Category: music video

Random Song Of The Week June 2023

Bad mime

I’m not usually a massive fan of minimal tech save for maybe Jaeji or Valentino Khan but this track by Mason feat. Madrush MC called ‘Hush’ is deranged house music gold. The track has been out for over a year and I admit I’m late to the party but I’m glad to get on this crazy train at last. Just avoid drunken cosplayers around Covent Garden on a Friday night.

Random Song Of The Week March 2023

I frequently haunt Twitch.tv, mostly to promote my own music but also to listen to other really cool producers. And every once in a while you’ll get absolute ringers turning up and making us amateurs look, well, amateur.

And so it came to pass on Nextup’s stream a band called Softcult appeared. I’ve come across them before when one of their tracks slayed mine in a competition. But I’m not bitter.

I think this track was meant to be released on Valentines day for it is a song about longing and lost love and features very dreamy vocals and guitar. Think My Bloody Valentine with shades of The Cocteau Twins. It’s lovely. I’ve not heard a tune this good in ages and I’m picky and precise with my music choices.

I really rate this band and think they’re going to go big places.

Softcult are on tour in the UK and USA from Friday March 3. For those of you in Scotland they will be hitting up Stereo April 8 in Glasgow. I am so there!

Follow Softcult on instagram.

Random Song Of The Week

There are numerous workout pop videos, from the questionable Eric Prydz remix of Call On Me to the excellent Olivia Newton-John’s Physical and now we can add this gem of a song from Moxy the Band entitled The Feeling of Letting Go:

I found this track while randomly perusing the Submithub Hot Or Not charts and as usual the top tier here never disappoints.

If you’re a fan of modes you’ll recognise the huge lydian influence; add to this a rock solid bass line, gorgeous lilting vocals and most agreeable choice of synth tones, I think you’ll agree this band has an absolute monster of a tune.

One thing I also admire is the band’s attitude to workouts; smoking away and lifting 2kg dumb bells. Verily, this band has the correct approach to getting physical. Mine’s a vodka and coke BTW xx.

FEMM Have a New Song!

Here we go! Very synthwave it is too but that seems to be the vogue these days and something I’m happy about because my band Corserine are synthwave. Heh.

The folks at JPU have this to say about it…

New Tokyo’s electronic pop duo FEMM have released another technologically impressive music video ahead of their EU and UK tour this July. The pair also announce that laser artist YAMACHANG, responsible for the music video’s impressive visuals, will be joining the sentient mannequins for the London performances at Boston Music Room and Hyper Japan. Plus, FEMM will add a further date to the tour with an appearance at Japan Expo in Paris, the largest celebration of Japanese pop culture outside of Japan. FEMM’s tour merch designs have also been revealed.

Brand-new video ‘Falling For A Lullaby’ has just been released. The song is produced by Jenna Andrews, the songwriter responsible for k-pop mega hit “Butter” by BTS. Featuring a pounding, cyberpunk synth bassline and super-sweet pop vocals, it has become one of FEMM’s most defining tracks and is one of the duo’s most streamed songs.

FEMM 2022 EU & UK Tour Dates:
14th July – Düsseldorf, Ratinger Hof
16th July – Paris, JAPAN EXPO: YUZU Stage
16th July – Paris, Badaboum
19th July – Manchester, Night & Day Cafe
20th July – Huddersfield, The Parish
21st July – London, Boston Music Room
22nd July – London, HYPER JAPAN Party

FEMM Have a New Song

If you don’t know FEMM, they had a catchy wee song a few years ago called FXXX Boys Get Money which was loads of fun and featured the band in full-on mannequin mode. New Single ‘Level Up’ sees them ditch this ridiculous shtick (yo!) in favour of something much more normal. Thank god.

Level Up is from FEMM’s EP 404 Not Found, which you can order from our old friends at JPU Records.

Ps when you get to that page ^^^ it’s not a really a 404. Ahahahaha.

JPU Records launches new website by introducing ELFRIEDE

ELFRIEDE band pic

JPU Records is proud to introduce brand new Japanese rock band ELFRIEDE! The quartet will release their debut album “real-Ize” in April, with full details about the band, the album and their music videos are available on the brand new JPU Records website.

ELFRIEDE consists of Ryo Yamabuki (guitar), Rina Hoshino (bass), Yu-yan (drum) and Mikuru (vocal). Ryo has been featured in several of Japan’s top guitar publications, including YOUNG GUITAR and Player magazine and is also a popular cosplay icon with over 100 thousand followers on Twitter. Bass player Rina also has a solo career in jazz fusion and both members have supported bands on stages across Japan. It was from doing this that Ryo and Rina could meet drummer Yu-yan and vocalist Mikuru and complete ELFRIEDE’s electric line-up.

Despite ELFRIEDE’s short history, the band has formed a solid and eager fanbase amongst Japan’s indie rock scene. The initial pressing of their self-released EP –LOVE &- sold out despite only being available at gigs and via their website, and more recently when the group set up a crowdfunding campaign to hijack the streets of Shibuya for a video advertising campaign, they succeed their goal by 229 per cent! The campaign will see their promotional video blast across seven giant screens in Shibuya, from the famous scramble crossing up towards Tower Records (one of the biggest CD shops in the world) as well as on trucks with video screens and speakers on the back.

JPU Records’ edition of real-Ize will feature an extended booklet containing the album’s lyrics and English translations and transliterations and will be released on CD from 3 May 2019. Its digital release will be simultaneous with its Japanese release on 24 April.

LOVEBITES Release New Video “The Crusade”

New EP Battle Against Damnation Cover Art and Tracklisting Revealed.

