There’s an underground scene in Japan filled with train sounds and PA systems. Field recordings used in music is nothing new and probably the most primitive form of sound art in history. But there’s a new scene in Japan using a particular type of outdoor sounds. The oto-tetsu scene (from the Japanese words oto meaning sound and tetsudō meaning railway) takes the sounds and ambience…
Asia Rising: The Next Generation Of Hip Hop is an exploration into the success of Asian hip hop artists over the past 3 years. It’s been a mighty long time since we did a Saturday Matinée film. This time around, our feature presentation is Asia Rising: The Next Generation Of Hip Hop. In conjunction with 88rising, Red Bull Music put the film together to showcase…
The Japanese duo return with a new collab project. Japan’s influence on hip hop should not go unmentioned. The nation gave us anime which has become synonymous with the genre’s lo-fi variant. Some of the greatest DJ’s were born there: DJ Kentaro, DJ Krush, The Silent Poets, and the late Nujabes. From the underground, Bugseed continues to reign supreme. His heavy style of boom bap…
This edition of Leftover Links is all about beats and videos. Leftover Links is back once again with some beats and videos from the past few months so enjoy! Beats Bugseed – Fresh Jive EP One of our favourite Japanese beatmakers, Bugseed, dropped a fresh beat tape called “Fresh Jive EP” on Bandcamp a few months ago. The EP was intended for the “hottest summer from…
78 minutes of Japanese jazz from the 70’s including rare groove, jazz fusion, drum breaks, and more. Magical Mystery Mix is back with the third volume of their 70s Japanese Jazz Mix. There isn’t a tracklist for this one but there are still some incredible jazz numbers from the Land of the Rising Sun. And the same diverse range of genres are covered: rare groove, jazz-funk, fusion, and…
This edition of Leftover Links is all about the rappers. We get so many submissions every day, it’s not possible to get to them all as and when they come through. That means we miss things and get to them late. A bit like when you’re stuck for something to eat and have nothing substantial in, you put together a mish-mash concoction. And then it…
We’ve compiled a special World Cup playlist with songs from every nation in the tournament. The advantage of having run this blog for 6 years is the countries we’ve covered in that time. We still have some gaps to fill but in the meantime, celebrate the tournament starting on Friday with our special World Cup playlist. It features music/artists from every nation so you won’t…
Chilled music to relax to – MMM compiled a “Beats from Japan” YouTube playlist featuring the likes of ILL.SUGI, DJ Mitsu the Beats, and Linn Mori. Magical Mystery Mix has put together a fine array of Japanese instrumental hip hop. The “Beats from Japan” playlist comprises of 24 tracks spread over an hour of beats, showcasing Japan’s prolific underground scene. We’ve been fans of Japanese…
Orlando’s BYSON takes us shopping in Japan with konbini. We featured BYSON a few months ago with his album, refresh, and now he is back with something new. “konbini” is a collection of Japanese-themed beats. The tape opens with sounds of supermarket shuffling and meanders into a piano-drum loop. The rest is a journey through Japan’s array of sounds and genres. I find myself swaying…
A whole hour of Japanese jazz from the 70’s including rare groove, jazz fusion, drum breaks, and more. Samplefiends rejoice! Magical Mystery Mix have uploaded the second volume of their 70s Japanese Jazz Mix on YouTube and it’s a stonker. There are only 10 tracks on this but each one is packed with jazz goodness from a great transition period in jazz. What’s more, it comes from…
