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.

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.