My hands are in total pain, so I had to copy-pasta this from another forum. It's not plagiarism if it's your own writings, right? Anyway...
--Warning, Avante-Garde and Underground music are disturbing, annoying and vexing for those who have unadapted ears to such music and or lack of appreciation to good music(OK, jk jk)--
Like me, many other are tired of hearing pop music all the time, and the Japanese Pop and Pop rock(mainstream music) aren't exempt from this. So, yes I am tired of people posting J-Pop and J-Rock as if that's only music Japan has ever made - come on people, I know you can do better than that!
If you hate Western Pop musicians, you might as well hate the Eastern ones. And if you hate effeminate boys band singing about love(and lack thereof) and other clichéd topics, with weak musicship -- then welcome to the club. These are actual disease with names and cure. Fortunately, there is a cure(if there wasn't, then I would have hated Japan
).
Now, thanks to a friend who introduced me to some of them, I am happy to see Japan still lives in the department of art.
(Linked to youtube videos - no music videos, only live and or pictures; and don't expect them to sing, it's mostly instrumental)
Now, I will start with this guy.
That's Gyoko, a Fish Rock Band. If you are in Japan, and love the Japanese Fisherman spirit, then Gyoko is the right band for you. That video is actually an advertisement for a breakable guitar. Lol. Japanese are into the crazy I guess.
(I will go from heavy to calm; Meaning: The very first artist are really painful to ears(they may also cause nausea, headache, and stomach pain, and might bring bad memories), and it gradually lowers down, and at the end you will be received by calm songs(you have been warned, don't blame me now for not reading this) - Enjoy)
Merzbow - No, that's not your headphone/stereoP) that went awry, that's Merzbow. Anyone who knows Merzbow, know he makes the best noise and glitch pieces. Yes, this is a continuous form of avant-garde musical art. There are are a handful of artist, but this one, Merzbow must be mentioned. He is God of noise music afterall. Plus he was doing this stuff since 1979!
Aube - He is a bit more merciful and gentle than Merzbow. Aube, on the other hand, tries to give us the sensation of alien landscape ambient sound via noise music. It's still noise, though.
Gerogerigegege - This act is both an ancient Noise god like Merzbow and an early avatar of Grindcore(Or Noisegrind as "they" love to call it). What else we want?
Hijokaidan - All I know about this band is that they use noise but love to keep it in the psychedelic realm. I will consider his work as avant-garde, because I never heard anyone else do live improvisation recording and making amazing psychedelic bad-trip like noise music.
Noism is a completely new band, fortunately, they didn't release that much to be known. But I got them, somehow. Their style is what we call Cybergrind(a fusion between industrial and grindcore), and they really got my attention; there are several other good Japanese Grindcore, but they are not on youtube, unfortunately. Really worth to listen if you are into grindcore(people of other kind hate this style, even some Metal Heads hate Grindcore, Technical and Brutal death metal).
Boris - Perhaps they are the heaviest Japanese Stoner, Sludge, Doom and Drone band, their musical structure are toned down, heavy and slow. In this particular piece, they are playing a kind of Stoner drone doom. In my opinion, they are the greatest metal band I have ever heard from Japan. Their American counterparts are Earth and Sunn O))).
Dot(.) - Not very well known. But I have to recognise them as a great Stoner Sludge doom band specifically from Japan(You don't see that many in Japan, now don't you?). American counterparts Bongripper and Electric Wizard or even the less known Indian(for its Doom style) can easily relate to this one.
Midori - Put a female vocalist in a Jazzcore group, and this is what you get. It's like Mike Patton with Naked City, except it's a girl who's singing. Avant-garde nonetheless.
Koenji Hyakkei - Speaking of Avant-garde, Zeuhl is one of those avant-garde musical movements. Koenji Hyakkei is one of the few who tried to use the Zeuhl style of music, and tried to revive it. It's a really good band, and really serves a template to Zeuhl music despite being from far East and late in time.
Les Rallizes Denudes - One of the oldest in the bunch, it's a psychedelic band all the way. Very heavy and dreamy at the same time. Streams of stoner rock is also brought in. This is one heck of a band I really admire. Thanks to this band's effort, it has spread the word of the fuzzy psychedelic(the strong utilizations of pedals and other sound altering instruments)trends to other groups that has spawned really great bands.
Acid Mothers Temple - Yes, one of the early and the most prominent space rock Japanese groups. With many amazing pieces that should be considered unique and avant-garde; their pieces range from the heavy gritty stoner improvs to dreamy electronic space ambient -- Japan should be proud of this family of musicians. Their western counterpart is the Brit-based Sphongle.
LSD March- The name is a very suggestive that this band is really a Psychedelic band. I first heard them from their collaborations with the band Bardo Pond(my super favourite band!) in LSD Pond lp. What can I say? They are very graceful in their music. They are not too heavy or too fast for your ears, but they still deliver their pieces very nicely. They also follow the shoegaze style. Some of their works are really heavy improvisations and innovative form of acid rock, specially drawn from works of Les Rallizes, but they still retain the spacey feeling of Krautrock and the evolved Psychedelic rock.
Suishou No Fune - Another psy band but very dreamy and cloud light amazing, taking the shoegazing to another dimension. Their music is really beautiful, very chill and calm, and long to keep the consistency of the pieces. One of the best Japanese psy-group, in my opinion. When you listen to them, you will really feel that you are having a nice trip! Really good, recommended for anyone!
Of course, there are more underground and avant-garde artist of different genres, styles and movements I haven't heard of. And you are, of course, allowed to post them up!
