Good indie music in Asia✨
Where Does “Thee” Come From? — The Journey of One Word Connecting Surabaya, Tokyo, and East Los Angeles For many Japanese listeners, “Thee” immediately brings to mind THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT. That band dominated Japan’s rock scene in the 1990s, and their name carried the word “Thee” — but where did it actually come from? […]
Why the Word “Soulrabaya” Was Born — Thee Marloes on Their Second Album “We just do what feels natural to us” — so why did a band that says this end up being discovered by a prestigious New York label, and how did their music reach listeners around the world? Thee Marloes, a trio from […]
Stella Donnelly has just wrapped her first Japan tour in three years, visiting Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo in April 2026 to support her third album 『Love and Fortune』, released in November 2025. Before arriving in Japan, she toured Australia, the UK, and Europe, carrying songs that are quieter and more introspective than anything she has […]
After years of writing about music, you develop an instinct. Tap play, wait a few seconds, and you know whether an album is merely good or whether it promises something genuinely rare. Of course, that instinct can be wrong in either direction. But with Gia Margaret’s new album 『Singing』, the verdict arrived the moment 「Everyone […]
“We are not clowns.” That single line may say everything there is to say about The Parade. Based in Sweden, they released their debut album 『City of Dreams』 without ever sharing a clear artist photo or revealing who they are. A pub, a darts match, a woman’s voice singing along to a song long after […]
“I once whispered it almost like a wish — that I hoped to perform in Japan someday — and before I knew it, it had come true.” It was a chance encounter with members of the Japanese band bed that set the wheels in motion for molar system’s first visit to Japan. This Seoul-based indie […]
Strange Fruit Return After a Decade with New EP “Drips” Jakarta’s electronic band Strange Fruit release their long-awaited EP ‘Drips’ on April 3, 2026, marking their first new music in ten years. Spanning acid house, ambient, shoegaze and rave across nine tracks, the EP also features remixes by Tom Furse (The Horrors), Jonathan Kusuma, and […]
deary is a dream pop trio based in London. Blending shoegaze, dream pop, and trip-hop sensibilities into something disciplined, harmonious, and dignified, they release their debut album 『Birding』 on London’s prestigious independent label Bella Union. An interview that confronts deary and their debut album head-on: the roots of a band forged through childhood solitude and […]
“Not quite sky, but not quite space either.” That is the kind of distance you feel listening to Happypills. Yuki Kondo has been committed to expressing bedroom indie pop in Japanese, and now, five years on, he is releasing the EP 『happypills (dream)』. From the influence of Galileo Galilei and The Drums, to connections made […]
“Japan Was Always a Dream” RAM and Nini came all the way from Buenos Aires, Argentina. They made a pilgrimage to Hida-Takayama for an anime setting, filled a goshuin-cho stamp notebook at temples and shrines across the country, and flipped through vinyl at Tower Records Shibuya — picking up records by Lamp and Sheena Ringo. […]