Music from Japan

“Joe Fujinoki centered the compositions of his latest album Glass Torso around the idea of the fragility of the human body. Fujinoki described the narrative thread of the album as that of “holding the shape of a human body as if it might shatter like…

Why did so many of the world’s most forward-thinking musicians gravitate toward Conny Plank’s studio at that time? Released in 1981, Phew was recorded at the legendary Conny’s Studio—home to seminal works by Kraftwerk, Neu!, D.A.F., and Brian Eno—fea…

Taco weaponise the very idea of “tako” - octopus, kite, bunion, drunk, bald head - into a mutating post‑punk organism, a rotating guerrilla cell whose songs behave like incidents rather than compositions.

On Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, Ground Zero - under the ferociously precise direction of Otomo Yoshihide - detonates a cut‑and‑splice orchestra where free improv, noise, opera and plunderphonics collide with undimmed urgency.

All music composed and produced by Takahiro MukaiMastered by minereedCover Art by chereshenkaa

Double Beat Sequencer Vol.2 continues Merzbow’s deep dive into a particularly vicious corner of his archive: mid‑2010s sessions built around a relentless “double beat” framework, then buried under signature torrents of noise. Where Vol.1 sketched the…

Double Beat Sequencer Vol.1 finds Merzbow threading a hard, skeletal pulse through the heart of his noise, treating rhythm less as a scaffold for genre than as another engine of excess. Across these tracks, fixed and cycling beats - the “double” sequ…

On Daguri, Kosuke Mine Quintet channel early‑70s Coltrane fire into a distinctly Japanese voice, fusing spiritual intensity, modal lyricism and subtle exotic color into a taut, forward‑rushing statement that stands among Mine’s finest recordings.

Kenichiro Isoda, known for his work on "Oscilation Circuit - Serie Reflexion 1", has selected some of his best tracks from the Apollon label's 90's masterpieces and re-recorded them with a modern approach to create a superb Japanese ambient/new age a…

Les Rallizes Dénudés returns with Disque 4 -’76 Studio et Live-, the latest in the ongoing series of official archival releases from the celebrated Japanese underground band.

Wewantsounds is delighted to continue its extensive reissue program of Meiko Kaji's early discography, originally released by Teichiku Records in Japan between 1972 and 1974. The Quentin Tarantino muse—famous for her starring roles in Lady Snowblood …

Somewhere between 1967 and 1968, at the very nerve of the psychedelic era, Japanese singer and composer Harumi recorded in New York an album that today sounds like a lost manifesto of cosmopolitan psychedelic pop. Harumi is a rare example of delicate…

Tokyo playwright, director and artist J.A. Caesar sprang to prominence in the early '70s largely through his work with Shuji Terayama's Tenjo Sajiki Theatre, specializing in vaguely sinister music reminiscent of a Hammer House Of Horrors soundtrack. …

When you’re creating something loosely referred to as “art” with another person, you’re mining the depths of minds and experience, searching connections with pasts, each of us producing from a different place. Communication exists as unspoken and sim…

TripleAkuma is the third in a series of essential live documents from Merzbow. The stage and the studio are not the same place, and Merzbow has an acute understanding of this juxtaposition. Whilst the sheer density of the music might be maintained ac…

Akio Suzuki has always been an artist in search of unexpected sound, and curiosity has been his guiding principle. Whether that be curiosity for objects, spaces or places, his work has been guided by a porousness and pliability which has allowed him …

Formed in Japan after the collapse of the noisy, SPK-ish White Hospital — the other half of which, Jun Konagaya, went on to continue as Grim — Vasilisk consisted of Tomo Kuwabara and Yukio Nagoshi, with other members (including longtime fixture of th…

Re-issue of industrial music's 'holy grail', released back in 1984 on Eskimo Records. Not much is known about this obscure Japanese band, White Hospital are a duo, Jun Konagaya of Grim and Tomo Kuwahara of Vasilisk. In the early 80s Jun formed White …

*2026 repress* Celebrated composer Akira Ifukube's formidable score for the legendary monster film, 'Godzilla,' continues to resonate nearly seven decades after its debut. Renowned for its groundbreaking blend of dark and evocative music, Ifukube's v…

On Scenery, Ryo Fukui turns a late‑start passion into a quietly astonishing debut: airy, confident trio swing and luminous ballads that distil a distinctly Hokkaido sense of space, light and seasonal melancholy into six perfectly breathing performanc…