Usually I use this space to spotlight a currently-airing anime series or comment on a current event in the world of Japanese pop culture that gets exported outside of Japan. But since I’m scheduling this post in advance, I thought I’d spotlight some Japanese math rock. Thanks to Annukai for making a comment in last week’s thread that inspired me!

First up, Tricot, whose video Annukai shared last week. Here’s another of their songs, “E”:

Next, the trio pictured in the header, Paranoid Void. They have no trouble shifting between post-hardcore and lounge music at a moment’s notice. Here’s “Karma No Inu”:

Fulusu is yet another trio. Here’s the music video for “Ash”:

There are a lot of trios here. Here’s another, Althea. This song is called『大人になる意味』, which Google Translate tells me means “The Meaning of Becoming an Adult”:

On the heavier side, there’s Ling Tosite Sigure, who are probably best known for their Psycho-Pass theme songs. Since none of those music videos are on YouTube, here’s “Telecastic Fake Show”:

Let’s shift gears and feature a quartet. The Band Apart performs in both English and Japanese. Here’s one of their English songs, “Castaway”:

A lot of Japanese bands that aren’t associated with the math rock scene dip their toes into the genre. Radwimps, whom you probably know from their work on the Your Name soundtrack, used to make much mathier music. Here’s “Oshakashama”:

And finally, Scandal, who started off as a manufactured pop-rock-meets-hard-rock band a decade ago (think “Japanese female Monkees”) got much weirder when they started writing all their own music. Here’s them channelling Minus the Bear on “Take Me Out”:

That’s it for this genre spotlight. Feel free to share your favourite Japanese math rock songs in the comments, and always, let us know what you’ve been watching/reading/eating/playing/listening to lately.