JGoth.com :: Japan Goth and Industrial Music

Surprisingly, a positive story about Japan’s king of Eikaiwa (English conversation companies). Ginganet, the online English-learning service looks to be getting rid of the dedicated lease line and piggybacking on Yahoo! Japan broadband service. Note that this newsy is served up to show that I don’t just lambaste this company, but actually pay close attention to it. Just search for Nova in the box on the right to see some of my fire and vitriol!

About freaking time too. Ginganet was originally plugged as a service for online learning, but later devolved into “we run out of ideas, so we’ll plug it as a way for grandparents to connect with their grandkids” model. You know there is trouble when ads pretty much throw out the original purpose and just try selling it to old folk. The new sales model, however, would make a lot of sense as it is very easy to get an add-on to your Yahoo! BB connection and save the hassle for a seperate lease-line. I couldn’t be bothered reading details, but I think you still have to get the video conferencing unit, but it goes through the BB connection.

The company’s stock bumped up today on the news, but whether it comes into full fruition (and actually gets taken up by punters) is another question. A good idea with logic behind it.

The last big hitter for this company was a mutant pink rodent with a bird beak – which totally defied logic to become a key generator of income for a couple of years. This was followed by two talking pieces of wood – which followed logic and failed… miserably.

[Goth and more] Harshrealm’s first CD album release party – Awesome! Harshrealm has a great gritty industrial and post-mode-esque soundscape and have been doing overtime to bring it all together for the Veronica.09 release. Not being a regular follower of the Fukuoka scene, I cannot make any comment on the other bands, but Harshrealm will ensure at least on set will grab your attention!

Full Details!

While the Europeans are enjoying their hot blood workout with Aural Vampire, Tokyo will be lit up with three events spanning noise-alternative, alt-indy rock and Goth DJ styles.

Friday 16 February
Utero ZZZAAA and Xenophobia @ Chop

[Trash-noize industrial, alternative rock and other stuff] Definitely worth checking out for some extreme aural assault from Kansai’s Utero ZZZAAA. Xenophobia is also worth a look-see – I only have an old demo, so want to see what some over-sized amps can do to the sound! The other bands are beyond my small realm of knowledge, but it looks fun.

Saturday 17 February
Gadget. in Orgasm #69 @ Yotsuya Outbreak

[Alt-rock] A general event made special with the appearance of Gadget. Gadget have a sexy retro-funked out rock style going on and have done a number of Tokyo Dark Castle events. Definitely a band worth checking out. Also, if you are looking for doses of alternative rock it could be worth checking out the Orgasm schedule for some variety.

Saturday 17 February (Overnight!)
Club Walpurgis – St. Valentine’s Death @ Aoi Heya, Shibuya

[Goth/80’s – Live & DJ] Club Walpurgis began as a Goth/Punk club in the 1980’s and became a kind of underground mecha 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 electroclash. Club Walpurgis plays every third Saturday of the month.

Hot damn! [sin:kwai] #2 is going all out with dark synthpop from Aural Vampire, moody Goth rock from JPT, macabre theater Rose de Reficul et Guiggles and surrealist experimental from Autopsy Report of Drowned Shrimp. All this hooked together by [sin:kwai]’s organizer, DJ Elmina. This is the kind of event that I expect from Kansai. Go wild.

Full details for [sin:kwai]

Twisted Clock/Calmando Qual might have origins in the VK scene, but have Goth creds with numerous Tokyo Dark Castles under their belt. Of course the Europeans know more about this band than me so you probably already have the dates written down somewhere. You probably know a fair amount of Baal too – I sure know them. They blew my headlights out back in 2005 and Mikito is still driving the nails deep with his sound concoctions (he’s also lucky to have U-tarou’s femme-screamo and Chihiro’s beats backing the whole soundscape). Sisen, the hottest cyber-goth DJ from Tokyo, will also be on hand to add some spice – Ah, just seeing Sisen brings a spot of brightness to the dark side of my soul, and the DJing is delicious.

