JGoth.com – Japan Goth Music

[Osaka DJ'd] Territory-D’s Midnight Necropolis is one of Osaka’s main event. It will be holding its Dark Summer Night event at Club Neo. The event will feature DJs from Osaka and Nagoya including event producer Taiki, Syarman, Bonzin and Doom Spider. It will be a grand night of industrial, electro, powernoise, dark trance and electro clash. The event will also include live painters and a special CD shop booth. (more…)

Neurotic Doll performing @ Urga in Shinjuku, Tokyo on Saturday, May 29.

Psydoll performing @ Urga in Shinjuku, Tokyo on Saturday, May 29.

Visit Psydoll

[Uber Goth-Industrial Live & DJ] Finally, the second half schedule for TDC. Tokyo Dark Castle (TDC) is the main event for the Gothic underground in Tokyo. Populated by the best-dressed Goths from all walks of life TDC delivers some of the best live acts and DJs in the scene. This makes TDC a must on any Goth agenda.

TDC have the second half’s event schedule for 2009 and rather than do a single post each time the event is set to roll.

Unless otherwise stated, TDC begins at 12 midnight Saturdays and goes through to the early morning (around 6 a.m.). Remember that as with all overnight events you need photo ID to enter. (more…)

[Goth - DJ’d] The only regular Goth event in Nagoya, Stigmatic takes place on the third Saturday of odd-numbered months this year. That means you better turn up to every event, or you are going to be piking for 60 days for the next industrial-EBM-alt outing in Toyota land!

Soundwise the event’s master, DoomSpider, is harsh EBM industrial Goth with flourishes of lighter sounds mixed in. He’ll be joined by VenoMoth (aka Sister Levi) doing femme-future and elektro-Goth, and riz-K with elektro-clash.

They usually have 25 mix CDs available for the first 25 to book.

To book you need to send the following information to staff[at]stimatic[dot]jp:

• Date of event you want to book
• Name
• Number of people
• Contact number

As always, remember your ID for all-night events. Organizers will never bend this rule for because it could mean a whole world of trouble if the cops visit.

Where: P.O.D. Nagoya
Address: 4F VOICE Bldg.1-23-1 Izumi Higashi-ku, Nagoya :: 1 minute North walk from exit 1-A of Hisayaodori Station (the 4th floor of the grey building)
Tel: 052-953-0393
Bookings: staff [at] stigmatic.jp
Open: 21:00
Price: 2,000 yen adv. :: 2,500 yen @ door.
DJs: DoomSpider, Venemoth, Riz-K

Event Schedule for Stigmatic in 2008:
January 17 (Sat)
March 21 (Sat)
May 16 (Sat)
July 18 (Sat)
September 19 (Sat)
November 21 (Sat)

More information

[Goth/80's - Live & DJ] Club Walpurgis is a quarterly Gothic event in Tokyo. Club Walpurgis began as a Goth/Punk club in the 1980′s and became a kind of underground mecca in its day. 18 years after the original club closed down Walpurgis returned as a regular event in 2005 with a heavy emphasis on 80′s alternative, glam, Gothic, industrial and electro clash. (more…)

Please excuse my newfound interest in blogvertising – it not only helps pay the bills (believe me I really need the dosh for something special), but is also fun to do! However, before you throw your hands in the air in Despair, please note I am just getting prepped to do some of the more regular blogging that you are looking for. First up there are the indy nights that will be updated for Clubs Chop and Urga and possibly a more Goth event or three to be included. Then there are the reviews – I just got a couple of CDs from the states that I will listen to closely and I’ll check my JGoth CD pile for good measure.

Cheers,

Igor

The Royal Dead (ex. Phantasmagoria) released this Maxi-single CD way back in 2005 (and there’s a new full album out now so this review is behind the times!). The Maxi-single CD contains five tracks, but it is more like a three-track single CD with a prologue and epilogue added in. It is a concept mini-album focusing the music and lyrics around the lycanthropy – the ability to change into a werewolf and such (no kidding, I hear you say). The prologue and epilogue are more short thematic refrains than songs in themselves. I noticed some glitched sounds in the epilogue, but apart from that this album is a crisply-recorded, dark, dancable piece of electronicka.

The three main tracks, Howling, Fortune and Lycanthrope feature prominently in DJ sets at Gothic Events in Japan reflecting their very dance-friendly up-tempo electronicka, violins and backed up by the divine vocals making for an enjoyable listening experience.

Track two, Howling, should be particularly familiar to anyone who has gone to a Goth event in Tokyo as it is the most often played of the tracks. The dancable synth melds with the siren-like vocals. Luna is another familiar track on the local Goth scene. It starts slowly, but ramps up with some strong ax-riffs before the vocals slide in harmoniously. Fortune gets less club play, perhaps due to its slow start with synth-keyboards – but drumbeats soon give the track’s tempo a kick. Once again the vocals give the track a nice eerily beautiful feel.

Overall this is a good example of dark synth-pop backed with some rocky guitar and violin work and held together by the beautiful yet despairing vocals. On the negative side I think the tiny little glitch-sounds (whether intended or not) on Epilogue were a little off-putting, but the real negative is that Lycanthrope is too short! I think there should have been at least five full-blown tracks (or a couple of remixes would have been great) to add to the listener’s experience. In final conclusion, yes I would buy it for the three main tracks alone, but I am much more excited by their new-released self-titled album with 10 tracks!

