Japanese downtempo

November 16, 2007 1:39 PM

can anyone suggest some japanese bands in the region of chillout / downtempo / triphop with female vocals?

To get an idea of what I like, my western musical preferences in this area are Zero 7, Portishead, Goldfrapp, Nitin Sawhney, Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Mandalay, Lamb, Gotan Project, Telepopmusik

posted by browolf to media & arts (17 answers total)

DJ Krush.
posted by subtle-t at 1:55 PM on November 16, 2007

Fleckfumie are a German guy and a Japanese woman, and she does the vocals. Their music is hard to describe but they often get put in the "trip-hop" section.

Haco is an incredible musician. I wouldn't label her music "hip-hop", but a lot of it is downtempo and very little of it sucks. Given your list, I deduce that you might like her self-titled album or some of "Ash in the Rainbow" (with Sakamoto Hiromichi), e.g. the title track. Definitely a try-before-you-buy artist though.

Himawari also come to mind but, to be honest, they aren't very funky.
posted by No-sword at 2:14 PM on November 16, 2007

"hip-hop" -> "trip-hop"
posted by No-sword at 2:15 PM on November 16, 2007

if you want mainstream stuff, just go to tower records japan site. it will be a bit tricky but give you some ideas.
you will find cross over stuff but there is so much material here in jap that you will need to dig to find what u want
http://towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/SiteManager.jsp

or flick through dusty groove, they often have good detail on jap stuff.
if u try shibuya jazz classics, kyoto jazz classics etc or ken kobayashi, the compilations cover a lot of varied materila. it is probably a bit softer than what you are into but will give u some ideas and leads
posted by edtut at 2:35 PM on November 16, 2007

While classified as a pop act (by Wikipedia certainly), some of Pizzicato Five's tunes would fit the bill. Pandora put me on to them. It might be a good place to start, then let the system find new music along similar lines for you.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 2:59 PM on November 16, 2007

Shiina Ringo's "Baishou Ecstasy" album would probably count (although not most of her other material, which I'd say is "Bjorkish").
posted by wackybrit at 3:31 PM on November 16, 2007

If I can be permitted a moment of blatant self-promotion, you might enjoy a song I recorded with my old band. The song is called 'Cross My Mind' and it's on this myspace page. I can share an mp3 if you'd like.
posted by gnutron at 3:57 PM on November 16, 2007

Kyoto Jazz Massive might do it for you. It's a little more fusiony though.

Also some of Towa Tei's stuff.

Interested to see what other people come up with.
posted by condour75 at 4:34 PM on November 16, 2007

For sure, check out the electronic, Avant-pop, neo-dada, pop, Japanese rock group known as Buffalo Daughter They've been together for over 10 years now and have established a very dynamic and strong sound that is somewhat like a mix of Pizzacato Five, Cibo Matto and Deerhoof all in one.
posted by robpongi at 4:57 PM on November 16, 2007

I can't think of anything that fits exactly, but you might check out Tenniscoats - it's definitely chilled out with female vocals, but less "downtempo" and more ambient electronic style indie pop.

Also Tujiko Noriko, but again less downtempo - she is pretty far out in experimental electronic territory.

Lastly, check some of Nujabes and his label (you can find a lot of their stuff at this shop) - probably stylistically more similar to what you want- jazzy hip hop, downtempo, etc., but not sure which records would have the type of vocals you want.
posted by p3t3 at 5:13 PM on November 16, 2007

Spangle call Lilli line.
posted by misozaki at 6:26 PM on November 16, 2007

Aco is a female singer, she started as a fairly standard jpop act but now she's doing much more interesting work. She worked with mùm on one of her last record. Not really trip-hop per say, more like Bjork/radiohead type of electronic music.

Cacoy might be very hard to find. There are an indie combo doing downtempo/electronica, it's very cool but they're not very popular. Their album is called Human is Music. No female vocals but i think you might like it.
posted by SageLeVoid at 9:30 PM on November 16, 2007

I second DJ Krush. He is exactly what you want.
posted by clockworkjoe at 9:59 PM on November 16, 2007

United Future Organization is what you want, friend.
posted by black8 at 12:41 AM on November 17, 2007

Seconding United Future Organization and Kyoto Jazz Massive.

You may also like Susumu Yokota which reminds me of Kruder and Dorfmeister in some ways. You should be able to find more by looking through the tags on Last.fm.

If you specifically want vocals in japanese you might enjoy Dimitri From Paris' album Cruising Attitude (particularly the tracks Merumo and Okinawa Love)
posted by kepano at 4:39 AM on November 17, 2007

if you can find them, natural calamity
posted by Large Marge at 10:49 AM on November 18, 2007

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Yoshinori Sunahara.
posted by zsazsa at 1:56 PM on November 20, 2007