Perfume - Relax In The City / Pick Me Up

A new single from the continually excellent Perfume girls is always cause for celebration, and this week saw their latest hit UK shores. And what's more, you get two for the price of one this time!

The first of the tracks - Relax In The City - is pretty gentle fare by Perfume's recent standards, though perhaps that could have been to expected from the title. Between playful, nursery rhyme-like melodies, the track feels pretty interchangeable with a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu album cut - charming, certainly, but you came here for the all-out party bangers, didn't you?

It's on Pick Me Up that we get to the real meat of the package here though - it's by far and away the better of the two songs, flipping between delicately rural acoustic elements and a chorus that fizzes away like a firework mainlining on Pro Plus. The song feels like a natural continuation on from the likes of Spending All My Time, and already feels like a future live-favourite. Top marks on this one, girls.

The double A-side single also comes backed with the track Toumei Ningen (Invisible Man) thrown in for good measure - the song seeing the Perfume girls taking up a sleeker synth sound before exploding into the hi-energy EDM-fest that comprised much of their Level 3 album; arpeggiated synth lines practically dripping off a mix of layered, sultry harmonies. Definitely not among their best tracks, but competent nonetheless.

Relax In The City / Pick Me Up is available on UK iTunes now via Universal J. The tracks are also available to stream on Spotify.

moumoon and PASSEPIED to play London live show - 13th May

If the recent Scandal gig at Islington Academy got you itching for you next fix of live Japanese music in the capital, then fear not as The Pipeline plays host to both moumoon and PASSEPIED on the 13th May in an exclusive warm-up show that precedes the bands' appearance at this year's Japan Rising show as part of Brighton's Great Escape festival.

With moumoon's latest single currently featuring in anime-of-the-moment Assassination Classroom, there's never been a better time to check the act out. Headed up by vocalist YUKA, the band's style is dizzyingly eclectic, blending dance, pop and rock influences alongside a heady mix of English and Japanese lyrics.

PASSEPIED, meanwhile, offer up an arguably more clean-cut blend of styles, tracks like Matatabistep pairing a whirling electro riff to a sprightly pop-rock melody. It makes for an energetic combination, and with the show touted as PASSEPIED's first performance outside Japan, it should be make for quite the event. The band were previously featured as part of CMU's regular 'Approved' feature and we were intrigued to hear about the band's policy of only revealing their faces at live shows - something somehow wonderfully quaint in an age of social networks and widespread media saturation.

We attended the pre-Japan Rising event at the Pipeline last year, and it makes for a thrillingly electric night - the basement venue dashed in neon graffiti, whilst the bar upstairs serves good food and drink. With this year's event arguably upping the ante with more prominent acts, it makes for a bit of a gotta-be-there show for fans of Japanese music, especially if you can't make it down to Brighton for the Japan Rising event-proper.

More details on the May 13th show are available here.

Claris ~Single Best 1st~ (Yup, Claris' best tracks are finally available in the UK!)

To give you a general idea of how much I love Claris, I used to check iTunes/Amazon every other day or so to see if SME Records had finally uploaded their other albums. For quite some time, their Party Time album has been available, but many of their best tracks - including their iconic OP themes for Madoka Magica and Oreimo - had been glaringly absent.

But no longer. Swiftly following its Japanese release, the duo's Greatest Hits compilation has been added to UK iTunes. Rejoice!

Why does this matter? Four years ago, Claris broke through with a swift one-two of singles, 'Irony' and 'Connect' - from Oreimo and Madoka Magica, respectively - seeing them land a duo of Top 10 hits. The two tracks offer up something of a template for the two sides of the coin that represent Claris' sound - Irony opting for a deliciously whistful, glossy futuristic dance-pop sheen, whilst Connect plays to a more organic blend of strings, acoustic guitar and piano.

Bringing the two together is an incredible command of melody and clarity - some of the best I've ever heard on OP themes. Whilst the current trend seems to be for feisty pop-rocker stormers, Claris take a prettier, bubblier approach - the perfect match to the brightly coloured aesthetic of shows like Madoka.

