Search "japan" 202 Items

Given his noted love of anime, scoring a fantastical retelling of a 16th-century samurai warrior of African descent serving under a Japanese daimyo, must be a dream project for Flying Lotus. But, as we’ve come to expect from the man who brought us the mind-bending 2019 LP Flamagra and his own written, directed and scored full-length surrealist fever dream Kuso back in 2017, Steve Ellison is anything but predictable.

Where his recent work has ventured deep into the hitherto unexplored avant-garde reaches of contemporary electronic music, jazz and hip-hop, FlyLo’s score to renowned anime creators Studio MAPPA’s Netflix original series Yasuke — on which he also acts as story consultant and executive producer — sees FlyLo eschew his digital maximalism with rumblings of traditional instrumentation, sweeping romanticism and widescreen cinematic scope.

Broadening the canvas of show creators LeSean Thomas and Takeshi Satou’s alternative-historical Sengoku period of magic and swordplay, with a soundtrack of Morricone-style epic tones, traditional Japanese percussion instruments and West African percussion, the feudal yet futuristic world of Yasuke is summoned.

The drum-driven drama of ‘Your Armour’ and ‘Your Lord’ simmer with synth flutes, strings and koto, as the bubbling arps of ‘War Lords’ recall the cyberpunk noir of Vangelis’ Blade Runner score, while frequent collaborators Thundercat and Niki Randa, also make an appearance in this parallel universe.

Another spellbinding FlyLo release even without the stylish animations of the show, Yasuke is set to be one of Ellison’s most prized releases.

Illmariachi is legendary Japanese HipHop unit who acitved in late 90's, formed by Hazu & Tokona-x. this is a single cut from their debut album "tha Masta Blusta" including two authentic classical tracks that are a high-concentration blend of the eccentric and crazy technique by Hazu and the hard-boiled hood rap by Tokona-x!

Japanese beat maker Yuki Kitano’s commitment to music began when he was thirteen, crediting skateboarding culture as his intro to the sound of hip hop. Better known as NICKELMAN, he started making beats with a MPC2000XL and later in 2008 established the independent record label deepconstructionrecords in his home city of Osaka. Along with his close crew of artists, the label released several NICKELMAN, Sugarau and Frogman records to name a few. Working collaboratively with fellow beat maker Frogman, the duo began putting out music under Freemanz Production.

NICKELMAN’s work is inspired by the likes of rare groove, jazz, soul, and beat culture. As a follow up to his 2020 release titled Butterwax, he is set to release Mangoes, a twelve track instrumental LP, in May 202`. Using an MPC2000XL, SP-303, and Tape Echo, the record was produced entirely in NICKLEMAN’s home studio. Each track was recorded on to cassette tapes and then compressed.

Mangoes is full of fine beats and will certainly attract hip hop junkies and vinyl diggers around the world.

Residing at the base of Mount Yōtei on Japan’s geologically wondrous island Hokkaido - with it’s volcanoes, hot springs and national park - Masaki “mfp” Konagi is no stranger to natural beauty. Having resided in L.A. and Melbourne in the past, mfp (or mindfullpeace) settled in this natural haven as the place to set down some roots and create.

Having begun his musical journey over a decade ago, including an appearance on Gilles Peterson’s “Brownswood Electr*c 2”, we are proud to announce his debut full length album “Natural Law”.

Drawing on long time collaborators and friends from his travels, mfp has pulled on his foundation in hip-hop and pushed its boundaries to breaking point, embodying the true ethos of the genre as an ever expandable principle.

Featuring Melbourne stalwarts Simon Mavin (Hiatus Kaiyote) and Alien (Piette Aillion) plus Sydney’s Natalie Slade (Eglo), funk maestro sauce81 and hip-hop hero Stan Smith, mfp’s productions ebb and flow, building and releasing pressure, exploring discord and harmony through electronic polyrhythms and diverse explorations in slaps, swirls, lopes and kicks.

Masaki has also opened the very first organic food store in the area - Pyram Organics & Plants - embodying his, (and our) ethos in food and music as a way to bring ecological awareness to reconnect with nature and our planet for sustaina

A bright and colourful scenery: Shrill blinding sights, piercing foreign sounds, a fusion of disparate scents blended into a cocktail of curiosity. Fleeting attempts embrace a thousand senses in one single second. Bustling around in the shadows of buildings as high as mountains, an almost eerily overwhelming sense of contentment is omnipresent - but something doesn't appear to be right...
Stranded on a lonely island in the midst of a chaotic metropolis, disconnected - a feeling of drowning in an ocean of overstimulus and importunities of disproportionately inflated personalities, without ever even being registered or taken notice of.
What's left is nothing more than the ghost of a young soul, wandering about and curiously studying the surrounding, forever looking for answers that would otherwise seem trivial.

After “Kidsuke” the critically acclaimed collaboration project with Daisuke Tanabe, “Tokyorkshire” based producer kidkanevil continues his fascination with Japan and readies his latest solo album My Little Ghost. Inspired by a summer spent in Tokyo collaborating, exploring and generally refusing to grow up, the double vinyl is due May 2nd on Project: Mooncircle and features a wide range of guests including PMC's own submerse and Tokyo vocalist Cuushe.