LOVEBITES artist picLOVEBITES (L-R: haruna (dr), midori (g), miyako (g, key), asami (vo), miho (b))

Japan’s heavy metal crusaders LOVEBITES follow up their blistering debut album Awakening From Abyss with new mini-album Battle Against Damnation, revealing its track listing, cover art and video to lead track “The Crusade” today – watch it HERE.

The band have partnered with JPU Records for the mini-album’s release on 08 June 2018in North America and Europe, and in Japan on 06 June 2018 via Victor Entertainment. The release is also available for digital pre-order now via iTunes with “The Crusade” as an instant gratification download – get it HERE.

Lead track “The Crusade” sees LOVEBITES – who are nominated “Best New Band” in Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods Awards 2018 – pay their respects to British heavy metal. Their admiration for it deepened further following the band’s appearance at a UK event and their headline performance at The Underworld in Camden in November 2017.

Watch

“Break The Wall” is the first song joint-written by miho (bass) and miyako (guitar, keyboard) and is propelled forwards at breakneck speeds through thrash metal riffs and grandiose solos, and features a change of atmosphere midway through before hurtling towards its dramatic finale.

The final two tracks “Above The Black Sea” and “Under The Red Sky” share similar names and themes. The former written by miyako, the latter by LIGHT BRINGER keyboard player Mao, both tracks see the classically trained pianists pen a metal-themed love letter to the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, a composer from the Russian empire of the late Romantic period and inspirer of metal today.

Bass-player miho and vocalist asami comment on the themes and title of the mini-album;

“Humanity is faced with battles on a daily basis. Each person has their own fight, whether it’s illness, time, solitude, war or something else they have to face.” (miho)

“However, we consider that humanity’s most serious adversary is its own destiny. Sometimes it’s essential to defy the fate bestowed from the heavens. Battle Against Damnation depicts such a fight.” (asami).

Skilful engineers Mikko Karmila and Mika Jussila of Finland’s legendary Finnvox Studiosonce again return for mixing and mastering duties on all tracks. Similarly, the cover illustration is handled once again by David Lopez Gómez and Carlos Vicente León, the Spanish team behind LOVEBITE’s debut album cover art and German heavy metal band HELLOWEEN’s best album SWEET SEDUCTIONS.

LOVEBITES will appear at two of Europe’s biggest metal festivals this summer, appearing at Wacken Open Air on 04 August, the same day as HELLOWEEN, ARCH ENEMY and DIMMU BORGIR; and Bloodstock Open Air on 10 August alongside JUDAS PRIEST, EMPEROR and KAMELOT. The band will also tour Japan with ANTHEM as part of the Headstrong Festival 2018 and performed at the Vans Warped Tour Japan last month.

LOVEBITES – Battle Against Damnation cover art

Lovebites on Twitter

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Aldious Release First Overseas Album: “Radiant A”

“These girls will rock your brains out. As metal as one can get in heels and pink bows” – Kotaku

“Groundbreaking. Japanese all-girls metal band Aldious epitomizes ‘The Female Warrior’” – NYLON

“We fell head over heels for Aldious” – Revolver Magazine

Radiant A sees Japan’s “groundbreaking” metal quintet Aldious unleash their first overseas album on 17 March, 2017, out on CD and digital formats in the UK and Europe via JPU Records.

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BAND-MAID Cause Chaos in New Video “Don’t you tell ME”

Picture from BAND-MAID's "Don't you tell ME" video

BAND-MAID cause chaos in their latest music video 「Don’t you tell ME」, released today ahead of new album Just Bring It, out on CD from JPU Records in Europe from 10 February 2017.

Just Bring It is the band’s first full length album released from a major label in Japan and includes 13 tracks. The European edition includes translated lyrics in its booklet and will be available from all major CD retailers across the UK and Europe.

Pre-order direct from JPU Records: Regular edition // CD+Tshirt edition

BAND-MAID's Just Bring It cover art

 

Amatsuki to release second album Hakoniwa Dramatic on 29 July

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Brilliant new vocal hero Amatsuki will unleash his second major album Hakoniwa Dramatic in Europe from 29 July courtesy of JPU Records. The Japanese star, who first began posting cover songs on video sharing websites a few years, has now accumulated more than half a million followers on Twitter, was awarded “Breakthrough Artist 2015” by NHK World’s English language music show J-MELO, and has already topped the charts of Japan with his first live DVD and original songs.

Outside of Japan, Amatsuki fever is already hotting up with millions of hits and comments flooding his YouTube channel from overseas. Due to popular demand, earlier this year Amatsuki was invited to perform in front of thousands of people at MCM London Comic Con, the biggest event of its kind in Europe, and third biggest globally. There, he gained many new fans and sold hundreds of CDs before running out of stock entirely.

Highly influenced by Japanese pop culture, particularly anime, video game and vocaloid – a music phenomenon that has swept Japan involving synthetic vocals and virtual pop icons – Amatsuki’s music packs a powerful dose of energy, charm and imagination that’s resulted in him winning fans the world over, regardless of language barriers.

Hakoniwa Dramatic is Amatsuki’s second full length album since joining Japan’s massive King Records, and consists of 13 original tracks. Several videos from the album have also been uploaded to YouTube and experienced more than a million hits, including latest video Nagareboshi.

Download (from 29 July):
Amazon Music 🇬🇧UK / 🇩🇪DE / 🇪🇸ES / 🇫🇷FR / 🇮🇹IT
iTunes, Google Play, Microsoft Store

Stream (from 29 July):
Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal

Via JPU