The tour comes in two parts – first the solo attack from Twisted Clock, then a frenzied triple-punch with Baal and Sisen. Sounds good.

Twisted Clock (Calmando Qual)
09 March – UTRECHT Tivoli de Helling (The Netherlands)
10 March – BARCELONA Sala Salamandra (Spain)
11 March – MADRID Sala Chesterfield (Spain)
13 March – STUTTGART Rohre
Live: Twisted Clock – ex. Calmando Qual (info)

Asian Industrial Invasion
16 March – BERLIN K 17 (Germany)
17 March – CHEMNITZ Talschock (Germany)
18 March – KOLN Undergroun (Germany)
Live: Baal (info) and Twisted Clock – ex. Calmando Qual (info).
DJ’s: Sisen/Violet (info)

[DJ Gothing – DRESS CODE IN FORCE] Lurch… The Goths are finally waking up in Osaka-land. This is brought to you by senior Goth Taiki (aka D-grimore), the fiend behind Dark Veil. Remember kids, strict dress code here, no casual, need a mask (it’s a masquerade don’t you know?).

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This is the regular monthly dose of Japanese Goth from JGoth.com.

:: Monthly Blah ::

The shoulders have been acting up again so I cannot type much at all for this scream – sue me.

:: January stuff ::

Last month was pretty good for Tokyo with TDC, Mechanical Slaves, Midnight Mess and other regular events getting their freak on. Nagoya scored well (by Nagoyan standards) and I am detecting more life for old Toyota-land in the months ahead. If you haven’t checked them already I got a few pics from Mechanical Slaves with Morgue here. And here’s a viddy of Morgue. And here’s some pixies from Psydoll

:: Big news ::

:: Aural Vampire and Sins of the Flesh in Germany ::
AV from Tokyo and SOTF from Osaka/UK hit Germany and the Netherlands. Check the event info below for more details.

:: Sins of the Flesh CD release ::
Yes, after 16 years, including several years of hard work in Japan, SOTF are set to release a new CD with the tour.

:: JGoth discounts for Midnight Mess ::
If you forget to book, have a couple of extra friends, or you are one of those folk that don’t book then just tell the front desk that you are on the “JGoth” list and you will get the pre-book discount rate (500 yen discount!).
Midnight Mess homepage.
Mess event info.

:: Morgue invades the Castle ::
When I first saw Morgue I liked them a lot. Morgue is one helluva hard-hitting heavy rock unit that demands your attention. The band can do pretty much any style of power underground event and do it well. And now Morgue is prepping to do TDC. You will be hearing more from this band during 2007.

:: Eventing in February ::

There are over 20 events up so far with a couple more due to be official-like in early February. Tokyo is looking very tasty with lots of Goth or Goth-esque events. Osaka has two, but they are definite must-see events. There are also some good-looking events for Nagoya, Kobe, Kyoto and Fukuoka, plus a couple of bands doing European mini-tours!

:: Tokyo events ::

Sat. 3 February (double hot!)
Tokyo Dark Castle #26 @ Marz Shinjuku
A04, Statik and Maya in THE GATE @ J-Pop Shibuya

Sat. 10 February
Suicide Squad and Mamono @ Chop Ikebukuro

Sun. 11 February
Alamode Night 24 @ Studio Cube 326
— Now with 2 Bullet! —

Mon. 12 February
101A, Rowthe and Calmando Qual @ Chop, Ikebukuro

Fri. 16 February
Utero ZZZAAA and Xenophobia @ Chop, Ikebukuro

Sat. 17 February
Club Walpurgis @ Aoi Heya Shibuya
Gadget. in Orgasm #69 @ Yotsuya Outbreak

Thu. 22 February
Cry for the Moon @ Chop, Ikebukuro

Fri. 23 February
Zombie Lolita & Psydoll @ Head Power, Shinjuku
Cut the Crap “Revenge” @ Addict Ikebukuro

Sat. 24 February
Midnight Mess @ Marz Shinjuku
— Just say you are on the “JGoth list” for pre-book rates!
Twisted Clock (ex. Calmando Qual) @ Live Freak Shinjuku

