I’ve really gotten into Japanese music lately (‘cuz I’m a weeb). There are sooooooo many artists out there, all with varying styles. In fact, there’s almost too many of them, and it doesn’t help that new ones keep coming out of the woodwork every year! In today’s blog, I’m going to highlight three who have peaked my interest, and could end up being really awesome in the foreseeable future.
NOTE: Finding information on REALLY famous Japanese people is hard enough on the English-speaking Internet, so I can’t even imagine finding info on these more obscure people. As such, I’m mainly going to talk about the music, please do not take anything I say about their backgrounds as gospel.
Mayu Maeshima
I’ve recently come to realize that the anisong industry- the market of people, like Konomi Suzuki, who perform music used in anime- isn’t all that great. A lot of those artists kind of sound similar to each other, the exception being the J-prog-rock band, MYTH & ROID. Mayu Maeshima is their original vocalist, and she left the band last year. In April of this year, I found a music video for Mayu’s solo debut: Yellow.
And that song bamboozled me. It was slow, strange, outright depressing, and if it wasn’t for me recognizing Maeshima’s voice, I would not have thought that she was in MYTH & ROID. A couple months ago, she released her first album, From Dream and You, and with this she cements the style of her music.
Sad. As. F***.
Maeshima’s music is what I’d call “sad ReoNa.” It’s mostly acoustic-based, with a folksy style, and really sad lyrics. “Hang on, Mack, you don’t know Japanese. Did you somehow learn the language fluently since your last post?” No, it’s just that Maeshima sings in English. I don’t know why she does it, but she still sounds good doing it.
I do have a couple of concerns with Maeshima. Based on the first album, I fear that she might become one of those artists who’s only liked for their hits. Yellow and When You Went Away have noticeably more oomph than the other stuff on there. I’m not saying that the other stuff is bad per se, but if there’s not a solid enough consistency moving forward, she’ll kind of have a Tears for Fears situation where people associate her with two popular songs and nothing else. Also, I haven’t caught a whiff of a single live gig since she debuted, which I’d interpret as bad. But hey, whatever happens with her, I hope she’s happy and that she becomes super popular!
EXiNA
According to information on this young woman’s social media, she had a career as Shiena Nishizawa before becoming EXiNA. I don’t know anything else because, like I said, finding information on these people is hard for a non-Japanese like me.
EXiNA is basically an angstier nano. Her songs generally have a gritty, electric-punk-rock-with-hard-rock style. Her voice is also surprisingly deep and very angry-sounding. To quote the second track of her first album, her music will make you “crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy!”
Unfortunately, the licensing for her seems to be a bit shaky, at least here in ‘Merica. None of her first singles came out over here, which isn’t really a big deal since their all on the album, which we do have. However, her subsequent single, Jesus Knows, came out over here a couple weeks late, her newest single (at this time) is unaccounted for, and an article I read about a recent gig mentioned songs I hadn’t even heard of. I’ve also checked a friend’s Spotify and confirmed the same case there too. It’s a miracle how much Japanese media has been unleashed worldwide, and you never know when it’ll be gone. So, check out EXiNA while you still can!
Dual Alter World
I only found out about this duo, consisting of voice actress Kotori Koiwai and RYU, the guitarist of Blood Stain Child, on Apple Music’s New Music Mix playlist. They looked interesting, so I gave them a whirl.
And WOW, what a band! DAW is like a fusion of Kanako Ito and Passcode; with the cyberpunk atmosphere of the former, the sheer chutzpah of the latter, and the potential to surpass both. So far, they only have one album, Alter Ego, and it’s lit. The big problem, however, which is only for non-Japanese speaking people, is it’s a concept album. Each track, for the most part, alternates between an ambient spoken track and an actual song. It’s not a problem for me because I never know what’s happening in concept albums anyway. Overall, the album is really great, and the way it ends is disturbing and reminds me of Queensryche (the classic, OG lineup of course). That’s not a vibe I expected a modern band to have at all.
In conclusion, DAW is great so far and has the best potential out of the three. If they continue to evolve and experiment over time, they could become really powerful. Hopefully this isn’t a one-off thing or I’ll look like a real idiot.
I know I’m a puny little blogger. But hey, anyone who likes this post is another potential customer for these artists. It’s all free advertising for them!
Weeb Revues 