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.
The very first Bandcamp Friday of 2026 is happening today, Feb. 6. It’s the first opportunity you have to throw extra support to artists utilizing the platform this year, Japanese or otherwise. To help you out, here’s our picks for some of the best Bandcamp offerings from Japanese creators released over the past month. Even if you come to this after the fact, all of these are worth your time at any point in the year.
mizuirono_inu — SONATINE
There’s a sense of beautiful overwhelmingness on SONATINE. Every release the experimental project has released feels like a dramatized take on the walls-closing-in sensation of modern life, taking the scale of projects like World’s End Girlfriend or even Vampillia and adding madcap pivots to make it all the more dizzying. Across its latest, sing-speak songs of isolation and existential dread turn cinematic via slow-builds built around piano, but approach collapse via sudden tempo changes and dives into the mosh pit. Opener “KUROSAWA” sets the stage, 11 minutes of rock operatics featuring iPhone sounds and a warped Radiohead sample turned into something fittingly cinematic. It’s a lot — which seems appropriate for 2026. Get it here.
PinocchioP — UNDERWORLD
Though not quite as chaotic as a mizuirono_inu, Vocaloid producer PinocchioP has long impressed with his ability to pair digi-generated melodic hooks with a sense of unease. Whether with friends or on his own, PinocchioP uses the voice of Hatsune Miku and other voice banks in a way that’s always a little unsettling by letting its synthesized edges poke through while matching it with equally buzzy sounds. UNDERWORLD collects some of his highlights from recent years, including the pogoing social-media-skeptic “Fake Meme” and the fidgety doom of “Apocalypse Now,” with new numbers showing more sonic range without losing that woozy vibe (the title track). Get it here.
Various Artists — brutshits compilation 6
Netlabel brutshits’ shares its sixth compilation of experimental club cuts, with a roster hailing from all over the world and all kinds of styles on display. Listen closely and you can hear Vocaloid sliced up into the mix of some tracks, or discombobulated footwork creations elsewhere. A great intro to one of the groups in Japan’s capital pushing dance sounds into lfet field. Get it here.
Guchon — Six Horns
All the way back in 2012, Japanese party starter Guchon shared the song “Six Horns” which turned a bunch of honking and some vocal samples into footwork-inspired euphoria. Now over a decade later, he’s remastered it with help from TREKKIE TRAX and added a bunch of remixes from pals spanning the globe, revealing new angles to what is possible when you have yourself some horns to work with. Get it here.
TREKKIE TRAX CREW, umru and nextdimensional feat. Nakamura Minami — Open!
Tokyo and New York link up with Japanese capital club staple TREKKIE TRAX CREW linking up with Big-Apple-based producers umru and nextdimensional for a a fidgety electro-pop rumbler that was tested out frequently during parties to get the right amount of energy flowing through it. I’m sure night-out trial-and-error went a long way, but it’s Nakamura Minami’s delirious verses — wherein she really digs into everything that one can “open!” — that gives it a tipsy power. Get it here
RewindFlash — RewindMemory
RewindFlash is more a collective than permanent project, with upstarts VOLTA and Letsu being the artists that reoccur the most across debut album RewindMemory. Besides them, this collection feels like a chance for names both established and fledgling to come together and fool around in a hyperpop play place. “Digging into my hyper side” is the initial line delivered after rippling electro-sing on opener “DOPAMINE!!!,” and from there this set runs from buzzy maximalist digi-pop merging 4s4ki with Yasutaka Nakata flourishes (aforementioned first song) to head-spinning EDM-ified rap (“execution”) to lovelorn dance laments (“Purple”). Anyone interested in how “hyperpop” has evolved in Japan should dig into this one for the sound alone, though I think the extra value of RewindMemory is seeing the continued giddiness around this community. Younger names criss-cross with levi of STARKIDS or safmusic, while Korean artist yeil jumps on a song with VOLTA and producer ariiol that is one of the most joyful here. Get it here.
Massage Attack — 1,000,000,000 Attack
Originally released on CD and streaming in early December, rising Tokyo band Massage Attack’s debut album comes to Bandcamp allowing an even greater number of listeners a chance to listen to their at-times oddball interpretation of retro rock. At times recalling Gen Z The Blue Hearts and elsewhere being garage-lifers with an eye for humor, the connective tissue throughout 1,000,000,000 Attack is a youthful energy to just go for it, whatever “it” is. Get it here.
WATASHI — Sorezori No Hibi
The vocalist of twee-pop powerhouse Cycling In Marmalade presents a stripped-down affair that brings the melody of his main group to a beatless set of songs emphasizing the words. Structured after a day, Sorezori No Hibi offers a more vulnerable but still pretty catchy set of songs for indie-pop fans the world over. Get it here.
Ichiko Aoba — 15th Anniversary Concert
The sonic worlds Ichiko Aoba conjures up on record are absorbing, but just as impressive is her ability to bring that same intimacy to live shows. To celebrate her 15th anniversary of an artist, the singer-songwriter held a show at Tokyo Opera City Hall in 2025 that she’s now shared on Bandcamp, and it’s a fantastic way to experience the blanketing feeling her concert brings, with the response of the crowd adding an extra warmth to it all. Get it here.
