Three Japanese female rockers who know how to write a melody!
I told you so many times by now – Japan has more fantastic all-female bands than you can shake a stick at. But who would want to shake a stick at an all-female band from Japan, right? Or from any country. Female or otherwise.
Crunch is a band from Nagoya consisting of singer Noriyo Hotta on guitar, Reina Kawagoe on bass and drummer Yoshiko Jinno. ‘We want to make song like Burt Bacharach’, they write on their website and indeed, they know how to write a friggin’ melody, something so many musicians today seem to consider below their dignity.
Crunch is melodic and has some real swing. They mention Radiohead and New Order among their influences but I seem to hear some African influences too. Some Tinariwen, some Youssou N’Dour perhaps, maybe some Rai music even.
Good news is that you can download most of their albums for free! Their 2014 album Futoshita Nichijyo No Koto, one of my fave releases of this year, can be purchased at iTunes. The song you just listened to, or maybe are listening to now, is called Simple Mind and downloadable for free too here. I love the mix of the same song by Japanese electro god Fredricson (Masahiro Araki).
This past year has not been the most interesting musically, as far as releases from the US and Europe go. But the indie scene from Japan just keeps delivering. Thank God for that. Or rather Amaterasu the Sun Goddess. (PB)
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