With the band's members remaining a mystery, hidden behind constructed personas - an extra dimension is added to the band's feel and tone; a kind of blank slate projectionism similar in vein to Hatsune Miku and her vocaloid pals. We have their voices, and a vague artistic impression, but beyond that, Claris can become anything we want them to be - a pretty, enchating mystery in line with Madoka and her magical girl chums.

Offering a third take on the Claris aesthetic, there's also the Supercell-penned Naisho No Hanashi (Secret Conversation), which served as an ED theme for Shaft's Nisemonogatari. Opting for a more straight-up rock vibe, it falls neatly in line with Supercell's other famed Monogatari composition Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (The Story You Don't Know).

Three elements, then - three disparate sounds brought together with a perfect sense of melody. Through the virtue of being a Greatest Hits, Claris' 'Best' collection has a lot to recommend it - although if you're looking for the veritable cream of the crop, I'd start off with Irony, Connect, Reunion and Click - here, the duo reach their deliriously catchy peak.

I've had the album as my commute listening for around the past month now (partly because I've been trying to save money and avoid downloading too much else) - and it still doesn't feel like it'll get old anytime soon. If there's anything better than walking out the door in the morning with Connect blasting on your headphones, I'm yet to find it.

Claris ~Single Best 1st~ is available on UK iTunes now, via SME Records.

Eir Aoi - Lapis Lazuli

Continuing her first-rate run of form, the excellent Eir Aoi has released her latest single Lapis Lazuli in the UK. Those following The Heroic Legend of Arslan will recognise the track as the anime's ED theme, and it's rollicking, anthemic feel certainly fits the high fantasy themes of the series.

With four singles released over the space of the past twelve months, we imagine the singer's hotly anticipated fourth studio album can't be far off now. Personally, we still rate 2014's Ignite (from Sword Art Online) as the best of the bunch, born out by the fact the track is still hanging round the Top 5 most downloaded J-Pop tunes on UK iTunes.

The single comes backed with the similarly fiery Utsusemi Ultimate (The Ultimate Being) and the gentler mid-tempo Rindou No Hana (The Flowering Forest Road) - on both, Aoi's vocals remain at their impassioned best, delivering the kind of epic, apocalyptic scope I feel her songs always encapsulate so well. Music to go out and take on the world, if you will.

It's worth mentioning too that Eir Aoi will actually be performing in the UK for the first time ever at this year's Hyper Japan event - something of a coup for the show if we do say, as the show shifts to the larger O2 arena from its previous Earls Court venue. With a veritable host of other J-Pop acts on offer at the event, Hyper Japan is fast shaping up as *the* definitive event of the year for fans of Japanese Music. Basically, don't miss it!

Lapis Lazuli is available to download on iTunes now, via SME Records.

Mashiro Ayano - Vanilla Sky (Gunslinger Stratos OP)

Following hot on the heels of her fantastic Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works OP theme Ideal White, singer Mashiro Ayano is riding high on the back of this season's Gunslinger Stratos, with the OP theme Vanilla Sky getting an official UK release.

While I don't think the track is as good as Ideal White, I'll always offer praise for an act actually being able to get an OP theme out in the UK while the show is still airing in Japan. This is how it should be, instead of fans being forced to listen to rubbish, sped-up streams on YouTube or Soundcloud.

Packing the same punchy pop-rock pulse as Ideal White did, Mashiro Ayano's latest effort is typical action OP fodder - a heady blend of beats, guitars and euphoric strings combining to deliver the kind of giddy energy fans of the likes of Eir Aoi will lap up.

The track comes backed with b-sides Turn To You, Gentou and the instrumental version of Vanilla Sky. I'd argue that the b-sides actually have somewhat more charm to them than the lead track, dressing themselves up in sparklingly retro-synths. Turn To You in particular sounds like it could have accompanied a Gundam OP back in the mid 90s.

