Monthly Listening: September 2023
This month's round-up of great new Japanese releases from Ohzora Kimishima, rirugiliyangugili, Yuka Nagase and more
Hi! This is September’s Monthly Listening list, a quick rundown of new Japanese albums I checked out this month that I enjoyed. You can browse past Monthly Listenings in the archives.
This Side of Japan is finally back this month, and I actually did some outside writing too: I reviewed the new CHAI album for Pitchfork! You can read the review here. Nante Japan also just posted the part 2 of their July podcast with me, where we talked about a few news pegs, plus I got to share about my mid-year favorites. You can listen to the episode here. Other than that, my summer J-dramas have come to a close, and it felt bittersweet to say farewell in particular to the asadora, Ranman, that had occupied my time for the past 6 months. I’m still reeling from the final episode that just aired this past Friday as I type this, and the Aimyon song for the series just gets more tear-jerking for me.
Well, enough about me. Here are the new releases that I enjoyed during this month. And here is a playlist of my top 40 singles from September. Happy listening!
YOLO by ASOBOiSM
R&B | ► “hug me”
Innovation EP by Blooming Bungei
indie rock | ► “Plan-ted Forest”
Incurable Disease in the Hell of Hunger by Hostile Eyes
death metal | ► “Incurable Disease”
UNI by Monari Wakita
pop / nu city pop | ► “UNI”
no public sounds by Ohzora Kimishima
| ► “c r a z y”
^fuun^ EP b Oyubi
techno | ► “Road Crawla”
YANGU by rirugiliyangugili
rap | ► “PUKE”
Unknown Things by RYOKO2000
house / IDM | ► “Telecomm”
focus by SetagayaGenico
indie rock | ► “is a short break”
y2k forever EP by yandere
trance / breakcore | ► “y2k forever”
Launchvox by Yuka Nagase
electronic / pop | ► “Chikakute, Tookute”
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Thanks for linking to the review of Chai's new album. Just saw them for the first time in Los Angeles on Friday and it was a really fun! They started with a lot of stuff on the new album and it felt somewhat distinct from their older stuff but still fit with the overall good vibes of the show. I was a little skeptical of Neo Kawaii, K when I first heard it, but it was a real highlight of the show in my opinion...the energy and enthusiasm in the performance was so much fun.
Thanks for the great review and round up of new music!