Anyone here listens to a music subgenre called Shibuya-kei?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


During my college days in the late 1990s, FM radio and club DJs regularly spin Shibuya-kei hits such as "Sweet Soul Revue" by Pizzicato Five, "Frank, Bold & German" by Towa Tei featuring Kylie Minogue, and "Moon Child" by Cibo Matto. I became a fan of it way before I discovered J-pop and J-rock.

Shibuya-kei had a cult following in Manila specially with the young affluent music listeners and club goers. Thanks to the recommendation and aggressive promotion of now-closed Tower Records in Makati.

Any thoughts about it?

Definitely some interesting music, thanks for sharing!
I never knew this existed. It's like j-jazz-pop. Pretty underground.
I'm surprised this music made it all the way to your country!
The bass is probably my favorite element in the songs: it gives the tracks a nice groovy and laid back feeling. And the synths are used in a pretty original way.
I'm not sure it's my cup of tea though, I definitely prefer J-pop and J-rock to it.
I guess that's cause I like more up-beat stuff with a good deal of distortion.

Jerry Stormborn wrote:Definitely some interesting music, thanks for sharing!
I never knew this existed. It's like j-jazz-pop. Pretty underground.
I'm surprised this music made it all the way to your country!
The bass is probably my favorite element in the songs: it gives the tracks a nice groovy and laid back feeling. And the synths are used in a pretty original way.
I'm not sure it's my cup of tea though, I definitely prefer J-pop and J-rock to it.
I guess that's cause I like more up-beat stuff with a good deal of distortion.  

Shibuya-kei was like a weird yet cool combination of jazz, bossa nova, synthpop, house, and trip-hop.

In fact, it was even more popular than J-pop and visual kei in Manila. Thanks to the Manila rave movement back in the late 1990s. It was considered alternative music in Japan but several club and radio DJs made them popular overseas.

I think Japanese DJ Mondo Grosso, another Shibuya-kei pioneer is still around but he calls his music nowadays house or dance-pop.