Vanilla Sky is available to download on iTunes now, via Ariola Japan. (It's also worth checking out Ariola Japan's entire repertoire on Amazon, via this handy link)

Sawano Hiroyuki - X.U (Seraph of the End OP)

This guy just keeps knocking it out of the park, doesn't he? Fresh from his mindblowingly good soundtrack for glossy mecha action show Aldnoah Zero, Sawano Hiroyuki has come up with the goods once again for Studio Wit's vampire thriller Seraph of the End.

I was a fan of the original manga version of Seraph from the start - following it chapter by chapter in the digital version of Shonen Jump, and so far the anime adaption is exceeding my expectations with its gorgeous, painterly backdrops and surprisingly fluid animation for what could have easily been another lazy Shonen workout.

I've always admired Hiroyuki-san's ability to not only pen fantastic, tension-raising traditional soundtrack moments, but actual 'songs' - the kind of stuff that actually helm up a show itself and become a trailblazer for its themes and tone. While you could argue that elements of his composition have a tendency to become quite samey (X.U certainly shares considerable DNA with Aldnoah Zero track No Differences) in many ways it suceeds precisely because of that. Like the best pop music, Hiroyuki's most memorable moments are the ones that offer up the cleanest, loudest choruses - those nuggets of melody that have you reaching to up the volume each time the theme plays out.

Elsewhere in the Seraph soundtrack, we hear more of Hiroyuki's usual playbook - the grandoise strings and horns put to such good use in Attack on Titan and Kill La Kill. But, for me, most interestingly, we also get new elements - dissonant post-punk chords, and reverb-heavy guitar lines reminiscent of The Cure. Deliciously apt, given the show's gothic aesthetic.

Suffice to say, I'd bend over backward for a proper UK release of both the Seraph and Aldnoah Zero soundtracks in the UK. Anime Ltd's did a fantastic job on Hiroyuki's Attack on Titan soundtrack - securing both a digital and physical edition.

With Anime Ltd also responsible for bringing Seraph to streaming service Viewster this season, I've certainly got all my fingers crossed that they can somehow do something with the soundtrack too...

 

Could PC Music help introduce the British public to J-Pop?

It's been kind of difficult to ignore the talk around 'PC Music' recently - from an entire Radio 1 show devoted to it, to a flashy piece in the Guardian. The next 'New Rave'-esque flash-in-the-pan, or a tantalising glimpse of the future sound of pop? Only time will tell, of course, but one of the things I've come to admire most about the movement is both its open admiration of J-Pop, and the potential the movement has for potentially introducing it to the mainstream.

That said - I think without some subtle tweaks, PC Music - as a label or a wider 'genre' will struggle to achieve true mainstream crossover. While musically it falls neatly in line with some of the material the likes of Charli XCX are putting out, the childlike vocals present the same issue as to why I think a Hatsune Miku hit in the UK anytime soon is unlikely too. The problem: to the casual music listener, it sounds like a gimmick. A Crazy Frog-esque bit of computer wizardry cooked up in a Hoxton bedroom between trips to Pret.

There's scope though - I think - for the sound to at least on some level infiltrate into the mainstream. Whether that be through the more commercial-sounding acts like Kero Kero Bonito (who are often tagged as part of the movement, but take a far more straight-up pop approach), or a collaboration/sample by an already well-established EDM artist, it feels like a track could hit it big, if - and isn't this always the way - it was lucky enough to be picked up by daytime Radio 1.

Part of me wonders - considering the groundswell around movements like this is often largely subsumed by the music blogging community, that following this early handful of pieces, more and more will natural snowball and follow. Just as with the dreaded triumvate of hipsterdom: pulled pork, craft beers and street food in general, it seems only a matter of time between reading something on an achingly hip indie blog and it popping up in Time Out, Shortlist and the likes. It's a 'concept' that thrives on its own perceived freshness - until everyone moves on to the next thing, that is.

That said, if even one person listened to a PC Music track, or read about Charli XCX praising Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and then went on to listen to some actual J-Pop, I'd count that as a victory.

If you're interested in sampling a little PC Music first hand, the newly released compilation disc from the label itself is well worth checking out. Or you could just listen to Kero Kero Bonito, because she's awesome.

