With a large music industry such as Japan has, second largest in the world, it is inevitable that music fans will be inundated with a profusion of good (and also less good) music from this country. It is impossible to keep track of this and write a review about it per video. But to avoid missing out on gems, it is time for a weekly list of new music videos from lesser-known Japanese musical acts that are definitely worth watching. We are now looking back on a couple of videos that were released in week 51 of the year 2020. Enjoy the new discoveries!
魅惑ハレーション (MIWAKU HALATION) – 夜はソーダ (Soda Night)
MIWAKU HALATION are a four-piece hailing from Tokyo, they got formed in the summer of 2018 and are mainly active in Shibuya. Soda Night is their first single, after releasing their first mini-album, titled ACT, on leap year day (29 February) of this year. On this album, they took with each song a different approach. Because of the pandemic this year, they have been keeping active by making cover videos while staying at home. — Recommended by Francisca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_xblDud4-M
初恋モーテル (Hatsukoi Motel) – 地下室の花 (chikashitsu no hana)
The start of alternative pop-rock band Hatsukoi Motel was somewhere around 2018, where the drummer and bass player asked the vocalist if they wanted to start a band. Before they knew it, they were thinking of a band name and searched for a guitarist to make the band complete to produce their first EP. This year they have released their first mini-album and held their 2nd anniversary with a no-audience livestream. — Recommended by Francisca
mahina – 僕のSOS (Boku no SOS)
The musician mahina has been active in the music scene for a couple of years, but only this year she started large-scale activities with the release of a substantial amount of digital singles, the most recent being her fifth release. mahina received a lot of attention because of this, but also because of her unique bass and high tone voice with fluctuations and her artistic approach. — Recommended by Francisca
あるゆえ (aruyue) – 騒音楽 (Sou Ongaku)
The four-piece rock band aruyue will release their first EP in January and to promote that fact, they released a music video for one of the songs on that release. The strength of this band is the strong vocals and punchy rhythms. The band members met each other during a band competition for high school students in Tokyo, at that time they were all in other bands. After these bands stopped, they decided to work together since November 2019 and that became aruyue. — Recommended by Francisca
Fall of Tears – tragedy (feat. usako)
Formed in 2017, Fall of Tears are a melodic hardcore band based in Tokyo and they are influenced by various genres such as post-rock and poetry reading. The quintet has been releasing new music and regularly collaborates with other musicians, their fourth single being a good example. It is now waiting for a new album from this promising band. — Recommended by Francisca
DADA GAUGUIN – 春の日 (Haru no Hi)
When thinking of this name, most people will probably think of the artwork of Max Ernst with the same name, created 100 years ago. In Japan, there is a musician with this name, DADA GAUGUIN, a solo musician who has been active since 2014. The song that is connected with this music video is the first song in about two years for DADA GAUGUIN. He mostly produces music for anime-style videos and has released 4 EPs to date. — Recommended by Francisca
AFTER SQUALL – SWEET LIFE
AFTER SQUALL are a brand-new rock band from Nagoya. The band started out last year, in December and with the sudden publication of one music video with the two songs NEW WORLD and rooling they attracted quite some attention. The four-piece combines English and Japanese lyrics in their rock songs with a punk vibe. Until now they have mostly released demos, so the logical next step should be maybe a mini-album or even bigger. Time will tell. — Recommended by Francisca
Next week we will be back for a new list of new music videos to check out. But you can also look back to the earlier editions of this weekly article series for when you yearn for more musical gems!
