Modern Japan scene?

[Stipsi]

Entartun - S/T CD, collaboration project with one half being Yasuhito Fujinami. Really good and overlooked CD.

He has been inactive for the last 6 years though which is a shame because what I've heard was quite good. I've also heard a long collaboration track he did with Luke Holland (if I'm not mistake it was the same guy) that was great, but no idea whether that will ever be heard by anyone else at this point as it was years ago.

Collaboration with scatmother.
Great one!

[tisbor]

Try to follow whatever gigs are happening at Ochiai Soup in Tokyo and get some names from there.
Thinking about newer artists a duo I discovered in the last few years is Wolf Creek. Pretty good Incapacitants-like dynamics.

[cr]

Yes, Wolf Creek I also like a lot!

Another quite good recent record, I think from 2019, was from Izumi Kawasaki - Moromi.

[junkyardshaman]

Very much alive, especially Kansai but of course Tokyo also, although it is much more modular synths and stuff like that over there I think. Labels to check out Advaita Records, La Muro Mia Muro, Remodel, Three Plugs Records. I made a longer topic on Kansai on the other forum but I just copypaste the names here;
Juri Suzue (cut up and noise)
Kurumi Kadoya (harsh noise)
din-i-lahi (harsh noise with metal junk)
KK Manga (loud noise band, intense and awesome every time)
Weiches Loch (metal percussion group that I also used to be in. Also almost every member of this group does lots of other stuff too so it might be a good rabbit hole to fall into)
Hako (experimental with wide range, lots of acoustic instruments and voice also)
Banetoriko (self-made springjunk, noisy dark ambient feel)
Mitei Narico (lots of effects, harsh noise)
Kayu Nakada (noisy circuit bending monster sculpture noise)
Kazue Asano (lots of self-built semiacoustic instruments, maybe more experimental)
Sun Sun Town (saddly not active now, but a great noise band with metal percussion, vocals and harsh noise)
Statuszero (harsh noise with lo-fi junk)
Masayoshi Sakaguchi (modular synths, but I think among the best ones in terms of noise)
Path (guitar noise from Wakayama)
Makoto Kikuchi (guitar and theremin, usually quite drone feel)
Fuji Yuki (vocal drone)
Kozue Sugiura (noise with mostly self made things and home appliances, for example vacuum cleaner)
Masataka Nagano (LOTS of effects, instruments and junk, noise)
Suchirusu (ambient with sitar and synthesizers, also participates noisier projects)
Kinzoku Taiko & Sandersonia (metal percussion and violin duo from Kyoto)
BBVGC (harsh noise)
Kanda Oboo (bass and vocals duo)
Misancholy (beat based and noisy music)
Yonju Miyaoka & Sayozoku (various things)

the descriptions are quite limited and most of these people do plenty of other things too but this should get you started, I have other things to do also.

[junkyardshaman]

Also many shows and quite often, for example on Saturday we are putting up this one:
https://special-interests.net/forum/index.php?topic=13691.0

[junkyardshaman]

If any of you visit Osaka, highly recommend going to Forever Records above all, there is loads of noise and industrial records and rarities and Higashiseto has a lot of interesting stories about this scene and people in it.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Incredible info, thanks Junkyard! A lot to dig through here. I don't think I've heard of a single one of these artists personally.

[junkyardshaman]

I thought I am too close to the home with this one (literally), but what the hell

Sin Tamon 多門伸 is definitely one of the most important figures of the current Osaka scene. He is the label owner of La Muro Mia Muro, plays and leads Weiches Loch and plays solo noise as nulkvarcent. He arranges noise and industrial events in Osaka and helps out with other people's events also. Mostly everything he does revolves around metal sounds and metal percussion, lately in his solo shows he has been playing tapes with 4 track recordings of metal sounds.
He also recorded a 7" of sounds of crushing concrete and cast that in the case of solid concrete. If someone wants to buy them, there are some left, but the shipping costs will be twice the price of the record, hah. If there is serious interest, you can dm me though.
He built the metal percussion Genocide Organ used in Osaka and I must say that one of the biggest priviledge I have had in my life is to be able to witness his sheer determination and dedication this close. Really inspiring and I highly recommend checking out everything he puts out on the label.

[ritualabuser]

Merzbow is still going strong!

Indeed he is, I've always been more partial to Contagious Orgasm, despite his more experimental and more ambient approaches in the latter half. Merzbow never fails to deliver though! This is true! 👍

That's a project I have only half-heartedly looked into (unlike Merzbow, which I love).  Any recommendations on places to begin?