Scandal @ Islington Academy - 26th April 2015

Following on from fantastic gigs from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume last year, when pop rock girl-group Scandal announced they'd be hitting London this April, I knew I had to be there.

Best known for their anime OP themes to the likes of Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the four-piece turn out perky, delightfully catchy tunes that probably find their closest English comparison in the likes of pop-punk outfits like Paramore. In short - big on the choruses, rockin' guitar riffs and girl-power.

As with Kyary and Perfume's shows - the venue was completely packed. People often talk about Japanese music in the UK as a relative niche (the Islington Academy being an apt venue perhaps, then, considering it often caters to that equally fanatical niche - up-and-coming metal acts) - but the fervour from the fanbase throughout the show was palpable. A little restrained at times, perhaps - but part of me kind of expected that, considering the audience seemed to mainly comprise a mix of otaku and rock types.

The band's big singles aside, a personal highlight has to be Oyasumi, from the band's current studio album Hello World. Here, drummer Rina Suzuki takes over on lead vocal duties, working her way through a characteristically sweet vocal as the band trade their usual feisty guitar anthems for a slower, more synth-focused mid-tempo number.

The set was kept short and sweet, the band keeping chat largely English-centric and to a minimum (this in comparison to Perfume's 10+ minute chat at their Hammersmith Apollo show!) - the focus, as it should be, on the tunes. And as is so wonderfully often the case with Japanese acts - all done and dusted before 10pm. If only every gig could be like that!

The last few years have seen something of a renaissance for Japanese acts playing on UK shores - and hopefully Scandal, as their Hello World album might imply, are merely the next in a long line opening the doors for more to follow. With the likes of Babymetal and Crossfaith becoming regulars in the pages of Kerrang - for me at least, the hard rock press have acted as a kind of gateway for a lot of this stuff to gain a kind of semi-mainstream legitimacy over here, separate and apart from the otaku appetite that equally fuels a lot of Japanese musical fandom. Scandal fall somewhere inbetween - and perhaps in this sense, they hold the potential to be a fantastic gateway drug for the more casually inclined - with songs as catchy as theirs, the Islington Academy show certainly won't be the last we hear of them...

Scandal's excellent Hello World album is available on iTunes now, via JPU Records. You can also grab a copy of their European-exclusive Greatest Hits comp from Amazon.

[A quick aside on general comfort issues; I've attended some pretty iffy gigs at Islington Academy before and am always a little hesitant about shows there. I've always found it to be stiflingly hot, and too small for the kind of crowds anyone but the most unknown of acts would draw - never pleasant, especially as the downstairs section is standing only and fills out pretty much right to the doors in (people are constantly moving back and forth between these doors and deeper into the venue - always a nightmare when the room is packed to breaking point).]

Could Hatsune Miku become properly massive in the UK?

Wishful thinking would lead me to proclaim it's not so much a matter of 'could' but 'when'...

But on a more serious note, with Miku-chan's stock higher than ever following that David Letterman performance and a series of high profile pieces in the Western press, it all begs the question, when will Miku 'go mainstream' in the West? As Japan - and arguably the world's - biggest and best virtual idol, it sort of makes sense that at one point or another, we'll reach some kind of Miku-singularity when the world at large finally sets up and says 'Hey, this blue-haired lass was actually on to something all along - why have Bieber when you can have Miku?'

Considering EDM/dance music's dominance of Western music charts at the moment too, you'd think that Miku's robotic, soul-less entity would be the perfect fit too - considering a great deal of club tracks these days are either mere vocal samples or auto-tuned so much they might as well be a vocaloid.

In my eyes though, there are four components that need to be considered in terms of scenarios where Miku could reasonably score a chart hit in the West.

1) Slow process of cultural osmosis and acceptance of Asian pop in the West.

The most idealised, but most unlikely situation. This supposes that over the next ten years or so, the UK will open up to both Japanese pop, and foreign language music as a whole. Unlikely, right? But hey, if that track off the opening title sequence to Scandi-thriller The Bridge can go half the distance, maybe Miku might just have the remotest of chances.

