Kpopalypse’s compilation of all “Asian, but not Korean, not pop, not world music” features in 2024 roundups

Observant caonimas may have noticed that Kpopalypse featured random “Asian, but not Korean, not pop, not world music” selections in Kpopalypse roundups during 2024. Since roundup is now over for the year, here’s a handy list of all music content that was part of this feature, just so you don’t have to go trawling through individual roundups to find the picks!

The Asian music feature in 2024 follows hot on the heels of the black music feature that I had in each Kpopalypse roundup over the course of 2023. I noticed that people on social media were calling me anti-black because I don’t like R&B, which is clearly fucking stupid, so because I’m a cunt and I like to prove a point, I decided to feature a year of black artists that I actually like, in different non-stereotypical music genres. Just like with that black music feature, this year I wanted to feature Asian music that was also in non-stereotypical genres. That’s the reason for the “not-Korean not-pop not-world-music” rule, as most Asian music that gets the big hefty promotional/algorithmic push to get it in front of k-pop fans these days tends to fall into one of a few categories:

• Non-pop music by Korean artists (i.e the type of stuff you’d see on Korean Indie)
• Music that closely resembles k-pop but is from or based in other Asian countries (F5ve, Bini, etc)
• Music that features a hybrid of traditional instruments and modern elements (The Hu, Nini Music, etc)

I have nothing against any of these things, but I feel like current exposure favours them, so I wanted to go outside of these particular boxes, just to expand the music taste of readers a bit and also in the case of more obscure picks to help out some of the artists. Here’s each video and just some extra new notes on it, why it was picked, etc.

Merzbow – Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set

Merzbow is the godfather of Japanese noise music and he’s at his best when working with analog effects, as he is here. When I did my show supporting Merzbow he didn’t have the cool wearable spring reverb unit shown here though, which was a pity. I’ve still got the computer of mine that he partially destroyed that night by shaking the venue roof so hard with bass frequencies that decades of dust fell down and landed on all my shit. The best thing about this video besides of course the great music is that you can play a drinking game where you take a shot every time there’s a needless wipe cut.

SPEED – The First Test

I featured not one but two songs from Australian group SPEED the first time they were in roundup, so I’ll put a different one here instead. While other groups trot out their “oh we’re so Asian, observe our Asianness” acoustic instruments to appeal to the world music crowd, the singer from SPEED busts out the most uncool old-school western instrument ever, a fucking flute of all things during the breakdown of this great hardcore song. Not only that, but they make it work. Great stuff.

Makemake – We Are One

I first found out about Taiwan’s MakeMake thanks to guitarist Leevia’s video endorsing seven string Ibanez guitars. I’ve played that particular guitar model (Ibanez QX527PB) and I really like it, if I were to ever buy a seven-string I’d definitely buy that specific one for the simple reason that seven-stringers are always so bulky and heavy but that thing is so compact and weighs nearly nothing, it’s such a great design. I also love the slanted frets, definitely a very comfortable play. However I can’t justify the nearly $2000 AUD asking price for the thing because I have never been contracted to do seven-string guitar playing in my life so it’s really not worth the investment as I’d never see any returns. Oh well, Makemake are great and I find this song weirdly catchy just because of the riffs.

Limited Express (Has Gone?) – Bet On Me

The scene in the Shin Hana books where [spoilers] Hana’s group tries to go overseas for a show but their tour ends at the airport customs gate because their agency fucked up the visas, that’s actually a more common problem than you think and it’s the reason why a surprising amount of overseas tours get cancelled. Older k-pop fans will remember that Oh My Girl had to cancel a show for this reason some years back, and in Australia Limited Express (Has Gone?) also got sent back home to Japan at the airport for exactly the same reason. Since tourist visas are way easier/cheaper to get for most countries than working visas, a lot of groups will just risk getting the tourist visa, lie about why they’re in the country and hope nobody notices. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. So that’s why I can’t give you a review of how awesome this band are live. Just as well they still sound pretty good on record.

Naked City – live at NYC

The original kings of “change ups”, Naked City are just as amazing live as they are on record. The subdued and mega-boring audience is because this group really appeal to egghead jazz fuckwits as they’re considered jazz of a sort, so everyone’s just watching them play and going “wow, a Ebm7+13 half diminshed, man” or whatever. Jazz audiences are cunts.

