Between and Beyond :: Japan’s Mutant Pop Underground

Over the past five years, Light in the Attic have offered wanderlusting listeners a series of primers with reissue compilations featuring music not yet released officially outside of Japan.

The label’s latest collection is called Somewhere Between. Subtitled Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988, this compilation attempts to connect the dots between various fringe figures operating outside of the country’s monolithic commercial music industry.

Fragments du Monde Flottant

A spiritual successor to Golden Apples of the Sun, the recent compilation Fragments du Monde Flottant proves Devendra Banhart’s ears fully intact. Released by the Genève, Switzerland based Bongo Joe Records, Fragments again finds the singer-songwriter in a curatorial role, culling demo recordings from his labyrinth of friends, acquaintances and musical compatriots.