Sun. 25 February
Club Inferno @ Bar Shifty Shibuya

:: Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Kobe and Fukuoka ::

Fri. 2 February
Sins of the Flesh @ Yaso KYOTO

Sun. 4 February
Sins of the Flesh in Dark Electr-o @ Otoya KOBE

Sun. 11 February
Vampire Garden @ Club Neo OSAKA

Mon. 12 February
Psydoll & Bionic O.P. in Genetic Beast @ Music Farm NAGOYA

Sat. 24 February
Aural Vampire, JPT & Elmina in [sin:kwai] @ Sunhall OSAKA
Harshrealm Veronica.09 event @ Drum Logos FUKUOKA

:: International ::

Fri. Feb. 9 to Sun. Feb 11
Sins of the Flesh and Aural Vampire in Germany & The Netherlands
Aural Vampire solo nights in Germany

My apologies for not getting more scream out this month, but you can find all events listed here

:: Other Stuff ::

:: Unnerbuss 13 Viddy
:: Sins of the Flesh returns :: Album and Tour in Japan & Germany
:: Family members falling apart :: Macabre update…
:: Another torso found… Is this a new trend?
:: Ibaraki torso no longer legless
:: “Rendition” torture victim to receive C$10.5 million compensation

That is all from chaos central.

:: Igor
:: Web slave and everything else…
:: JGoth.com Japan Gothic News & Events
:: http://www.jgoth.com/

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[Cyber-Alt Rock] While Nagoya doesn’t have a regular bevy of Goth-poi events the alternative scene has been growing over the past couple of years. Genetic Beast will deliver with local dance-industrial outfit, Bionic O.P., and Tokyo’s cybernetic unit, Psydoll.

I have not had a chance to scour the Web for information on the other three bands, but Psydoll and Bionic O.P. are hot enough to get you through the night. Remember Nagoyans, the more you go, the more they will show! If you want to book with Psydoll (English is no problem), remember to do so at least a couple of days before as they will need to travel from Tokyo.

More details

A seriously hot weekend awaits night crawling Tokyo folk

SATURDAY :: Suicide Squad and Mamono in 白塗会～池袋大抗亁E@ Chop

[Raucous alt rock and core music] I have seen Mamono and Suicide Squad at Agent Murder nights and they freaking rock. Mamono are kind of like abandoned androids who rip shit up… and have a rabid femme/fan base who MOSH at the more excitable nights. Suicide Squad likewise rip shit up with some hard, speedball rock. Red Cat also looks worth checking out.

More details

SUNDAY :: Alamode Night @ Sudio Cube 326

[Gothic Lolita/Goth Live & DJ] Alamode Night is a popular event that is a kind of fusion of the light and dark side – kinda like a Goth-Loli with a teddy bear in one hand and a battle-axe in the other.

There is lots going on here and I’ll just stick to the ones I know and like:
DJs (A04 and Sisen among others), Shows (Rose de Reficul et Guiggles), Dancers, Live (Blood), Exhibitions, etc., etc.

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MONDAY :: 101A, Rowthe and Calmando Qual @ Chop

[Alternative rock, heavy spiritual and Gothy] Three bands worth catching together. BTW – Calmando Qual have changed their name to Twisted Clock.

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A big reminder to the Europeans who visit this place… Aural Vampire and Sins of the Flesh are doing a few shows in your neck of the woods. Check out my Return of the Flesh piece about the tour and new album. If you do go… tell everyone IGOR sent you (pretty please…). Dates are below…

Sins of the Flesh (JP), Aural Vampire (JP) and The Pussybats (D):
09 February – UTRECHT Tivoli de Helling (NL) 19:00/19:30
10 February – COLOGNE Underground (D) 19:30/20:00
11 February – NORDHORN Scheune (D)
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Aural Vampire (JP)
14 February – Bremen :: Club Moments
15 February – Berlin :: K 17
16 February – Munster :: Luna Bar
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