High Tension – High Risk High Rewards

High Tension’s popularity worldwide got a big boost when Henry Rollins (someone with a very keen eye for quality Australian rock music, also see The Mark Of Cain) decided to give them a quick plug in a high profile interview of punk legends that also included a very drunk John Lydon who would not fucking shut up and let anyone else get a word in, which is why everyone thanks Henry in the comments section to all this group’s videos. Sadly it wasn’t quite enough to keep the group alive. I’d rather listen to High Tension than any punk rock from the 70s or 80s, and it’s a shame this band are no longer around – Karen Utomo’s new projects are great too but this song is so mighty that it just kills everything.

Impiety – Azazel

I found out about Singapre’s Impiety when their album “Ravage And Conquer” was dropped into the radio station that I was working at. It was pretty fucking insanely heavy and so is the band’s newer stuff. Unfortunately I missed these guys when they toured Australia some years back, hopefully they get down here again.

King Brothers – No Want

Another band from Japan that I’ve been lucky enough to share a stage with, these guys go incredibly hard at live shows, something which this video tries to capture and only partially succeeds. The only problem with it is I miss the bass – they had a bass player back when I played with them but they don’t have that now, I think that’s a shame.

Slant – at Orange Studio

I broke my rule for this song and featured a Korean punk group, and I did it because I wanted to give the people who might have had some trouble imagining what the chaos of a Kimchi Slappers gig might look like a little bit of visual help. When I write books I always get criticism along the lines of “but the culture is different, THAT doesn’t happen in Korea” excuse me, yes it does. The world of music has its own culture. Slant are awesome by the way, check out their shit.

Voice Of Baceprot – God, Allow Me (Please) To Play Music

Voice Of Baceprot are awesome, one of the best groups on this list for sheer quality production style and musical variety. They also have killer stage outfits, who knew that Muslim clothes would be just as much of a natural fit for metal as gay BDSM club wear? Voice Of Baceprot are as visionary as Rob Halford and they’re doing pretty well to put Indonesian metal on the map.

Pistol Valve – Kimi Dake Nanda!

It sucks that Pistol Valve’s music is almost impossible to find these days but I guess that’s probably the fate of all the Japanese ten-piece ska-punk brass girl groups with turntables. Mind you this is far and away their best song anyway, nothing else they’ve got really lights my fire as it’s a little too much in the ska direction for my liking.

The Tielman Brothers – Rollin Rock

Don’t skip this just because the thumbnail looks like some old-person music – The Tielman Brothers need to be heard, and seen, to be believed. These Indonesian rockers outplayed and outperformed literally every single other group active at the time they were around, and when you see them here you’ll quickly understand why. Imagine being a parent in the 1960s and seeing this – no wonder old people were terrified of rock and roll back then.

Ou – Frailty

Female-fronted ambient Chinese prog-metal is the music niche that you won’t know that you needed in your life until you hear it. Ou grab stale djent prog technical wankery and give it a fresh kick up the ass by throwing out the usual one-note riffing and injecting some outstanding melody and harmony writing. The result sounds epic and emotive, like nothing else I’ve ever heard, with musical twists that are surprising but also make total sense.

Sigh – Shoujahitsumetsu

Japanese black metal band Sigh are widely regarded as one of the best groups in the entire genre of black metal and with very good reason, they’re compositionally just above so much of the generic junk in that genre. Not only that but they aren’t afraid to change up styles and explore other heavy genres like stoner rock just because they can, they’re definitely more versatile than your k-pop faves.

Nightmare – Hero In Us

Myanmar’s Nightmare sound perhaps a little over the top until you think about it and realise how fucked the political situation over there is, and then it makes a lot more sense. It’s the same reason Sepultura sound better than all the “big four” 80s thrash bands. When you come from somewhere where you actually have something to complain about, songs complaining about something feel a lot more valid.

Nameless Gods – Your Flesh is not Enough

Holy shit, the riffs! The vocals! But mainly the riffs! Good luck getting that opening riff out of your head anytime soon once you hear it. Nameless Gods are from Brazil but they have a Japanese member so that gets them in, and yes that is a good enough reason because this is the best doom metal I’ve heard in ages and I didn’t want anyone to miss it.

