JAPAN RISING RETURNS TO THE GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL THIS MAY – TAFFY, MOUMOON, PASSEPIED AND YOSI HORIKAWA

Every summer The Great Escape Festival brings the freshest in new music talents to the (sometimes) sunny shores of Brighton, and 2015 is certainly no different.

The Foundation for Promotion of Music Industry and Culture (PROMIC) have joined up with Japan Underground to showcase four of Japan’s hottest up and comers, taffy, PASSEPIED, moumoon and Yosi Horikawa, who will make up this year’s JAPAN RISING portion of the festival on Saturday May 16th at the Queens Hotel. Also, free sushi!

Taking inflences from British alternative music from 1980s to the late 90s, Tokyo based four piece taffy have been described as art-punk (247magazine) , shoegaze (Buzz), 90’s Britpop revival (NME), highly addictive (DiS) and so on. With three albums and four national UK headline tours under their belt, taffy have become one of the most sought after Japanese bands in Britain.

Raised with classical music, YUKA and MASAKI met at a rock festival some ten years ago and shortly after created moumoon. Pop group by name, this duo covers various types of music from alternative rock to folk and indie rock. Their dynamic melodies designed by MASAKI are brought to life with YUKA’s lyrics and vocals which bring scenery and story to each song. Recently, they have been holding live international performances in an attempt to showcase Japan’s high quality pop songs to the rest of the world.

 

Since forming in 2009, PASSEPIED have become a sensation in the Japanese music scene. Named after a composition by French composer Claude Debussy, their unique music style, crafted by keyboardist and founder Narita Haneda, lead them to being named by iTunes Japan as one of their ‘Breakthrough artists of 2013’ and selling out every show of their nationwide tour in 2013.

Producer Yosi Horikawa is a master of sound, incorporating nature into each of his tracks to create an exciting musique concrete version of electro beat. He recently performed at a number of top international festivals including Sonar, Mutek, Glastonbury and more.

For more information on TGE 2015 including ticket prices, head over to GreatEscapeFestival.com. While we wait, here’s PASSEPIED’s latest video for their new single ‘TOKINOWA’ out April 29th.

As well as their appearance at TGE, moumoon and PASSEPIED will be joining Japan Underground in London on Wednesday May 13th for a pre-festival warm up performance at The Pipeline. Click here for more details.