I am still struggling in finding good Classical and Jazz Avant-garde Japanese artist. Maybe you can help
--Warning, Avante-Garde and Underground music are disturbing, annoying and vexing for those who have unadapted ears to such music and or lack of appreciation to good music(OK, jk jk)--
Like me, many other are tired of hearing pop music all the time, and the Japanese Pop and Pop rock(mainstream music) aren't exempt from this. So, yes I am tired of people posting J-Pop and J-Rock as if that's only music Japan has ever made - come on people, I know you can do better than that!
If you hate Western Pop musicians, you might as well hate the Eastern ones. And if you hate effeminate boys band singing about love(and lack thereof) and other clichéd topics, with weak musicship -- then welcome to the club. These are actual disease with names and cure. Fortunately, there is a cure(if there wasn't, then I would have hated Japan
).Now, thanks to a friend who introduced me to some of them, I am happy to see Japan still lives in the department of art.
(Linked to youtube videos - no music videos, only live and or pictures; and don't expect them to sing, it's mostly instrumental)
Now, I will start with this guy.
That's Gyoko, a Fish Rock Band. If you are in Japan, and love the Japanese Fisherman spirit, then Gyoko is the right band for you. That video is actually an advertisement for a breakable guitar. Lol. Japanese are into the crazy I guess.
(I will go from heavy to calm; Meaning: The very first artist are really painful to ears(they may also cause nausea, headache, and stomach pain, and might bring bad memories), and it gradually lowers down, and at the end you will be received by calm songs(you have been warned, don't blame me now for not reading this) - Enjoy)
Merzbow - No, that's not your headphone/stereo
P) that went awry, that's Merzbow. Anyone who knows Merzbow, know he makes the best noise and glitch pieces. Yes, this is a continuous form of avant-garde musical art. There are are a handful of artist, but this one, Merzbow must be mentioned. He is God of noise music afterall. Plus he was doing this stuff since 1979!Aube - He is a bit more merciful and gentle than Merzbow. Aube, on the other hand, tries to give us the sensation of alien landscape ambient sound via noise music. It's still noise, though.
Gerogerigegege - This act is both an ancient Noise god like Merzbow and an early avatar of Grindcore(Or Noisegrind as "they" love to call it). What else we want?
Hijokaidan - All I know about this band is that they use noise but love to keep it in the psychedelic realm. I will consider his work as avant-garde, because I never heard anyone else do live improvisation recording and making amazing psychedelic bad-trip like noise music.
Noism is a completely new band, fortunately, they didn't release that much to be known. But I got them, somehow. Their style is what we call Cybergrind(a fusion between industrial and grindcore), and they really got my attention; there are several other good Japanese Grindcore, but they are not on youtube, unfortunately. Really worth to listen if you are into grindcore(people of other kind hate this style, even some Metal Heads hate Grindcore, Technical and Brutal death metal).
Boris - Perhaps they are the heaviest Japanese Stoner, Sludge, Doom and Drone band, their musical structure are toned down, heavy and slow. In this particular piece, they are playing a kind of Stoner drone doom. In my opinion, they are the greatest metal band I have ever heard from Japan. Their American counterparts are Earth and Sunn O))).
Dot(.) - Not very well known. But I have to recognise them as a great Stoner Sludge doom band specifically from Japan(You don't see that many in Japan, now don't you?). American counterparts Bongripper and Electric Wizard or even the less known Indian(for its Doom style) can easily relate to this one.
Midori - Put a female vocalist in a Jazzcore group, and this is what you get. It's like Mike Patton with Naked City, except it's a girl who's singing. Avant-garde nonetheless.
Koenji Hyakkei - Speaking of Avant-garde, Zeuhl is one of those avant-garde musical movements. Koenji Hyakkei is one of the few who tried to use the Zeuhl style of music, and tried to revive it. It's a really good band, and really serves a template to Zeuhl music despite being from far East and late in time.
Les Rallizes Denudes - One of the oldest in the bunch, it's a psychedelic band all the way. Very heavy and dreamy at the same time. Streams of stoner rock is also brought in. This is one heck of a band I really admire. Thanks to this band's effort, it has spread the word of the fuzzy psychedelic(the strong utilizations of pedals and other sound altering instruments)trends to other groups that has spawned really great bands.
Acid Mothers Temple - Yes, one of the early and the most prominent space rock Japanese groups. With many amazing pieces that should be considered unique and avant-garde; their pieces range from the heavy gritty stoner improvs to dreamy electronic space ambient -- Japan should be proud of this family of musicians. Their western counterpart is the Brit-based Sphongle.
LSD March- The name is a very suggestive that this band is really a Psychedelic band. I first heard them from their collaborations with the band Bardo Pond(my super favourite band!) in LSD Pond lp. What can I say? They are very graceful in their music. They are not too heavy or too fast for your ears, but they still deliver their pieces very nicely. They also follow the shoegaze style. Some of their works are really heavy improvisations and innovative form of acid rock, specially drawn from works of Les Rallizes, but they still retain the spacey feeling of Krautrock and the evolved Psychedelic rock.
Suishou No Fune - Another psy band but very dreamy and cloud light amazing, taking the shoegazing to another dimension. Their music is really beautiful, very chill and calm, and long to keep the consistency of the pieces. One of the best Japanese psy-group, in my opinion. When you listen to them, you will really feel that you are having a nice trip! Really good, recommended for anyone!
Of course, there are more underground and avant-garde artist of different genres, styles and movements I haven't heard of. And you are, of course, allowed to post them up!
I am still struggling in finding good Classical and Jazz Avant-garde Japanese artist. Maybe you can help