Masonna – at Beyond Innocence Festival

If you heard the Merzbow track and thought it was a little soft and weak, like maybe he’s wimping out for the bucks, Masonna should satisfy.

Frankei Chan, Roel A. Garcia – First Killing (Fallen Angels OST)

Let’s explore some OST music that unlike shit Korean OST music is actually good. My favourite film from Quentin Tarantino’s favourite film director Wong Kar-Wai is Fallen Angels, the plot of which is too convoluted to convey here but I guess can be summaried as “weird shit happens in Hong Kong and people die”, and it has a great soundtrack. This song here is the most random collab ever, a soundalike of Massive Attack’s “Karmacoma” that was made because the director actually wanted to use “Karmacoma” for his movie but knew he couldn’t afford the rights. This song has rewritten lyrics sung in Malagasy (the language of Madagascar) and was produced by Roel A. Garcia and film director (but NOT the director of this film) Frankie Chan. The goddamn thing is great, shits all over the (already very good) original and even won an award, one of the rare times that awards actually acknowledge something decent.

Ikochi – Saruno Banmae Adauchi

The theme for 2025 is going to be random LGBT songs and this should get you warmed up, a three-piece Japanese rockabilly band with a trans female singer. One of the bands that did make it to Australia back in the day, I saw this band live and even have a signed CD from them. I have no idea where they are now, but they were great when they were active.

Van Halen – Hot For Teacher

Did you know that the Van Halen brothers are half-Indonesian? Now you do! They actually moved to America from the Netherlands because their family was sick of the racism in Europe at that time, and then they solved racism in Van Halen. Of course it didn’t last and now racism is unfortunately cool and trendy all over the world especially among k-pop fans but the utopia was good while it lasted. That’s what dreams are made of.

Parasite – Road To The Battle

I had to scrub the other video that I used here because it got privated, a pity. Anyway Parasite are from Vietnam and it sucks that this group are having to do Battle Of The Bands type stuff because as a seasoned performer let me just say that you should never enter your band in any competition stuff like that, ever. Nugus have it tough all over the world.

Isiliel – Qliphoth

Japanese nugu metallers Isiliel have one of the most low-ass budget MVs I’ve ever seen, with a really cool concept and a lot of effort hamstrung by amateurish editing, which is a real pity. Mind you heavy metal in general is notorious for shit music videos across the board so if anything it’s probably on the upper end. Anyway while the video certainly doesn’t stand up to their contemporaries in the Japanese metal scene, the song sure does so check it out.

The Rebel Riot Band – Bella Ciao

The Rebel Riot Band are from Myanmar, and this cover of an old Italian anti-fascist song is great. It wouldn’t surprise me at all of these people were actually directly involved in the resistance over there. Stay safe, caonimas!

Peril – on “The Noise”, SBS Australia

I wanted to put a video clip of a Peril song here but even though some do exist, they’ve seemingly been lost in time. A pity because this Australian/Japanese collaboration had a unique sound that combined rock and industrial music styles in a fresh way that was far more intricate and organic than the “let’s add this guitar sample to this drum sample” everyone else was doing at the time.

Chthonic – Pattonkan

Taiwan’s biggest metal export (or maybe they’re not idk), Chthonic are pretty goddamn good. That is all.

Melt Banana – Sick Zip Everywhere

Melt Banana were one of those groups that I came across because people at the radio station I used to work at really liked them. It turns out, they had good taste. This is Japanese punk meets Mr Bungle or something, deliciously chaotic and bizarre. This here is one of their more accessible songs, they only get weirder.

Good As Gross – Good As Gross

I have no idea what happened to this technical deathcore group from India as they’ve been dead quiet ever since their self-titled song dropped. Still it’s a pretty good song so I’m glad I was able to find them when I did, the production and musicality here holds up just fine against anything in this style I’ve heard anywhere.

Otoboke Beaver- Live at Tiny Desk Korea

At this point the “Asian but not-Korean not-pop not-world-music” feature had been going for a while and I had about 57 of you all screaming at me each week to put Otoboke Beaver in, so I finally did. It was a good decision, they’re pretty damn rocking, coming across like a slightly more pop-friendly version of Melt Banana, now that’s not a bad place to be.

