ListsJanuary 11, 20253,714 views

5 Albums to Introduce You to Japanese Underground Music

The contemporary underground scene of Japan still remains a leader in the charge on the ever-changing digital and physical landscape of music.

Concert at Shibuya Eggman 2016

Natty Gray
By Natty Gray Watson

Japan has long been celebrated for its rich history of forward thinking music and art, whether of 1,000 years ago or just the last handful of decades. From the highly influential Japanese noise scene and coveted avant-garde jazz music that burgeoned in the 1970s and 1980s, to the renowned ambient records and punishing death metal bands born of the 1990s. Japan’s influence and imprint has long since escaped its archipelago in our hyper globalized world, and now more than ever it is hard to find anything that hasn’t been touched by Japan’s culture in one fashion or another.

Japan’s innovation and creativity doesn’t lie solely in its past, however. To this day, the contemporary music scene of Japan still remains a leader in the charge on the ever-changing digital and physical landscape that all musicians and artists have to navigate. Ever pioneering and experimenting, ever assimilating and reinventing, the country’s underground scenes are the backbones of these defining creative movements and the last decade has seen their international expansion, integration, and notoriety leap exponentially due to the use of social media video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

It’s no secret that Japan’s extreme music is among some of the best in the world, applauded for its proficiency, intensity, and originality, as well as, its dedication and commitment across its communities and fans. In a country as densely packed as Japan, underground scenes can be tucked around any corner of metropolitan areas, in clubs as likely to be literally underground as they are street level. Here can be found some of the best bands and sounds that modern metal and hardcore have to offer. If you’re ready to get familiar with Japan’s contemporary underground, here are five albums to introduce you.


Granule / Klonns Split - Granule Cover

Granule / Klonns - Split 7”

Granule are a hard band to categorize. Their material spans sludge metal and experimental noise to grinding hardcore, such as demonstrated on their side of the Split 7” with Japanese new wave, blackened hardcore band, Klonns. The Granule and Klonns split is violently distorted and swiftly moving. The word “unrelenting” is thrown around a lot, but this really is just an all around crushing, quick listen that completely pummels its audience. Having just recently released their debut LP Heaven with Iron Lung Records this past year, Klonns write a unique blend of infectious hardcore that is very dark sounding without losing the core elements of hardcore punk, and this split album features arguably their rawest sound to date.


Isolate ep

Isolate - ま​た​創​る​そ​の​時​の​た​め​に

Isolate have been one of the best bands to come out of the Japanese metal scene in the last few decades, playing a very distinct, hardcore tinged style of what would maybe be best described as post-black metal. Their sound is melancholic, epic, and all-encompassing, with a melodic twist comparable to contemporary screamo acts. ま​た​創​る​そ​の​時​の​た​め​に is a three-song EP released in their mid career, and probably their strongest material. The songwriting is exceptional, extremely elegant, and tasteful. Beautiful, atmospheric and reverberated moments are married with blast beats and haunting guitar leads while cried vocals exude a sense of dark desperation over the songs. 10/10.


Discipline Production compilation

DISCIPLINE PRODUCTION - We Need Some DISCIPLINE Here.

The We Need Some DISCIPLINE Here. compilation is an excellent start for those looking for an entry point into Japanese underground music. DISCIPLINE PRODUCTION are both an experimental label for Tokyo obscure artists as well as an event series that features mixed lineups of metal, hardcore, electronic, post punk, and even hip hop. A modern mishmash of DIY, youth music from one of the world’s most well known metropolises, featuring some of the best up and coming to keep an eye on (such as Granule and Klonns, for example, who we already touched on above). DISCIPLINE PRODUCTION’s one and only compilation (thus far) is sure to keep you on your toes with the greatest commonality between all the artists, besides their collaborative histories, being the subversive and fringe themes of the music styles they play.


Kazuma Kubota Sameta Ryouri

Kazuma Kubota - Sameta Ryouri

A sonic star of the modern Japanese noise scene, having collaborated with the likes of heavyweights Kazumoto Endo and Guilty Connector, Kazuma Kubota’s style of cut-up harsh noise is both cathartic and exhilarating, sentimental and painful, and at times, flavored with dark ambience for a truly satisfying, visceral listen. Sameta Ryouri comes out the gate swinging and is a complete heavy hitter of crushing electronics. Blistering and ever-changing, Kubota demonstrates the strengths of a new era of Japanese underground noise.


Endon Through the Mirror

Endon - Through the Mirror

Endon embodies a certain quintessential essence of Japanese underground music; the experimentation, the extremeness, the amalgamating, the assimilation - it makes it hard to not mention them. Their music is brutal, scathing, yet highly symphonic and artfully composed. Through the Mirror is in many ways their most traditional “metal” album with more conventional instrumentation and song compositions than their previous breakout album, Mama, and the slightly more unusual Boy Meets Girl LP that would follow after. That said, Through the Mirror is still a very out of the ordinary album. A blended soundtrack of modern extreme metal, harsh noise, and experimental delivered in the most appetizing way possible. An intense and satisfying listen.


6 comments

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anonymous 38 days ago

Endon rips

anonymous 38 days ago

Slang

anonymous 37 days ago

This reads like one of those articles on bandcamp. Bad picks bad list bad idea to begin with

anonymous 37 days ago

What kind of dumb ass name is Naddy Gray Watson? And to think you definitely have that name to yourself is ever worse

anonymous 37 days ago

I know a few of these bands and the ones I do slay. Good list, gonna check out the others. (Isolate rules, Endon is brain-shattering)

anonymous 31 days ago

"What kind of name" MTF self named