Category Archives: Music
Keeping Tabs On Brethren
If you’re looking for a way to a get a taste of the local hip-hop scene in Nagasaki, check out 巻物 (Makimono). It’s the blog of Eiki Nakamura, member of the Isahaya hip-hop group Brethren, and you’ll find his thoughts on the hip-hop, reggae and R&B scene. He also posts up information of upcoming Brethren events, so if it’s your kind of thing, be sure to bookmark it.
Hat tip to Brandon Perry in Isahaya for the info!
Boris, The Nihilistic Existentialist’s Metal Band
“Face melting” is kind of a strange musical descriptor right? Well, go and read some Internet reviews of Metal genre devouring trio, Boris’, albums or their live shows and you’ll become well acquainted with the term. As a ‘daifan’ of Boris’ who has had the consummate pleasure of catching them live, I can only say, “Oh yeah, totally.”
I would not say that I’m a “metal head” by any stretch, (although Master of Puppets still rules) but I can without a shred of irony or tongue-in-cheek-ness say that seeing Boris live is a damn near spiritual experience. The members of Boris don’t write songs, they compose sound. Occasionally there are song-like patterns that wander into the music but usually they more closely resemble journeys through volume, distortion, and reverberation. You don’t just hear their music you freaking feel it.
X Japan – Because You Love It
X Japan were and are a rather interesting Japanese phenomenon. As a costumed speed metal band with a penchant for 10 minute balladry they grew to become literally the biggest rock band in the nation. To this day they maintain a somewhat mythic status here in Japan, and have achieved levels frightening devotion unprecedented in the Japanese music universe. They also pretty much single handedly made the visual-kei style of music into a legitimate format for all the other costumed speed metal freaks of the world (of which there is a rather startling amount). Also, on a more personal note, they were my first exposure to Japanese music back when I was 12 years old.