ACAB – We Are ACAB

ACAB are an old school skinhead/oi punk group (with a touch of metal arguably) from Malaysia. They’re actually pretty well known in tradpunk circles because their song “Skinhead For Life” has been covered by quite a few other bands, most notably Haymaker, but I think “We Are ACAB” is a better song so here’s a live version and you can check out the studio version here for a (slightly) better mix if you’re finding it hard to hear what’s going on because of all the drunks with even less hair than Kpopalypse jumping up on stage and screaming. Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia, Oi Oi Oi!

Guitar Wolf – High Schooler Action

Guitar Wolf are a cool garage punk band from Japan who actually have quite a bit of notoriety among fans of Japanese culture and B-grade movies mainly due to them starring in the cult zombie film “Wild Zero“, a genius promotional move as the film has tons of their music and stays very true to their image as a band. Their fame levels made them big enough to get them down to my country and I got to share a few stages with them which was pretty cool, there were no exploding zombies though unfortuantely.

Beabadoobee – Cologne

I’m sure you’re aware of Beabadoobee so I’m just going to use this space to say that if she was a k-pop she’d probably get in my bias list above AKMU’s Suhyun. Someone somewhere will probably get upset about this observation because complaining about ordinary human observations that we all make is just in k-pop fans’ DNA (“you’re so sexist, why aren’t you talking about her music”) but let’s be real – do I need to tell you how good this song is? Are you fucking deaf, cunt? Case closed.

Metallica – One

Do you know who is Asian and you probably didn’t know it? Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist in Metallica, that’s right cunts. Here’s an interview with his Filipino mother if you are interested. Some trivia for you is that the video for “One” has footage from the movie “Johnny Got His Gun“, a film that the band liked so much that they actually bought the rights to the footage so they could use it in the video… which unfortunately means that nobody can see the film now. Why not torrent it just to annoy Lars.

Koiai – A New Picture

Li-sa-X is just amazing, one of the best guitar players in the world in my opinion, or at least one of my favourites. Her new band Koiai is insane, crazily technical but also with really good songwriting, it’s just winning on every level. It doesn’t hurt that the other guitarist in the group is Hazuki from Nemophila, when you’ve got Hazuki in a group as the second guitarist you know the result is going to be some crazy shit that maybe only about ten people on earth have the ability to recreate.

Nic Endo – Man-Eater

Nic Endo is from Atari Teenage Riot, but this video was recorded before she joined when she was just doing electronic weird shit. The Digital Hardcore label in Germany had tons of great stuff like this around 2000 or so, as much as I liked them it was a bit of a shame to me when Atari Teenage Riot took off and all that other stuff sort of fell by the wayside a bit.

FIFTY FIFTY – Starry Night

Okay, that’s a lot of weird muc so let’s have a realxing k-pop break. This is just your regular reminder that Fifty Fifty are quite good, aren’t they. Okay, back to our regular program.

Regurgitator – Kong Foo Sing

I have no idea of their fame levels elsewhere but Regurgitator were huge in Australia when they came out, and still are quite well know to this day here, they won’t need any introduction to Australian readers above a certain age.  They’re one of those groups that isn’t afraid to sound completely different on every album, so be aware of that if you go investigating.

Damon & Naomi – In The Morning

I got quite sad when I was researching Damon and Naomi for something new to write here, because I’ve liked them for ages and their “The Wondrous World Of Damon & Naomi” album is so great, by far their best one, and I found out that the group didn’t even really like the production on it. This bummed me out because I think the production of the album (by producer Kramer who also did all the production of their old group Galaxie 500 as well as bunch of other mainly more high-profile stuff) is fantastic, but apparently the group wanted a more stripped back sound and didn’t like a lot of the orchestrated stuff that Kramer added. What a pity, but then it just shows to me that as artists you can sometimes be “too close” to the material and not always understand exactly what resonates with the audience. That’s why I have about 57 feedback channels for my writing and do constant surveys, it’s always good to know what readers like and dislike so I don’t lose touch and disappear (even more) up my own asshole.

