Band Spotlight:Wagakki Band

 Today, I have an interesting suggestion for you, Wagakki band. They are an interesting cross section of different music genres while coming together into something that I feel works really well. The two musics that are combined together are modern rock, and traditional Japanese folk-instruments. On face value, the mixture of modern and classical instruments sounds odd. That is until you hear how well they mesh together, as an example, the tsugaru shamisen (つがるしゃみせん) works really well with the guitar, same with the taiko(太鼓) and drums, and with the inclusion of the bamboo flute(shakuhachi 尺八), Koto( 箏), and traditional folk singing, it creates quite the interesting sound.

    This is another band that seems to have their own band lore, that seems to be quite in depth and rich, though I know much less about it than BABYMETAL. One of the coolest things about this band is that all of the members in the band that play the classic Japanese instruments were classically trained, which I find cool because they chose to use that talent to reach a broader audience that might not have had the chance to hear the sounds of Japanese folk instruments. The band is quite large, but this is one of those times where I feel that is less of a detriment due to how as I said that they make the different sounds mesh so well.

     The band members include Suzuhana Yuko (vocalist), Ibukuro Kiyoshi (koto), Kaminaga Daisuke (shakuhachi), Ninagawa Beni (TsugaruShamisen/Jamisen), Kurona (Wadaiko/Taiko), Machiya (Guitar), Asa (Bass), and Wasabi (Drums). If you are interested in hearing what they sound like I suggest that you use the Youtube link below and watch the video for the song 'Senbonzakura' to get the most ideal feel and sound of who they are. Also, they are going to be releasing their second album in the near future, titled "Yasou Emaki" as well as a tour later this year. Once again, if you are interested, I will leave the links to all the important sites at the bottom. 

     Koyuuki

Wagakki Band (Official Site): http://wagakkiband.jp/wagae/
Twitter (Band account): https://twitter.com/WagakkiBand
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WagakkiBand
Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wagakkiband/
​Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDFHGuRyTACdcJHYtIPAX5Q
​ (or) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWOrza3SzBXAhL7gFfsOLAQ