Japan playl­ist

Published Categorised as Japan, Music, Travel No Comments on Japan playl­ist

Here’s a Spoti­fy playl­ist I made while I was in Japan, of Japan­ese artists and music that matched my mood at the time. (All the Japan­ese bands are marked with a J).

  1. Drop- Corneli­us (J)
    First up Corneli­us, from Tokyo. Keigo Oyamada was really big in the late 90s/​early 2000s, but seemed to drop under the radar a bit in recent years. Wiki­pe­dia has now told me that he has a new album out this year, so I need to give that a listen.
  2. 1979- Smash­ing Pump­kins
    I have no shame. I was a big Smash­ing Pump­kins fan as a teen­ager, Zero shirt and inad­vised bleached fringe and all. I stuck some 90s mix on the hotel tv’s youtube app, and this came up, and I remembered just how fun the video is. (James Iha also has roots in Japan).
  3. (circle)- Bore­doms (J)
    ALL THE DRUMMERS YOU COULD WANT.
  4. Soon- My Bloody Valentine
    I don’t think you could do a Japan playl­ist without any My Bloody Valentine. I never made it to the Tokyo Hyatt bar from the film (it’s an expens­ive place). However I did get to stay at the Kyoto Hyatt after winning a vouch­er, and the included break­fast was the best and most compre­hens­ive I’ve ever seen. Please note that I certainly did not smuggle any bags of extra cakes or fruit back to the room for lunch. Didn’t happen.
  5. Farewell- Boris (J)
    A playl­ist of Japan­ese music wouldn’t be complete without Boris. Here they are at their most relax­ing.
  6. Knife Party- Deftones
    I’ve been on a Deftones kick lately after having not listened to them for years. White Pony still holds up great 17 years later. One of the few Nu Metal bands with any brains.
  7. Oto- Sakamoto & Fennesz (J)
    A collab­or­a­tion between Ryui­chi Sakamoto and Chris­ti­an Fennesz, mixing Sakamoto’s piano music, and Fennesz’s ambi­ent sounds. One of the strangest little details about regu­larly going to work in rural Austria, is that I often go to Fennesz’s home region, Burgen­land. It’s the smal­lest region of Austria (and used to be in Hungary) and they don’t have many famous people aside from Liszt. So they’re unusu­ally proud of Fennesz and you find his records for sale in unex­pec­ted places like the Austri­an equi­val­ent of WH Smith’s.
  8. Apple- Cibo Mato (J)
    Still going strong with or without the member­ship of Sean Lennon.
  9. Panda- Dungen
    Not from Japan at all, from Sweden and in Swedish, but their early 70s kind of sound seemed to fit my mood well cross­ing Japan by train. Also named after a panda of course.
  10. Some­times- My Bloody Valentine
  11. Last Target On The Last Day- Melt Banana (J)
    Every time I have ever seen Melt Banana live I have come home completely covered in other people’s sweat, but with no regrets.
  12. Astro­naut- Beach House
    Every time I have seen Beach House live has been a sleepy mid-after­noon time on the second or third day of a fest­iv­al either in warm weath­er or indoors relax­ing on the floor. I think that sums them up in the same way “other people’s sweat” does for Melt Banana. I listened to this album a lot running along the shore of the Seto Inland Sea by rick­ety banana yellow local trains much like that in Spir­ited Away.
  13. Aware- Sakamoto & Fennesz
  14. Ghost Ship In A Storm- Jim O’Rourke
    Jim O’Rourke despite being asso­ci­ated with Chica­go, now lives in Tokyo. For some reas­on I always asso­ci­ate his songs with Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes. I guess it’s a simil­ar view of life in their writ­ing.
Receive new posts via email. Your data will be kept private.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.