Monthly Listening: September 2023
Discover more from This Side of Japan
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”
This Side of Japan has a Ko-Fi as a tip jar if you want to show appreciation. A subscription to This Side of Japan is free, and you don’t have to pay money to access any published content. I appreciate any form of support, but if you want to, you can buy a Coffee to show thanks.
Next issue of This Side of Japan is out later in October 11. You can check out previous issues of the newsletter here.
Need to contact? You can find me on Twitter or reach me at thissideofjapan@gmail.com
Monthly Listening: September 2023
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!