Though far from gaming’s most cherished soundtrack, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne isn’t one that should be ignored. However, that just might be exactly the problem. In a genre reigned by the compositional genius and thematic excellence of masterminds such as Nobuo Uematsu, the soundtrack’s possibly most unfortunate circumstance is that it belongs to a JRPG. […]

Sawa isn’t like most Japanese electropop idols. Instead of swimming in cutesy appeal and gaudy theatrics, she likes to go snapping pictures of ghosts in haunted mansions and go golfing with giraffes. She wore a ducky neck pillow on her head in one photo. She’s a little bit more Kyary than she is Perfume, living […]

Now here’s a love-or-hate album. As if cutesy, energized Japanese electro-pop (ala Perfume and Capsule) wasn’t love-or-hate enough, Super Miracle Circuit is, kind of like that Xzibit meme, something that’s loved or hated in a genre that is itself, well, loved or hated (yo dawg..) All of this amounts to what’s invariably a niche listen, […]

Achieving true filth is no small feat. Oftentimes, attempts at conveying a particularly vile subjects come across as cartoonish, and getting your audience to take you seriously while eschewing the tongue-in-cheek and ironic factor requires a certain amount of tastefulness. It’s also somewhat of a prerequisite for metal acts to wield some amount of dark […]