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Last Active 11-05-15 2:09 am
Joined 12-24-14
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| Best of Japanese Rock & Indie 2014
My 12 personal favourite Japanese alternative and indie rock albums from the past year | | 1 |  | Mori wa Ikiteiru
Good Night
My first impression of this album was that it reminded me of Shugo Tokumaru, Pink Floyd and OGRE YOU ASSHOLE all at once. This was already a good enough reason to like it, but upon repeated listens I've noticed more and more how unique it actually is overall. Whether they're leaning more towards folk, progressive or whatever, Mori wa Ikiteiru are fantastic to listen to from beginning to end on this release. | | 2 |  | ART-SCHOOL
YOU
Riki Kinoshita's main band ART-SCHOOL is well loved in the Japanese indie rock world, and if you take a trip through their discography it's not hard to see why. They've been my favourite band since 2009, and catching them live for the first time earlier this year was a big highlight of my life so far. YOU is far from being their best album, but just like every other album they've put out so far it is an excellent one. | | 3 |  | Kinoko Teikoku
Fake World Wonderland
I'll admit I was a little taken aback when I first heard this record, having not heard any of the songs previously released before getting into the album itself. However, from my second listen onwards it was pretty clear to me that even with their new, more straightforward alternative rock style, this was a great album and definitely one of the best Japanese rock records I'd heard this year. | | 4 |  | THE NOVEMBERS
Rhapsody in beauty
THE NOVEMBERS are not messing around on this album. While already known for having a grungy sort of edge to their music, they've never before taken it so far as they have here. This record is louder and more in-your-face than anything else they've done before, but it also makes sure to offer some moments of reprieve with a few softer tracks. These songs help keep the experience not too dense as a whole, and make it all the more easy to want to come back for repeated listens. | | 5 |  | LOSTAGE
Guitar
The most straightforward LOSTAGE album also proves to be one of the best LOSTAGE albums yet. They really weren't trying to be too ambitious on this release, going as far as putting all the heavy songs on one half of the album and soft songs on the other. Through this though, the band is able to focus on doing what they do best: making solid, enjoyable rock and roll tracks. | | 6 |  | People In The Box
Wall, Window
My favourite album by People In The Box so far, alongside Ave Materia. Here the band really manages to produce alternative rock tracks that sound genuinely beautiful, not through making more relaxing or ambient sounding tunes a la bands like Copeland, but simply through their own brand of genuinely good song writing. | | 7 |  | ACIDMAN
Yuu to Mu
I'm still impressed at how well ACIDMAN were able to pull off such an 'epic' sounding album like this, while still very much sounding like themselves. This was a really pleasant surprise for me, from a band I hadn't checked out in a while. | | 8 |  | the telephones
SUPER HIGH TENSION!!!
Though I hadn't really listened to the telephones much since around 2010, I'm glad that I came back to them this year because even if they are still kind of a one trick pony, this is the most consistent thing I've heard from them in a long time. These guys clearly don't want to fix what's not broken, and if they can keep putting out albums this enjoyable that's fine by me. | | 9 |  | Misoshiru's
ME SO SHE LOOSE
It says a lot about the talent of the guys in RADWIMPS (a.k.a. Misoshiru's on this project) when they can put together an album of mostly silly, 'just for fun' songs and it's still so good. This is a lot more awesome than anybody could have reasonably expected, even a big fan of theirs like myself. | | 10 |  | the HIATUS
Keeper Of The Flame
Not as great as A World Of Pandemonium in my personal opinion, but the way this band is able to change their sound with every album and produce music of such a high quality each time is pretty commendable. | | 11 |  | TK from Ling Tosite Sigure
Fantastic Magic
Even though this doesn't have much on flowering, that's acceptable since flowering was a truly outstanding record. This is still a very solid album and all but confirms my belief that this guy will only continue to make consistently great music in the future, whether as a solo artist or together with Ling Tosite Sigure. | | 12 |  | OGRE YOU ASSHOLE
Papercraft
While it's no homely, with Papercraft OYA once again prove they're pretty much incapable of making a bad record. Also, I still think that Mienai Rule is the most danceable track of the year. | |
Keyblade
12.29.14 | Nice list. You should try out some Advantage Lucy and Indigo la End [2], and I should try out 2, looks pretty cool | iamamanfromspace
12.29.14 | Nope haven't checked them out but was considering it since I hear their name a fair bit... looks like they just put out a single so I'll check that out first.
Mori wa Ikiteiru's album is definitely worth checking out, I just realised today how good it is, it wasn't gonna be at number one initially haha | iamamanfromspace
12.29.14 | Okay @keyblade will get around to both those bands, please do check out ART-SCHOOL since they're the best band ever (at least in my little world). I really recommend their album LOVE/HATE, also their first one REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE is really awesome | reportingbird
12.29.14 | will check 12 just because the name | iamamanfromspace
12.29.14 | They're actually an awesome band, really recommend their album 'homely' | amaoto
03.14.15 | You might also like TOURS and Christopher Robot. https://soundcloud.com/tours-1 https://soundcloud.com/christopher-robot | treeqt.
03.14.15 | fushitsusha are a rock band and released an album last year
so did nazoranai | nokitron
05.28.15 | Fantastic list
I personally adore "Family Record". Probably will try to hear "Wall, Window" later. | parksungjoon
10.15.21 | bet | JohnnyoftheWell
10.15.21 | Best of Japanese Rock & Indie
fushitsusha are a rock band | parksungjoon
10.15.21 | OGRE YOU ASSHOLE |
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