The Royal Dead/Phantasmagoria :: Lycanthrope :: Track Listing
01. Prologue (1:21)
02. Howling (4:17) – Sample
03. Luna (4:58) – Sample
04. Fortune (3:33) – Sample
05. Epilogue (1:22)
Total Tim: 15:31

I am not sure where you can pick up this MCD, but you can pick up the NEW 10-track CD from Music Non Stop! That is one I plan on getting some day soon…

This devastatingly heavy EBM release from Demonoid 13 (MySpace) comes to you professionally repackaged by the small, but quickly expanding, Deathwatch Asia label in Japan. The music comes across as hard, powerful dance tracks, which reflects the nature of lead man Fixer-D, a.k.a. DJ DoomSpider of Nagoya’s Stigmatic events. Aside from Fixer-D on vocals and programming the band includes Sister Levi (DJ VenoMoth) on synths and sonic waves and DxUxSx on metal and electro percussion.

The band’s mix of dark metal, and heavy grindcore is built around Fixer D’s own powerful demonic voice. Whether “whispering” or screaming, his voice powers through the soundscape with little difficulty. Despite the harshness of the sound, the last three tracks of the CD play really well for club events – Sinister Circle, Master of D and Satanic Panzer Unit – and can often be heard in the DJ’d sets at Goth events in Japan. The other two tracks, Reflected Lights and Hypocritical Souls and are more straight heavy EBM-industrial that you can enjoy blasting away anywhere you are!

Overall, the CD plays really well and is a fine example of the Japanese dark EBM, delivering a powerful mix of metal and electronicka with powerful vocals. The price for this CD is quite reasonable at 1,500 yen for 25 minutes of some great music.

Gate of Death :: Track List
1. Reflected Lights (4:58)
2. Hypocritical Souls (5:08)
3. Sinister Circle (4:55)
4. Master of-D (5:21)
5. Satanic Panzer Unit (4:47)
Total Time: 25:07

You can find a list of domestic and international distributors on DWA’s order information page.

Finally, you may want to check out the video sample:

[youtube lBfj8vbc1y8]

With the growing interest of Japanese Gothic music over the watered-down Visual Kei (which is still often mistaken as Japanese Goth), so too has the number and quality of Gothic music releases increased. Perhaps the best way to get into this exciting avenue of the Japanese underground scene is through omnibuses of leading artists in the scene.

Dark Waters, released in late 2006, does an admiral job of introducing the world to JGoth by featuring a compilation featuring 12 artists in Japan. The tracks run the gamut from harsh electro-industrial and EBM to death rock and hardcore industrial. This is the first time for all the songs to be on CD, with a number of purely new tracks and those that were only available in CD-R format at events.

The label, Deathwatch Asia, is based in Osaka and through connections in Tokyo and Nagoya has resulted in a nation-wide mix of artists. This ensures a healthy cross-section of Goth-industrial music from throughout Japan. This album is perfect for anybody seeking a broad view of the true Gothic scene in Japan.

The album starts with a hard industrial beats from 2 Bullet’s Drain People’s Blood (Cold War Remix). This is followed hard electronic industrial Satanic Panzer Unit (SOTF Remix). The third song is a very danceable remix of Agent Murder’s Ballet of the Unhatched Fools. Psycho Dream’s self-titled track mixes traditional sounds and beats with heavy guitar riffs all backed by the soft vocals of the lead singer. This is followed by the soft rock ballad of Satanyanko’s Little Abandoned Cat in the Dark (sadly this quickly maturing group broke up shortly after this recording), probably the best track on the album.

The next song on the menu was Jet Pepper Tower’s Nocturnal Cabaret, and this straight rock piece jagged against the other tracks on the CD. It would be great on a J-Rock compilation. The CD got back into order with the next track from Baal, a downright scary piece of cybernetic electronicka and industrial noise with a powerful femme voice leading the action. The next track was an ultra-heavy industrial grindcore of Despair’s Junk War (Riot Command Mix). This leads into an inspiring self-titled, heavy rock-industrial piece from Destruct System.

This was followed by the fine electro-Euro-friendly-beat Death Wish from Sins of the Flesh. The next track was a fun tongue-in-cheek electro-slash called Bad Movie Disco King from Aural Vampire. The CD finished with the electro-rock Future by Future from Speecies.

Being in Japan I have had access to a number of the songs on CD-R or seen the live versions, but the CD was still very fresh to listen to. There were a couple of tracks that I did not like, one that really should not have been on a Goth CD, but in general it was a great selection of tracks. On the technical side all the recordings were professional, crisp and clear.

The price is also amazing – just 1,500 yen in Japan, or 10 Euros for over 60 minutes of a very fresh music scene – making this a great item to get for someone into J-music styles or international Goth or if you are just looking for a new sound to love!

Dark Waters Track List
1. 2Bullet :: Drain People’s Blood (Cold War Remix) – 5.23
2. Demonoid 13 :: Satanic Panzer Unit (Sins Of The Flesh Remix) – 6.38
3. Agent Murder :: Ballet Of The Unhatched Fools (Re-Hatched) – 4.03
4. Psycho Dream :: Psycho Dream – 3.31
5. Satanyanko :: Little Abandoned Cat In The Dark – 3.48
6. Jet Pepper Tower :: Nocturnal Cabaret – 7.31
7. Baal :: On The Surface 2006 (Start The New Brutal) – 6.08
8. Despair :: Junk War (Riot Command Remix) – 3.07
9. Destruct System :: Destruct System – 3.44
10. Sins of the Flesh Death Wish (Mayan Sacrifice Mix) – 6.15
11. Aural Vampire :: Bad Movie Disco King – 5:18
12. Speecies :: Future By Future – 4.42
Total time: 60:17

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