EMNW interview: Meet the Japanese nu-metal duo already selling out London and Tokyo
EMNW throw nu-metal and rap metal together with punk, ska, and hip-hop, with Emma and Menu trading verses...
Charles Shepherd
Masayoshi Takanaka live at City Pop Waves: Japan’s golden era claims its biggest UK stage yet
The queue said it all. Gates at Crystal Palace Bowl weren’t until 4pm, yet by midday a line...
Yuki Chiba live in London: Giving a hit-hungry crowd more than they came for
Yuki Chiba’s first European headline show under his own name doubled as his first time on a London...
MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN has built the stage. Now it needs to make the Ruby matter
MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2026 opened on a girl and a cassette marked “PLAY ME”, her escape whenever the...
What the Grammys’ new Asian pop award means for J-pop
A new Grammy category explicitly names J-pop alongside K-pop and C-pop, the first time the genre has been...
Z CLEAR interview: The band bringing Hiroshima spirit to Tokyo’s visual kei scene
Visual kei band Z CLEAR call their music “Buchi ROCK”, after the Hiroshima dialect word for “extremely”. The...
EMNW live at The Great Escape: J-pop-schooled nu-metal backed by loud music heavyweights
There’s a certain comedy to walking past a seafront zip line on a grey Brighton afternoon and ducking...
Paledusk and Knosis live in London: Two of Japan’s loudest exports tear up The Dome
Paledusk’s last London appearance was at The O2, opening for ONE OK ROCK in front of thousands. Seven...
How HALCALI’s 2003 album cut ‘Otsukare SUMMER’ became a MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN contender
In April 2025, daily Spotify plays of a 22-year-old Japanese album track started climbing. The song was ‘Otsukare...
SatapanP interview: “I want to sing music that goes beyond what Vocaloid can do”
Tokyo-based Vocaloid producer SatapanP titles his songs with elongated vowels and glitched characters, writes tracks that lurch between...