Contagious Orgasm - Confession Of Mannequin is quite great, definitely sounds more industrial sounding more so than what he does today, a lot of the earlier Contagious Orgasm stuff has a really experimental industrial sound amongst other strange sounds too and a lot of those early outputs were re-released on CD by Industrial Recollections. I believe they are out of print now, but I'm sure you can hear them somewhere. For Hiroshi's more ambient experimental side, I'd say a good one to check out is The Flow Of Sound Without Parameter, that was part of that Ground Fault Recordings series and in my opinion it was the best one out that series and it has a really great ambient atmosphere throughout it. A lot Hiroshi's later stuff gets a lot more ambient, even more so maybe that The Flow Of Sound Without Parameter. Contagious Orgasm is certainly a unique project that truly deserves a lot more praise.

Thanks!

The "Corporal" comp on Industrial Recollections is very good as well, though I'm not familiar with much other than the Atrax Morgue split.

[Cranial Blast]

Merzbow is still going strong!

Indeed he is, I've always been more partial to Contagious Orgasm, despite his more experimental and more ambient approaches in the latter half. Merzbow never fails to deliver though! This is true! 👍

That's a project I have only half-heartedly looked into (unlike Merzbow, which I love).  Any recommendations on places to begin?

Contagious Orgasm - Confession Of Mannequin is quite great, definitely sounds more industrial sounding more so than what he does today, a lot of the earlier Contagious Orgasm stuff has a really experimental industrial sound amongst other strange sounds too and a lot of those early outputs were re-released on CD by Industrial Recollections. I believe they are out of print now, but I'm sure you can hear them somewhere. For Hiroshi's more ambient experimental side, I'd say a good one to check out is The Flow Of Sound Without Parameter, that was part of that Ground Fault Recordings series and in my opinion it was the best one out that series and it has a really great ambient atmosphere throughout it. A lot Hiroshi's later stuff gets a lot more ambient, even more so maybe that The Flow Of Sound Without Parameter. Contagious Orgasm is certainly a unique project that truly deserves a lot more praise.

Thanks!

The "Corporal" comp on Industrial Recollections is very good as well, though I'm not familiar with much other than the Atrax Morgue split.

Yeah, for sure! All of that early Contagious Orgasm stuff that was properly reissued on Industrial Recollections is certainly worth looking into. I can't think of another artist quite as unique in approach, maybe Aube would be a comparable artist in regards to uniqueness in sound for the genre.

[Selfish6]

The kids love noise over there these days! I went to a 2 day fest outside of Nagoya in this condemned building and saw a handful of under 21 noise artists. The youth scene there definitely seems less locked into one genre. Its pretty typical to have a noise/PE artist playing a bill with a screamo band, soundcloud rapper, drum n bass/breakcore dj, goregrind band, etc... Look into the label(?) Evilspa, they put on a yearly festival that showcases all this stuff. I think the two biggest artists from this scene right now are Moreru and BBBBBBB (although neither are pure noise). Blackphone 666 is also great, they seem to be some sort of bridge between the older and younger scene.

[Balor/SS1535]

Merzbow is still going strong!

Indeed he is, I've always been more partial to Contagious Orgasm, despite his more experimental and more ambient approaches in the latter half. Merzbow never fails to deliver though! This is true! 👍

That's a project I have only half-heartedly looked into (unlike Merzbow, which I love).  Any recommendations on places to begin?

Contagious Orgasm - Confession Of Mannequin is quite great, definitely sounds more industrial sounding more so than what he does today, a lot of the earlier Contagious Orgasm stuff has a really experimental industrial sound amongst other strange sounds too and a lot of those early outputs were re-released on CD by Industrial Recollections. I believe they are out of print now, but I'm sure you can hear them somewhere. For Hiroshi's more ambient experimental side, I'd say a good one to check out is The Flow Of Sound Without Parameter, that was part of that Ground Fault Recordings series and in my opinion it was the best one out that series and it has a really great ambient atmosphere throughout it. A lot Hiroshi's later stuff gets a lot more ambient, even more so maybe that The Flow Of Sound Without Parameter. Contagious Orgasm is certainly a unique project that truly deserves a lot more praise.

Thanks!

The "Corporal" comp on Industrial Recollections is very good as well, though I'm not familiar with much other than the Atrax Morgue split.

Also thanks!