40 beloved songs representing 2025 and must-hear hidden gems gather here🔥 This time, writer RAM, who has been writing cross-reviews with Takita from Argentina, participates for the first time, and Maririn makes a comeback after nearly 10 years since 2016🎉 From the magically unhinged Geese, the overwhelming expressiveness of Kazumi Nikaido, to artists like KISS […]
Tag: yabori
A-indie Staff Talk: Gummies, AI Romance, and Office Snacks
Hello! This is the A-indie editorial team. We usually bring you artist interviews and reviews, but aren’t you curious about what the “people behind the scenes” are thinking? Music media staff are often imagined as stoic groups constantly digging for the latest music, but in reality, we’re just ordinary office workers. In our daily lives, […]
Behind the Scenes: BELONG Writers Share Their Stories
Hello! This is the BELONG Media editorial team. To you, who always read our articles: Have you ever wondered, “What kind of music do the people writing these articles like, and what do they talk about?” We deliver articles centered on indie music, but we haven’t shown much about who the staff members are as […]
Staff Pick Movies – Japanese, Korean & French Cinema
Hello! This is the A-indie editorial team. In our previous article, we got excited about unexpected topics like electric scooters and crane games. “Is our only common ground ART-SCHOOL and The Novembers?” we wondered, but this time our theme is “movies we want to recommend.” So, can we find common ground when talking about movies? […]
Who Runs BELONG A-indie? Staff’s First Honest Talk
Hello! This is the BELONG Media / A-indie editorial team. To all our readers who always read our articles. “Who are the people who make this media?” Maybe you’ve been a little curious about that? When you think of music media, you probably have an image of cool, stoic people gathering together. (We used to […]
A-indie Starts Discord Preview Campaign for New Music!
Remember those days when you bought CDs and immersed yourself in reading every word of the lyric booklets and liner notes? I loved the time spent imagining the stories behind each song in my own way. Lately, hasn’t that kind of “dialogue” with music been declining? While the infinite playlists that algorithms continuously serve up […]
Decoding MICHELLE’s Destructive Romance in “Mentos & Coke”
The moment carbonation bubbles rise, that instant when sweet candy dissolves. Who could have imagined that this familiar chemical reaction we all know would become the perfect metaphor for depicting the dangerous allure of love? MICHELLE’s “Mentos and Coke” is a track released in 2024 by the six-member indie-pop collective from New York, serving as […]
Why English Lyrics Alone Can’t Break Cultural Barriers?
Recently, I was casually browsing through Japanese records from the 70s to 80s at a used record shop. Among the Japanese-language jackets, there was one record that stood out as distinctly different – it was entirely in English. I thought it might be a foreign artist mixed in, but surprisingly, it turned out to be […]
SILENT POETS | 7 Years of Silence, Now Speaking Out with ‘HOPE’
Silence can sometimes become more eloquent poetry than anything else. Michiharu Shimoda started his career under the name SILENT POETS with wordless instrumentals. SILENT POETS, whose name became even more widely known through providing music for the game ‘DEATH STRANDING’, has completed their first album in 7 years, ‘HOPE’. During these 7 years, the world […]
Goddess Online Listening – Japan to World via Analog Record
Text: Tomohiro Yabe “This is impossible.” In early April, when BELONG Media founder Tomohiro Yabe sent an email to London indie label Bella Union about a listening session, that’s what people around him whispered. The project to deliver the album by “Goddess”—the new project of Fay Milton, a member of the four-piece women’s post-punk band […]
