Jupiter Variation

I was searching for inspiration for making another blog post (something different than the normal monthly reviews) when I realised that it has been long time since I have last written anything about albums from Japanese artists. Japan is a place that has always been fascinating for me, mainly due to its vast, versatile, sometimes bizarre but always exquisite cultural production and this adoration I have tried to express by devoting a small but important part of my record coll

A short trip in the history of Japanese Hardcore & Punk... Tracklist: Crow - Give Up All Hope GISM - Endless Blockades For The Pussyfooter Life - Ossification Of Coral The Comes - Medium Grave New World - The End Death Side - Crossfire Reality Crisis - Fragments Gauze - 死人に口無し Bastard - The Way To Survive Boris - Anti-Gone #Mixtape #Japan #Hardcore #Punk

Ever since I made the post about the debut album of Carmen Maki, I felt the urge to "complete" it by writing about the first two albums of Blues Creation. Formed in 1969, the Japanese band recorded their first, self-titled album already in the same year. Containing only covers of Delta and Chicago Blues standards it was not really providing a hint about the direction that the band was going to follow with their second album. Maybe the only exception was the a' la Black Sabbat

Some of this week's most exciting news were about the upcoming official re-release (by Relapse Records) of G.I.S.M.s classic 1983 album Detestation. The announcement was met with such response that Relapse web shop crashed as soon as it opened for preorders due to the increased demand and high number of "hits"! Being long time out of print and having seen many bootleg pressings through the years, Detestation is considered by many as THE definite Japanese Hardcore/Punk album.

It has been (and still is) a very busy period and one of my little personal relaxation/decompression rituals is my Saturday night Blues/Jazz album listening. Continuing with the "exploration" of the Japanese part of my collection, this post is devoted to the 1971 debut album of Carmen Maki, Blues Creation. Considered (still until these days) a legend in the Japanese Blues Rock Scene, Carmen Maki is fronting here Blues Creation band (who in the same year had also released thei

The post about OXZ provided me the idea to explore deeper the "Japanese" part of my collection and I think that there is no better way to begin this than presenting No Side, the debut album by The Comes a legendary female fronted Hardcore/punk band from Tokyo. Many consider GISM as the quintessential band of the Japanese Hardcore/punk scene however in my opinion nothing can overcome the ferocity and the sheer energy of this album. 11 songs in less than 20 minutes (which actua

From a genre purists perspective, the "association" of OXZ with the punk scene bares similarities to the case of Fugazi. Emerging from Japan in a period and a society when and where women rights were still a matter of discussion it was actually their radical appearance, their live performances and their agenda that contributed in having them classified as punk rather than their music with their material being actually enough diverse and versatile to be constrained under any l