Not much Japanese music has made an impact overseas, a fact that I will forever lament. The international obscurity of Japanese music makes researching it hard sometimes. Sure, if I want to read up on Towa Tei, YMO, or X Japan, there’s no problem. But dig just a little deeper and it becomes nigh-impossible. It’s really hard to find great English-language information on acts that were relatively big here, and finding info on cult or underground acts is just a freaking nightmare.

Which is where I am with the music I’m sharing tonight. All these tracks were taken from The Brain Solution, a compilation put out by indie label Transrecords in 1988.

Reliable, in-depth English information on these bands simply does not exist. If it does, it’s damn hard to find (the rather generic band names from the acts I’m featuring tonight sure doesn’t help things).  Heck, I’m having a hard time finding information on some of these acts in Japanese. Turns out this record isn’t just obscure overseas, no one heard of these acts in Japan either.

Japanese alt-rock is a hidden mine waiting to be plunged. As the hipsters, Soundcloud DJs and other culture vultures pick clean the dregs of the vastly overrated 80s “city pop” scene (seriously, what’s up with that), they’re missing out on a lot of amazing work from other genres and decades.

There were four bands on this release, tonight I’m featuring two. I hope to get the other stuff later this week or early next.

Bardo Thödol
Master Of Blue
Drowning In The Snow
Yo, do you like The Cocteau Twins because if you like Cocteau Twins I got a band for you. They sound a lot like Cocteau Twins.

That probably sounds like I’m being facetious but I mean that as praise. Sure, this band is entirely lacking in originality, but they chose a great band to rip-off, one that not many have even attempted to rip off. That’s something. Also, they do it damn well. If you told me that these were Cocteau Twins tracks with a guest vocalist, I’d believe you. This is amazing and ethereal in all the ways great Cocteau Twins tracks are. Music from another planet.

Like every other band on this record, Bardo Thödol didn’t do much. If Discogs is to be believed, they released just two singles and appeared on a few compilations, never putting out an album proper. I can find next to nothing about them online. Their name is a reference to the Book of the Dead, so that makes research a bit tricky. I did find one single MP3 blog that shared some of their music over a decade ago, but that writer didn’t know much about the group either.

Shit like this is why I need to study more Japanese dammit.

Joy
Arnold Layne
Pluto Metal Snow
Even more obscure than the previous act, Joy just managed to put out a lone 12″ single during their existence. Aside from that, they just have a smattering of tracks spread across four compilations to their name.

I bought this album because of their contributions to it, one of which being a cover of the Pink Floyd classic “Arnold Layne.” Joy’s sound is a bit hard for me to pin down, I’m a little out of my element here. I can definitely hear the psychedelic influence, but they also kind of have a goth/noise thing going on. I think? Like I said, this ain’t my scene. If someone could give these two tracks a spin and then give me a CMY style RIYL list that’d be really rad, thanks.

Same for anyone who can literally find out anything at all about this group. There are dozens of bands named Joy, including at least one other Japanese group. This is beyond my Googling skills.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2018 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.