft Punk song Get Lucky into an 8 Bit game sound composition. This is not a simple song either, very layered and complex, and they pretty much got it all in there. I threw in the original track for comparison purposes.