2) Viral hit

I sort of dread this one. After all, there'd be nothing worse than Miku being dismissed as a Gangnam style phenomenon. But what the heck, if it took a bonkers viral smash to get the average man and woman on the streets of Britain talking about her in the same breath as Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora, maybe it would be worth it. They could get her 'on the sofa' to chat with Philip Scofield and everything.

3) The Olympics

The irony here is that this purports that Miku will actually still be popular come 2020. But then, isn't that the whole point of a vocaloid. Miku will always be 16, no matter how many years go by. She will never age, never get wrinkles, never grow old, never stop spinning those leeks. If Miku is even half the Japanese institution in 2020 that she is today, expect her to make an appearance at the opening ceremony - and via its global broadcast, us fans can hold out hope that might somehow translate into a global hit.

4) DJ collab / guest feature / sample

In my eyes, probably the most likely as it stands. Pharrell's already done one, as has Zedd. If anyone is prone to utilize Miku in the way she has always been intended, it'll be the DJ/remix/production community. They 'get' Miku, as both artistic tool, production element and 'voice'. In that sense, she really is no different from any other sample. And this perhaps, holds the greatest hope for a Miku hit over here in the immediate future.

Now, where did we put our leek...?

 

ClariS megamix - Reunion / Click

I stumbled across this megamix bringing together some of ClariS biggest and best hits the other day, and fell in love with it straight away (largely spurred on by the fact it's almost impossible to find legit streams of ClariS' music in the UK)

When the only ClariS material properly available in the UK is limited to the duo's 2014 studio album Party Time, you lap up what you can when you find it. The best bit in the below mix is clearly Oreimo OP theme Reunion - in my opinion still ClariS finest moment to date. There's something about its rolling melodies and Genki Girl enthusiasm that captures the charm of Oreimo lead Kirino perfectly; all the wonder and wide-eyed 'Life Really Can Be This Amazing If You Want It To Be' chutzpah that anime so often seems to want to project on its viewers.

That said, Click comes a close second - and a good thing too, considering it's one of the few ClariS singles you can actually obtain legally in the UK.
 

Triple H - Rock Over Japan (Mawaru Penguindrum)

The long and short of it is that Penguindrum is absolutely mental. Perhaps even more so than the likes of the Monogatari series, it - as an animated composition - represents an absolute head-screw of a show. And that's what makes it so incredible. It's like a psychology text-book on crack dosed down on a handful of poppers and Pop Party compilations.

And Rock Over Japan is the cherry on its conveniently penguin-shaped cake. It's rare that an anime contains an insert song that completely outshines both the OP and ED theme, but with Penguindrum and Rock Over Japan, it is absolutely, resolutely the case.

Accompanying as it does female lead Himari's transformation sequence, it seems to epitomize the very best excesses of J-Pop. If you grabbed someone off the street and asked them to imagine what J-Pop sounded like, it'd probably be a bit like this. It's game-show theme tune cum pop-punk kiddy-disco. It's cruise-ship lemonade skating on a silver lining of sparkly, pink nu-electro.

It is, above all, Fabulous Max.

Two-Mix - Rhythm Emotion (Gundam Wing OP)

One of the things I've always liked best about Gundam Wing is how well it does the whole 'humanity pushed to its limits' thing. It takes a look at the very essence of the human condition, ie. are we forever destined to fight on and on, and takes it to its logical conclusion. can violence ever be an acceptable means to achieving peace? Can peace, essentially, be 'crafted' (to coin the name of the series' female lead).

Two-Mix's track captures all that, the drama and the tension of the thousand-mile-an-hour space battles and adrenaline fueled chaos. Those towering orchestral hits in the middle-eight? The sound of laser cannons blowing chunks out of your mortal enemy as their corpse freezes in the darkness of cold vacuum. Those Flashdance-esque synth blasts? The thrum of a Mobile Suit's engine running hot as its weapons pump our a lightning-quick crescendo.

Is it dated? Amazingly so. Incredibly so. But sometimes the 90s really did do it best.
 