Deathpact – Bloody Sacrifice

I found out about Deathpact when I was researching the origin of the “China Shred Collab” guitarists (featured below) and stumbled upon a pretty kick-ass technical death metal band. Definitely a headbanger.

Bananach – live at Perunggu

Bananach are from Indonesia and one of my favourite bands in this entire thing, they are truly fantastic. They’re like an Indonesian Fugazi, they’ve got the same angular sound and cathartic songwriting… but even that description feels like I’m selling them short a little, because they also have a sound all their own. Anyway this entire concert is definitely worth the watch.

Multinational Corporations – The White Man’s Burden

The production on this Pakistani thrash band is pretty budget, but the song sure is rocking, hitting somewhere between Kreator, Napalm Death and Celtic Frost… in other words, all the good shit.

Trivax – Against All Opposition

How big of a nutsack do you actually need in order to be a death metal band from Iran, writing songs where you directly tell the government to get fucked for pretty much the entire running length? Gosh I hope these guys are still alive. Anyway not only do they have nutsacks as big as a whale but the song kicks ass. Be warned, this song and video don’t pull any punches.

Choke Cocoi – Gera

Choke Cocoi are from the Philippines. Annie, this is the sort of band you should join. Do it, caonima. See if they have a vacancy.

Angelspit – Vena Cava

Angelspit are Australian and I was always sad that they never got bigger back when their music was peaking. They should have had massive budget videos and stage productions, not this “photo modelling shoot disguised as a MV in 240p” nonsense and playing the shitty clubs where I lived. I also really wanted singer DestroyX’s cybergoth look to take off into the mainstream because it’s totally my sexuality, but I guess most Australians disagree because that sure never happened. What a shame, their debut song here remains their finest moment at least visually, tons of untapped potential.

Death Angel – Seemingly Endless Time

I never knew Death Angel were Filipino when I was into them back in the 80s but the things you find out when researching lists. Anyway they were pretty good and their “Act III” album is one of the classic thrash metal albums.

Hanabie – Be The Gal

Sadly I had to miss seeing Japan’s Hanabie when they very recently came to my town, as it coincided with some really awful personal shit happening in my life and a complete lack of money, but some people I know went and I heard they were great.Go see them if they come to your town.

Guitar Shred collab from China 2022

Chinese guitar shred video collaborations go hard.

Unlucky Morpheus – Eruption/The Dance Of Eternity

I’m sure you’re mostly aware of Japan’s Unlucky Morpheus, and while their original songs are on average generally very good, I’ve chosen to put their covers of Van Halen’s “Eruption” and Dream Theater’s “The Dance Of Eternity” here, just because it shows off violinist Jill’s phenomenal playing. I won’t go into the technicalities of it but just know that what you’re seeing and hearing her do here is basically not possible (not that the other members of the band are slouches or anything). K-pop fans crap on about vocalists this, vocalists that, all fucking day (even though half of them don’t even know what they’re talking about and just make up a bunch of stuff while their bias constantly uses touched-up pre-records) but where’s the love for instrumentalists, this I ask you.

Daisuke Kurosawa ft. Sakura Yoshida – ZanTetsuKen

It’s said that no matter what you can play on the guitar, there’s a Japanese girl who can play it better than you. Just so you know, that Japanese girl’s name is Sakura Yoshida.

Lovebites – Unchained

Lovebites on the other hand don’t have the best players, they just have good songs. Miyako is actually about on my level as far as electric guitar goes, which makes sense because like me she’s a multi-instrumentalist who started guitar late. I’m out of practice in this style but if I actually knuckled down and practiced my shredding and sweep picking properly every day for a few hours, I’d probably be as good as her in about twelve months (but I won’t, because sadly nobody in my town really wants to hear Lovebites covers so I would never get to use the skills). Midori on the other hand is on a level above that, I don’t think I’d have the physical capability to get to her level, there’s a ceiling that you eventually hit as a player due to genetics. It’s okay though, I can just live my guitar fantasties vicariously through Lovebites, all is well in the world. Anyway I hope you all found something to enjoy and appreciate with these picks!

---

That’s all for this post – Kpopalypse will return soon!