'My Little Ghost' comes out worldwide on limited gatefold, double, pink vinyl (including download code) as well as a limited edition CD including a bonus track via flau records - http://www.flau.jp/ in Japan.

A child agrees then screams the name. Kid-o-suke. Did you hear that right? The music trickles in. It sounds like it was made in a toy factory. Hold on. Let me reach for the button over there. Childhood memories. The magical sounds of a roundabout sending you to sleep. The wonders of the world seen through eyes that don’t yet fully comprehend and ears that find musical potential in everything. Two kindred souls find each other, distance never the issue, they share and laugh the only way they know how.

The wonderful pixelated world of a video game. Where does reality end and where does the imagination start? Somewhere in the distance an explosion can be heard, or was it a booming bass drum? There are birds singing a crystalline melody. One I heard before, in a dream perhaps. All of a sudden a child exclaims ‘come, let’s go’. Where did he come from? Is he real or another pixelated fragment of imagination?

Yokatta desu. There’s a castle in the sky. Two boys team up to reach it, carried by the power of their dreams. The same dreams that marked their childhood and brought them to be men. If ever there was music worthy of becoming the soundtrack to a Ghibli movie this could be it. There’s a girl asleep on a plastic deer, going around and around. She reminds me of the hand drawn versions of the pixelated heroes of my childhood. I imagine her dreams filled with exciting adventures.

I swear I heard the sounds of Tokyo’s public transport. It told me we’d arrived at Shibuya yet I can’t see the neon bright lights when I look around. Oh well, I’ll just have to imagine them.

It’s an album, so of course it’s real. The music is the result of a desire to create regardless of outcome, for the simple fact that there is a story to tell. People will consume it whichever way they want. Is it this sound or that sound? Does it really matter? Stop for a minute and enjoy the music for what it is. A synthesis of two aesthetics joined not just by a love of music but also a love of the abstract and the childish, the things that remind us we were all young one day and things were simpler. Things like dancing as if no one was looking or making music as if the outcome never mattered.

Kidsuke is a collaborative project between the UK’s Kidkanevil and Japan’s Daisuke Tanabe. Their self-titled debut is released by Project Mooncircle in November 2012 on double colored vinyl LP and digital.

Join 40 Winks on a road trip to anywhere. Bring your music player and tell your honey you won’t be home for dinner. It’s the trip, not the destination.“
About 40 Winks:
No hay banda! (“there is no band”, Mulholland Dr. 2001) pretty much sums up where 40 Winks aims to go with its instrumental hip hop: meticulously chop and paste samples together, to create an atmosphere of beats and vibes which steps beyond unimaginative loops. 40 Winks hit the scene in 2002, with a whole slew of laidback beats. Eager to share their sound with the world, they released a couple of albums independently. The attention they got from this, allowed them to build with people from around the world. One of these independently released albums, More Than Loops, got reissued in Japan on Swamp Records, after that the ball kept rolling. On their first worldwide release, Extended Pleasure on Escapism Records (2005), they reached listeners well beyond the (instrumental) hip hop community with the song “Melancholia”. After appearances on compilations, like Weapons Of Hope on Little-D (2006), they got a chance to do their thing on the renowned label, Merck Records with Sound Puzzle (2007). All this led them back to Europe, where the German based Project: Mooncircle welcomed them with a spot on the compilation Heart On The Right Spot (2007) and a full album The Lucid Effect (2008). In 2009 they took some time off, doing solo stuff and remixes. In 2011 40 Winks is back with a double LP called It’s The Trip (2011) on Project: Mooncircle.
Artwork By Afreux.

From a laments perspective you can call this Jahcoozi’s Robot Koch meets Scienz of Life’s John Robinson. However we here at Project: Mooncircle like to see this as two dynamic forces of nature coming together in parallel universes, delivering cosmic opted sonics with science-fiction narrative conventions in a metaphysical tone. Robot Robinson is the FUTURE from Earth to Mars to Venus to Jupiter and Beyond, this project spells out the attempts to bring a different pitch of vocals to the world of Electronic Music. Robinson being no stranger to the scientifical lyrical approach along with Robot’s evolutionary voyage prone soundscapes this one is a sure shot! The Future of Music is in Good Hands.
All tracks produced by Robot Koch. All lyrics by John Robinson.
Artwork and original paintings by Ima One (Japan). Design by Gordon Gieseking.

From a laments perspective you can call this Jahcoozi’s Robot Koch meets Scienz of Life’s John Robinson. However we here at Project: Mooncircle like to see this as two dynamic forces of nature coming together in parallel universes, delivering cosmic opted sonics with science-fiction narrative conventions in a metaphysical tone. Robot Robinson is the FUTURE from Earth to Mars to Venus to Jupiter and Beyond, this project spells out the attempts to bring a different pitch of vocals to the world of Electronic Music. Robinson being no stranger to the scientifical lyrical approach along with Robot’s evolutionary voyage prone soundscapes this one is a sure shot! The Future of Music is in Good Hands.
All tracks produced by Robot Koch. All lyrics by John Robinson.
Artwork and original paintings by Ima One (Japan). Design by Gordon Gieseking.