Every month, scrmbl highlights some of the most noteworthy releases from Japanese artists available on Bandcamp. Sometimes, this coincides with the platform’s own Bandcamp Friday —an event where the company itself waives all revenue share and instead lets artists reap all the money made off sales.

Bandcamp Friday is back! Today, Aug. 7, marks the start of a run where the special event on the site will happen every month until 2027 starts. Since it has been on holiday for a bit, now is a good time to check out past installments of this feature to see what Japanese music to catch up on…or simply dig into everything that came out over the last month alone. More than enough to support!

foodman — HIKARIGASASHIKOMU

At the core of foodman’s music is an appreciation for the hum-drum of simple Japanese living. The Nagoya-based experimentalist has long been obsessed with the hallmarks of the bedtown life — deep-fried mackerel lunch sets, super sento, existing in a suburb — and on his latest for British electronic heavyweight Hyperdub he emphasizes the spoken shrapnel of town living. To listen to HIKARIGASASHIKOMU is to walk through a summer festival in a lucid state, to spend a surreal morning in front of a train station with the town lushes sipping Cup Sake in the public space, or eavesdropping on conversations playing out at the local Doutour after getting no sleep for 24 hours. 

Here, foodman’s wonky percussive details and generally head-spinning electronic touches remain, but there’s a greater emphasis on his voice — and seeing how much he can bend it into something alien. He pitch shifts and warps his speaking to turn himself into something between anime heroine and otherworld grandpa — songs like “Hikariga” and “Hard Reclining” come off as hymns from otherworldly ojisan. Ultimately, it’s another texture to his sound, another piece of sonic clay to stretch and twist, but also one that has not played a central role in the foodman catalog until now. It makes this set stand out…and helps makeHIKARIGASASHIKOMU feel like a dizzying trip through the small towns of our minds. Get it here.

CRZKNY — donate.

A powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture last week, resulting in over 30 deaths and tons of destruction across the Western Japan region that has left many without power or water as of time of writing. Hiroshima producer CRZKNY is helping raise funds to help those impacted by the natural disaster with the direct-to-the-point donate. A great cause, but you also get a lot in return from him…34 tracks that are all over the place, finding one of the country’s most prolific acts mutating R&B, city pop and Eurodance among others into new shapes. Get it here.

Kizuari —  daydream.sketch 

It’s so common to imagine internet-damaged music in the “hyperpop” or “digicore” framework as being maximalist and like a malfunctioning YTMND that it’s easy to forget…a lot of the hallmarks of these very-online styles can be used to create something spacier. Producer Kizuari’s garage-brushed daydream.sketch inverts the formula, letting piano melodies morph into more slippery electro arrangements that tease going full lilbesh ramko (opener “daydream” does feature a brief bass blow out, matched by Hanna-Barbera sound effects) but largely choosing minimalism. Get it here.

Stones Taro — Odoriko

Kyoto’s Stones Taro offers a reminder of how well his house rumble can work with others on the opener to his debut for England’s Rhythm Section label. He calls on rapper MFS — a frequent collaborator — to offer some extra muscle to the delirious whistle-house of “Odoriko.” It’s a big tune and a strong argument for Stones Taro getting more mainstream work, but just part of a kind of sampler of everything Taro is capable of, with the rest of the release exploring understated house, warped-sample funky and much more. Get it here. 

Fetus — boost EP

I imagine it’s always the case when dance producers make new music — it’s their natural habitat, after all — but I’m seeing a lot more artists talking about making music based off club experiences, running from tofubeats’ latest to this EP from TREKKIE-TRAX-affiliate Fetus. Inspired by trips abroad, boost features a more pronounced bounce built for floors, working wonders with electronic flourishes like the electro whistle-style hoots hooting across “Too Much Whistle.” Of course, going out would be the ultimate test of this…but from my office chair, it works wonders at generating movement. Get it here.

Kiyasume — silent

Bedroom artist Kiyasume created “negative pop songs” in her life, sharing them on YouTube and across three albums of sparse voice-and-guitar-only recordings. Those creations were often sparse, informed by the current anime-damaged world of online music but pushing past the sonic markers to instead dive into the emotional core of the world. Kiyasume died earlier this year, and according to label Kumo Communication she was working on silent before her passing. Unlike the stripped-down works making up the bulk of her catalog, the songs here introduce experimental and electronic touches, which according to a comment from Kiyasume was a way to play with the feeling of being caught between life and death…of simply being, and needing to go on. They don’t offer a glow or buzz to her compositions, but rather discombobulation via heavy interruptions on the jittery “Wakaranai Koto” or emphasizing negative feelings on the echoing “Fuko Jiman.” It all culminates in the glossier synthesized strings of “Karaapo,” which add tension to a final number about the end of human connections owing to the realities of the world. A gorgeous, bittersweet moment. Get it here.

Various Artists — Petalscape

I will fully cop to being drawn into the concept more than the source material. I don’t grasp the main points of the Love Live! Hasu No Sora Jogakuin School Idol Club branch, and how it relates to the greater whole. Yet I do love a bunch of independent artists choosing to create an aching tribute album to the aspiring J-pop stars from this fictional Kanazawa, via instrumental numbers gathered as an “image compilation.” Forget any multi-media projects though, and you still have a heart-racing set featuring skittering unease courtesy of 1K3’s “Torn Triangle,” piano fluttery via 40K1_’s “figaro” and revelry glitch from OKAPi on “yours ever.” That’s just a sampling — one full of bird samples to give it a school-court feel, I’ll add — and an example of how fiction can spark something wonderful. Get it here.  

Various Artists  — Bluearchive crew compilation

Echoing the above — I have never played a Blue Archive game and have at most walked by a booth devoted to the game at some kind of Nico Nico event in recent years, yet again I applaud the way this work has brought out producers to just go crazy. The songs on Bluearchive crew compilation draw from the head-spinning-sample-centric style hyperflip, drawing from what I assume is Blue Archive sounds alongside a mish-mash of Katy Perry, EDM, blown-out bass and more. An example of how much fun can be had when creators come together around a shared love…and blow it up. Get it here.