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Music: Kariyushi58 to release their 1st full album
Mark your calendars, Kariyushi58, a three-piece band from Okinawa, will release their first full album “Soro soro, kariyushi” on October 23, 2007. The 13-track album, featuring the hit singles “Anmaa” and “Te to Te”, will be an indie music release from LD&K Records. Check out the group’s PVs on YouTube. [Via bounce.com.]
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Music: Japan Sanshin Melodies
While searching for new stuff on eBay I decided to take a little detour and did a search under “sanshin” in the hopes of finding something interesting. The search turned up a CD (among other items of course) with an image that caught my eye because pictured is a shamisen, not a sanshin. So I…
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Gackt gets ready to launch in 20 countries – Tokyograph
In October, Gackt will be making some of his releases available to 20 countries in North America and Europe. On the 19th, his two DVDs “THE GREATEST FILMOGRAPHY 1999-2006” (“~RED~” and “~BLUE~”) will be released simultaneously in the U.S. and Canada. These North American editions will reportedly include English lyrics he wrote for the songs.…
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BEGIN Starts Up Their Own Record Label: PIG PINK
Music group BEGIN has founded its own music label named PIG PINK, also known by the nickname ‘Buta House.’ The label started in July as part of Imperial Records, the J-pop branch of Teichiku Records. Last fall, BEGIN started working on their music in a pink-walled house on Okinawa. Their label’s name is based on…
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Karakui’s Album Cover Art
Asano Irei Originally uploaded by karakui Starting a new project of CD album cover art scans. Enjoy! Check them out over here: karakui’s (flickr photostream).
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CD Album: Yanawarabaa’s ‘Utagusui’
I’m marking this as the O-pop CD album to buy this year. Yanawarabaa’s forthcoming 1st full-album of 13-tracks, “Utagusui” (AKCY-58033) will be released on August 29, 2007, and the first press edition will come with kunkunshii (think guitar tabs for your sanshin)! Check out my ‘Digging Yanawarabaa’ post for a YouTube clip of this fantastic…
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CD Album: Hirokazu Matsuda’s ‘Sanshin-Zanmai’
Long known as a master utasaa (Okinawan folk musician), it’s hard to believe that the September 26, 2007 “Sanshin-Zanmai” (RES-126, 14 tracks), marks Hirokazu Matsuda’s (The Fere) first nationwide CD album release. Thanks to the awesome record label Respect Record (Seijin Noborikawa, Sadao China, Yoriko Ganeko, Takashi Hirayasu, Ryukyu Underground, Toru Yonaha), fans of Okinawan…
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Hawaiian meets Okinawan: Churamana
If you’re a fan of Hawaiian and Okinawan music you may be interested in the duo Churamana (チュラマナ, roughly translated as “Beautiful [chura, Okinawan] Energy [mana, Hawaiian]”) with Tokyo-born Maki Uehara on vocals/hula and Ishigakijima-born Makiko Miyara (formerly of the O-pop group Donann) on vocals. If you’re familiar with the group TINGARA (Okinawan healing music)…
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Claudia Oshiro’s Debut Album Coming Soon?
According to the Okinawa Cyura Sounds blog (which happens to also be one of my favorite podcasts from Okinawa), Argentine-born nisei (2nd generation) Claudia Oshiro will soon be making her CD debut with The Boom’s Kazufumi Miyazawa as producer! I couldn’t find much info on the album yet — it’ll be called “CLAUDIA” — but…
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Highly Recommended: Sanshin’s Matsuda (e-34ya.com)
I mentioned in my “In The Works…” post that I was in the final stages of procuring a few CDs direct from Okinawa and today, I received my shipment. 😀 The best (or only) way to get your hands on Okinawan music is on the web and although there are very, very good online stores…
Karakui 