Following on from 2009’s Triangle album, Perfume return with JPN to continue their domination of the Technopop landscape.
Debuting at No. 1 in the Oricon chart (the album sold 227,000 copies in its first week alone) it’s clear that Perfume are still a force to be reckoned with even in the face of the increasingly popular K-Pop acts making inroads to the Japanese music scene. More Inside »
A production company is making a fashion film for Markus Lupfer which is intended to feature a Japanese band. The band issue (as mentioned on the J-Pop Go Facebook page) appears to have been taken care of, but the company are also keen to have Japanese extras for the rest of the film.
If you’re Japanese, based in London, available late afternoon/early evening next Monday 16th January and interested in being part of the film then you need to contact charlotte.jones@partizan.com as soon as possible.
As an incentive, there’s free clothing for the lucky ones that get chosen 
2011 was an interesting year for J-Pop here in the UK as well as Japanese Pop Culture in general, although one marked by tragedy by the earthquake and tsunami.
J-Pop Go looks back at 2011 to look at some of the news, events, interviews and stories that we covered featuring Perfume, Kanon Wakeshima, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Unicorn Table, Unshin and more. More Inside »
Tonight sees a special K-Pop event taking place at the O2 Brixton Academy. Cube Entertainment will be staging performances from 4minute, B2ST, and G.NA as part of a rescheduled performance (originally cancelled due to the riots earlier in the year).
The United Cube Concert follows on from an opening concert in Seoul earlier this year, followed by a performance in Tokyo. A final date in Brazil takes place on December 13th.
Cube Entertainment states” “United Cube Concert’s venture into London, the birthplace of pop and rock, during the beginning of the K-Pop movement is especially meaningful and something to be proud of… This will be an opportunity to ignite the flame of Kpop which has gone beyond the boundaries of the digital silk road.”
Ticket Info:http://www.o2academybrixton.co.uk/event/35110/united-cube-tickets
More Details: http://www.allkpop.com/2011/10/united-cube-concert-to-be-held-in-london-in-december
The Apollo Cinema Piccadilly in London will be hosting exclusive premiere screenings of two films – one for Hatsune Miku and another for L’Arc-en-Ciel – this November and December.
To celebrate the launch of ‘Hatsune Miku Live Party 2011’ on Blu-ray, DVD and Live CD, Apollo Cinema Piccadilly will be holding two exclusive premiere events on 28th November at 6.30pm and 29th November at 8.30pm. Hatsune Miku Live Party 2011 39′s LIVE in SAPPORO will screen Hatsune Miku’s sold out performance from Sapporo in August featuring a spectacular holographic light show of the character performing some of her biggest hits.
The following week, Apollo Cinema Piccadilly stages an exclusive screening of “20th L’Anniversary LIVE’ in celebration of L’Arc-en-Ciel’s 20th anniversary. The screenings will be held on 5th December at 6.30pm and 6th December at 8.30pm. “20th L’Anniversary LIVE” showcases L’Arc-en-Ciel performing one of the biggest concerts of their career at Tokyo Ajinomoto Stadium, which played out in front of 100,000 fans.
Information on booking and prices here: http://www.apollocinemas.com/films-showing-piccadilly-circus.aspx
Contact the Apollo Cinema Piccadilly on 0871 220 6000 or via Twitter on @apollocinemas
Kanon Wakeshima’s debut UK performance at Hyper Japan earlier this year had been very well received by her fans. To expect a follow up in the same year was completely unexpected – but very welcome indeed.
Outside of her solo work, Kanon Wakeshima had teamed up with An Café’s bass player Kanon to form kanon x kanon. As she had mentioned in her interview with J-Pop Go previously, the team-up seemed like an obvious idea: “We’re with the same company, with the same management and obviously we have the same names – but the music that we’re doing is completely different. So we thought if we do something together then maybe something interesting will come out of this collaboration.” London was the final stop on the recent kanon x kanon tour which had seen the duo performing in Russia, Finland, Hungary, Germany and France. More Inside »
Kanon Wakeshima wowed audiences at her debut UK gig earlier this year at Hyper Japan and this Friday she returns as the kanon x kanon tour reaches its climax.
The tour, which sees Kanon collaborating with An Cafe’s bassist Kanon, has crossed Europe with dates in Russia, Germany, France and the Netherlands. The concerts have received a great response from fans demonstrating that there is an enthusiastic audience outside of Japan. More Inside »
Lo-Fi are a Japanese music trio that utilise a range of genres, including breakbeats, hip-hop and soul. The band made their UK debut in October at the HAA – TO BII – TO [ハート ビート] event which was staged in conjunction with Aid For Japan to raise funds and also awareness of the organisation set up by Akemi Solloway to help orphans after the Japanese earthquake/tsunami tragedy earlier this year.
Lo-Fi’s lead singer 5 took time out from rehearsals for the gig to chat to J-Pop Go about the band and his thoughts on the Japanese relief efforts… More Inside »
This Saturday sees the UK debut of Japanese band Lo-Fi as part of HAA – TO BII – TO [ハート ビート] which is also a fundraising event for Aid For Japan. Aid For Japan iwas set up to raise money to support orphans of the Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake.
Aid For Japan Founder Akemi Solloway will also be giving a short presentation on the charity as part of this live music event. More Inside »
One of our favourite Technopop outfit Perfume are back with a new single release Spice scheduled for release on November 2nd 2011.
Perfume are enjoying an increase in attention from the West, especially since their classic track Polyrhythm featured in the soundtrack for the film Cars 2 earlier this year.
The single (which has been selected as the theme song for a TV series) also features the track Glitter taken from their recent Kirin drink promotion and comes ahead of the release of Perfume’s 4th album titled JPN which is due for release on November 30th.
