Wagakki Band (和楽器バンド) - “Homura”

~Zumi Underground

This band is truly something else. Wagakki means traditional Japanese musical instruments which are heavily featured—in the thumbnail of the video, a shamisen is being played which is kind of like a 3-string guitar that’s generally played using a plectrum—however, it’s hard not to call them a rock band. This is one of the coolest fusions I’ve heard of traditional folk music and modern electronic instruments and styles.

I also really love the aesthetic fusion. Most of the band members are rocking elements of traditional Japanese clothing like hakamas (the wide-leg samurai pants) and one of the guitarists is even killin’ it with a traditional Noh theatre mask. But then they modernize it with leather boots and real life anime hair.

Back to the music…this live performance lets everyone get a minute in the spotlight first starting off HARD with a disgusting guitar solo, compliments of our Noh mask person, and copious head banging. I can’t blame them though. I too head banged pretty freakin’ hard listening to this. I just about gave myself a migraine feeling this so damn hard.

I want to touch on all the cool solos, but this post would be a novel if I did. Let me just quickly talk about the vocal style which pulls from a more traditional enka style with the cool voice warbles (apparently the scholarly term is “melisma” or kobushi in Japanese. Enka was beginning to die out a bit, but this is definitely one way to keep the style alive and maybe pique the interest of younger generations to dig into the roots of it.

There’s so much to dig into with this 7 min performance that crosses not only genres but time, but I’ll let y’all just listen and hopefully enjoy it as much as I do.

Get more Wagakki Band on Spotify

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