Blast From The Past - Cardcaptor Sakura (CITV)

If there's any series I'd give an arm and a leg for a UK release of, it'd be Cardcaptor Sakura (or Cardcaptors as it was known by in the English dubbed version).

Back in the early 2000s, I'd just started at secondary school and I distinctly remember rushing home on weekdays to catch the latest episode of Cardcaptors. Here was a cartoon that felt distinctly adolescent - both in tone, and visually - something that offered adventure, fantasy and an escape from reality. Twenty minutes to lose yourself in, leaving homework behind in a dizzying spin of addictive 'gotta see the next episode' viewing. Much like World of Warcraft did for me years later, Cardcaptors was the door into another world - a means to transport your mind into a world where excitement lurked behind every door and adventure could be found in everyday school life.

In Sakura, you had the plucky heroine. With Lee, you had the boyish self-insert entry point that the English version so clearly played up (much to the chagrin of fans of the original Japanese version). Together, you had one hell of an adventure series. There was even the collectible card element, which coming off the back of the Pokemon craze, felt oh so timely.

And, man oh man, that theme tune...

 

Blast From The Past - Monster Rancher (CBBC)

Everyone remembers watching Pokemon, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh on CITV. For a generation of young Brits, it was the first experience with anime in any shape or form. But let's not forget that, believe it or not, there was actually a time when the BBC showed anime too, in the form of Monster Rancher.

Broadcast from 2001 to 2002 if I remember correctly, the above villain (Gali) ended up lingering in my memory long after the show itself had evaporated from my mind. For years on years, I racked my brains desperately trying to recall the name of the above character - with only a firm imprint on my mind of a 'villain with the face of a sun' to remember the show by. Finally, late last year, I remembered.

For some reason, good ol' Gali had really left an impression on the pre-teen version of myself. I'd just started secondary school, and on coming into school one day, we were tasked to draw a rendition of Caliban as part of our studies of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Having just sat down to an episode of Monster Rancher that morning whilst scoffing down my cornflakes, I promptly drew my Caliban as a Gali-inspired monstrosity.

Shakespeare and Monster Rancher - such natural bedfellow, of course.

Incidentally, I love that you can still see remnants of the show in the BBC's programming schedules as part of their BBC Genome archive project. Anyone for a spot of Tweenies and Playdays?

Sadly, the show - like Digimon - is now long out of print in the UK, with all that remains being a 2002 three-episode VHS.

Neon Jungle - London Rain

It's worth remembering that the UK actually has its very own Japanese pop-star in the form of Neon Jungle's Asami Zdrenka. When I interviewed the band late last year, she told me her family back in Japan would regularly chat about the band's successes in the UK to their friends, and that their track London Rain seemed to be particularly popular amongst their Japanese fans.

The song has always been one of my favourites from their album, and I certainly like to think it has more than a touch of J-Pop to it - twinkling as it does with delicate, twinkling synth lines and beautiful, lingering melancholy that suggests the neon-tinged afterglow of Tokyo twilight. Hats off to co-writers Cocknbullkid and MNEK for penning the tune!

 

J-Pop gigs in the UK - 2015

So, you fancy going to see some awesome acts this year and are wondering what's on the schedule so far for 2015? With the likes of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume playing sold-out shows in the UK last year, it's never been a better time to see Japanese acts live in ol' Blighty.

Personally, we'd recommend going to see the excellent SCANDAL - while it's also worth keeping your eyes peeled for the Great Escape line-up, as they usually secure a handful of Japanese acts.

