Molmott – Park
22nd July, 2007 by Chewbacca
Molmott, a four-piece rock band from the Mie Prefecture, Japan started way back when in 1997, before finally deciding on their name in 1999. They aren’t a particularly big band, unlike some of my previous Japanese presentations, and in fact, I found them completely by accident, whilst searching for “Monoral” – a result came up with “Monoral Wonderland”, the name of their latest 2004 album. Unfortunately since then, nothing else has been released, and according to the Japanese Wikipedia article, they are considered inactive. This track, taken from the album, is called “Park”:
- Official Website (mostly Japanese)
- Buy the album on YesAsia.com
Saddled up and sanctified, GET9! Time for some super-poppy, rocky, hip-hoppy (*snerk*) music from Japan to get you movin’ and possibly, groovin’! GET9 is yet another product of Yoko Kanno’s Stand Alone Complex soundtrack, but it doesn’t need to be considered as only part of a compilation – it’s a tune that’ll hopefully get you jumping and feeling good. Take a listen to, “GET9″ by “Jillmax”:
This isn’t a first appearance for Steve on Something Chewie – he’s not that long ago featured with his brother under 
It’s somewhat unorthodox to post music from a game soundtrack, but then again, this weblog’s here to help you find new and interesting tracks – I don’t think it really matters where it comes from! Jun Senoue is a Japanese video game composer who has worked with the Sonic series since Sonic the Hedgehog 3. For the later entries in the games, Jun turned up the rock as the music when from bleeps to full audio streams. This particular track I’m very fond of – “Snowy Mountain” starts off very atmospherically, and gradually brings out the rock. It was definitely a really cool soundtrack for the fast-paced “Sonic Adventure” game:
AKFG are a popular Japanese rock band from Kanagawa who formed in 1996. They have quite a number of western fans because of their earlier songs being recorded in English – having songs in English is a somewhat respectable trait for Japanese bands. They’ve gone from strength to strength and now have four major studio albums in their repertoire. This track is taken from their 2004 album “Sol-fa”, and is called “Loop & Loop”:
Oh come on now, of course I couldn’t resist to post this today. And yes, actually this one was saved. I was going to post it a few days back, and me being me – had to post the track “Tuesday” on the next possible Tuesday. You don’t know how hard it has been resist the urge to post this track – because I absolutely love it! Monoral are a Japanese two-man band of Anis and Ali, with lots of jumpy rocking tunes. “Tuesday” is from their upcoming album “Turbulence” which is released on 4th July. They shot to international fame when their song Kiri was used for the anime series Ergo Proxy. And that’s an awesome song too, but I’m giving you “Tuesday” this time (for now!):
Yorico (or Takano Yoriko) is a Japanese singer, famously known for singing theme tunes to Speed Grapher and Black Cat. One thing I love about her “life story” is how when her family first got a NES, she used to love listening to the Super Mario Bros theme tune. That’s some awesome music taste there, you gotta admit! If you can get your way through the Japanese (or even better, if you can read Japanese) you must check out her 
Ayaka Hirahara took centre stage in 2004 when she released “Jupiter”, a song with melody based on Gustav Holst’s The Planet Suite – and unsurprisingly, the Jupiter section in particular! It became one of the most top selling singles of 2004, and now she is now a famous Japanese pop singer with five albums under her belt, all of which have reached the top 10. Last year she performed the ending song to the game “ÅŒkami” which follows a god wolf and retells many of Japanese myths and legends. “Reset” plays once you finally complete the end boss, a trial I can proudly say I have completed! The soundtrack to the game is a massive beast – over 200 songs in five and a half hours over 5 discs – it’s quite detailed!
There is something about this song that I just love. It has a very post-rock feel to it, that’ll remind you of the likes of Explosions in the Sky, but it goes deeper than that. This is the from the anime series Death Note, an intriguing show of investigations mixed with a heavy dose of the supernatural and lots of clever mind games. The entire soundtrack has the same kind of feel – it fits really well with the series, but even on it’s own its good music.
And just for a change, why don’t we lose all sense of upper case letters? meister (sic!) is a Japanese band who, to my recollection, only ever released two singles, and then went the way of the dodo. “above the clouds” and “My World Down” were both ending themes to the anime “Beck” about a group of Japanese teenagers who start a rock band – and the trials and tribulations of life that goes along with it. It’s a brilliant show, with some great music in it too. And this is one of them! Enjoy!