As communicated last month, Bandcamp Friday has returned for the rest of this year (excluding June and July). And so every first Friday of the month, we can look forward to the day when Bandcamp waives their revenue share, meaning more money left over for artists and labels. That’s Bandcamp Friday in a nutshell.
And considering Bandcamp Friday is today, on 3 March, it is time to mean this means we will highlight some Japanese artists and labels in an article. Do you want to know who we have highlighted in the past? Be sure to check to read our articles listed here.
Looprider
In April, the Tokyo-based rock band Looprider will release a new album via Call And Response Records, titled Metamorphose, which is the first release since they welcomed a new drummer into the band. The album consists of songs recorded in 2021 and 2022. Now as a bassless three-piece with drums and two guitars, they have continued to produce music with a mix of metal, shoegaze, noise, post-rock, and hardcore.
Asunojokei
Tokyo-based Asunojokei, which translates to “Scenery of Tomorrow,” are a post-black metal band that was founded in 2014. The band aspires to present a distinct style of black metal with lyrics taken from well-known literature and light novels, music influenced by the melodic sense of Japanese pop music, and a mix of hardcore, math rock, and shoegaze. The four-piece latest release was album number two, Island, released in the summer of 2022. In May, the quartet will be a support act on a portion of the European tour of Boris.
Al-Kamar
Our introduction to this Shizuoka-based band may have been via a spam message from an annoying bot account on Twitter (which appears to have been suspended now), but it was quite an interesting introduction for us to this post-black metal/depressive rock band that is led by the multi-instrumentalist named Tsukisima. Although Tomorrow, an EP, is the most recent release, the musician has already communicated that album number 5 is already in the works.
Sex Virgin Killer
It has been interesting to follow the development of Tokyo-based band Sex Virgin Killer since their unexpected comeback in 2021 after a three-year hiatus. Because the return meant a new phase with a new formation. The band’s current line-up includes one original band member, Lilii Mar a.k.a masa, as well as several supporting musicians from bands as IGNITION BLOCK M, MOONSCAPE, and 13th MOON. In the band’s original form, elements such as visual kei, metal, punk and hardcore have been their core, now with the release of their latest EP, The lights will fall, it seems they want to incorporate other aspects such as post-punk and new wave.
DREAMWAVES RECORDS
The Nagoya-based label DREAMWAVES RECORDS launched in 2020 and has the focus on musicians that create shoegaze, dreampop, and alternative rock music, the releases that they put out are not only Japanese artists but also musicians from outside of the Land of the Rising Sun. In addition, they also organise live music events. The latest release on their Bandcamp page is from November las tyear, which is the debut release of shoegaze quartet LUNE (リューネ).
It is good to know that on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93% of your money reaches the artist or label (after payment processor fees). On other days, an average of 82% reaches the artist or label. Who are you going to support on Bandcamp Friday?