Via JAME UK

	15/02	NISENNENMONDAI EUROPE TOUR 2015 nisennenmondai	London - United Kingdom Heaven
	17/02	NISENNENMONDAI EUROPE TOUR 2015 nisennenmondai	Manchester - United Kingdom Soup Kitchen
	18/02	NISENNENMONDAI EUROPE TOUR 2015 nisennenmondai	Brighton - United Kingdom Sticky Mike's Frog Bar
	03/03	KAMIJO WORLD TOUR 2015 -20th ANNIVERSARY BEST- KAMIJO	London - United Kingdom The Garage
	26/04	SCANDAL WORLD TOUR 2015 "HELLO WORLD" SCANDAL	London - United Kingdom O2 Academy Islington
	18/05	MUCC EUROPE TOUR 2015 "F#CK THE PAST F#CK THE FUTURE" MUCC	London - United Kingdom O2 Academy Islington
	23/05	TOUR15 THE UNSTOPPABLE LIFE DIR EN GREY	London - United Kingdom O2 Academy Islington
	24/05	TOUR15 THE UNSTOPPABLE LIFE DIR EN GREY	London - United Kingdom O2 Academy Islington

What J-Pop is available on UK streaming services?

Short answer? Not a lot. Seriously, the amount of J-Pop available on UK streaming services like Spotify makes UK iTunes look like a veritable paradise.

That's the bad news out of the way. The good news? A few key releases and artists are actually available:

Perfume

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Linked Horizon's Attack on Titan OP

Morning Musume

Utada Hikaru's English language album

Passpo

T.M Revolution

A couple of AKB48 tracks

Various Hatsune Miku songs (but unfortunately very little of the well-known stuff from the Project Diva games)

How to find out what J-Pop tracks are doing well in the UK

A bit of a how-to here. It's what I've come to rely on anyway to tell me what (reasonably) new stuff is doing the rounds on UK iTunes.

Firstly, there's the frustration that within iTunes main store, it's very difficult to actually access the J-Pop chart - it's lumped in with the 'World' chart and can typically only be seen when searching for 'related' content to albums actually flagged specifically as 'J-Pop'.

Thank God for iTop Chart then, who provide the data in a stripped-out, easy to access format.

Top 100 J-Pop Songs
Top 100 J-Pop Albums
Top 100 Anime Songs
Top 100 Anime Albums

Far from ideal, but better than nothing, right? I'm not sure why iTunes deems fit to separate J-Pop and Anime as two separate genres (and what determines whether a release is one or the other), but by sticking to these four charts, you can glean a reasonable insight into what's new - as these releases typically filter to the top.

Sadly, the 'Anime' charts are flooded with what I deem 'unofficial' tribute versions - to which the only answer can be 'Release the proper versions in the UK please!'

nano - Rock On.

Imagine my surprise earlier this week when I checked iTunes and saw this pop up. January is typically a pretty dead period for new music, with the UK's charts invariably bloated with the biggest hits of the previous year following the Xmas blow-out.

But lo and behold, January 28th, and the new album from angular pop-rock type nano is up there. Rejoice! Most will know nano for the incredible OP theme to Arpeggio of Blue Steel, and said track is present here, alongside the singles Born To Be and Infinity=Zero. Personally, I don't think there's anything that quite comes close to matching early standouts Now Or Never and No Pain, No Game, but it makes for a solid record nonetheless, with the singer's characteristic androgynous vocals front and centre.

I've always likened nano to Enter Shikari or Amaranthe, but in truth the sound is wider reaching - matching the punchy guitar/synths combo to a more melodic course. The blend of Japanese and English lyrics is excellently done too - which is more than be said for many OP themes that attempt to do likewise.

But yeah, it goes without saying: Victor Entertainment - cheers for putting this out officially in the UK! And for anyone that hasn't heard Savior of Song yet? Boy have you been missing out...

 

LiSa - This Illusion

If I had to pick a current 'tune of the week', it'd definitely be this one. When I first heard it in the season finale to Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works' first cour, it blew me away - it just captured the gravitas and gloss of the series perfectly. I've been a fan of LiSa's music for a while now, with her Sword Art Online theme Crossing Field continuing to rank as one of the highest-selling J-Pop tracks on UK iTunes - and This Illusion sees her continuing to impress, albeit with a far darker tone than before.

Ariola Japan played an absolute winner getting the first FSN:UBW OP theme (Mashiro Ayano's Ideal White) out on iTunes pretty much day-and-date with the first cour airing on Crunchyroll  - let's hope whoever's pulling the string on This Illusion can do likewise with this one.