This guy is, by far, my favorite Japanese “contemporary” composer… (I mean… 70’s is like 40 years ago but isn’t Edo period music right?) Benzaiten Album is A MASTERPIECE!!!
Minoru Muraoka is another nice composer/Shakuhachi player
Love this tune too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpEzsEFLykw
I’m more on the funky-jazz-psycho-rock side as you can see ^^
Great bands everyone! But why isn’t the Naruto anime soundtrack here? There are so many songs that are awesome. The combination of rock music with shamisen and shakuhachi is really awesome. Imo the main theme is the best song. Fast forward to 2:10 for some solo shamisen and shakuhachi.
You know, as soon as I started sharing some of these videos with my husband, Natuto was the first thing he asked about! I’m glad you added it! Just goes to show being “contemporary” with these traditional instruments isn’t just a silly “foreigner” idea. hehe
Katoh-san gave me a CD called Bolinho De Arroz by a band called Soothe that has some cool Latin inspired stuff with Tsugaru Shamisen and Wadaiko in it. I don’t know where you’d find it other than his shop though. Band doesn’t seem to be doing much currently.
ohh yeaaa 
i love naruto songs Rising fighting spirit and Strong and strike are awesome
Soothe as in “Oyama Yutaka?”
He plays with Masahrio Nitta a lot.
Cool!
Yeah, that’s the guy on shamisen. Not a fan of everything on the album, but there’s some pretty neat stuff on there. I’m guessing you know the guy? 
Ooh! Latin music with shamisen would fit so nicely.
I recommend Nitta and Oyama’s duet (not vocal) album Karma. Though the only instruments on the CD are shamisen, it really is just as musically satisfying as a full band.
Their album is quite unique because usually, albums with only shamisen just consist of traditional Go Dai Tsugaru pieces which are most appreciated by listeners who are already interested in shamisen. Karma is very easy to listen to, and is musically appealing to those who’s never even heard shamisen before.
To also note, the sound quality is so good, you can really hear how expensive their shamisen are. 
Masahiro and I are working on getting his albums available for online download (which doesn’t seem to be a marketing tool used much for albums in Japan).
It would be great if more of his work came up on Spotify. I know that some artists are a bit disappointed with how much money they get from it but I don’t know if that’s the case for everyone.
Anyway, buying cds is a dying thing. I just love the idea of subscribing every month and getting access to almost all music. The songs I play generates revenue for the artists of those songs.
Note: Agatsuma and the Yoshida brothers both have albums there. I remember listening to Agatsuma on spotify way back like 3 years ago so his record label must feel that it’s worth it.
I gotta be honest I hate J-POP and “J-Rock” with a passion. The only Japanese band I really like is Maximum the Hormone. However, there is a band I love from Taiwan called Chthonic that use the pipa and erhu etc etc.
Turn it up LOUD!
Warning - screamo hater alert I’d listen to it if he fixed his singing
The music was really nice! I was quite impressed by the video as well. I don’t know any good Japanese bands but I guess it’s because I’m not exposed to them. It’s like what they say about Chinese bands. A country that large, and you don’t know one single band… There must be so much music from there that you would like if you heard it.
Kyle: Yeah, Katoh-san gave me a copy of Karma too, and I really liked it as well. I’d recommend both albums.
Liam: I used to listen to Morning Musume. For language practice, of course. Then Masako told me that most kids stop listening to it when they enter high school, and I stopped soon after.
Whoa, Chthonic is awesome. Like Svartsot, (which Karl recommended to me) their use of acoustic instruments fits very well. 
It’s inspiring for the idea of combining shamisen with it. Perhaps a bit different, as I plan for shamisen to be up front with the guitars (not lightly sprinkled in like the Pipa).
Unlike Karl, I like their screaming. (Maximum the Hormone’s screams were a little… flaccid, imho)
Yeah I have to agree they screams are abit weak. I just love how they change genre 5 times in a song and make it fit and (in my opinion) sound organic and unforced.
Hey man if you wanna to Morning Musume you go for it
Doing things your own way has worked out pretty well for you so far
Oh! Karl recommended this band to me a few days ago. I actually think it would be the perfect selection for our potential shamisen metal cover band.
Because the shamisen would be filling the roles of the guitar, the song/band selection is important. For example, not too shreddy where the notes become slurred (hard to keep notes clean without frets, and also because we’re no Kevin), but not too simple where we’re mindlessly bashing away at the open ichi no ito. This band seems to be just right. A very tasteful (and doable) amount of melody that would be very appropriate to be played on shamisen.
Oh, I actually never played Mo-Musume on shamisen. Just listened to it as I worked.
I thought it would be fun to share your favorite contemporary bands that use traditional Japanse instruments - not limited to just the Shamisen. Sharing your favorite song(s) from the group would be fun too. These are some of mine:
http://youtu.be/x_CzD0GBD-4
Yoshida Brothers - Risinghttp://youtu.be/6fbiFzmmlT0
Yoshida Brothers - Nightmare Revisited - Nabbedhttp://youtu.be/e4ZP35I2Pks
Rin’ - Sakura Sakurahttp://youtu.be/zi24j5APsHY
AAA - featuring Rin’ - Samurai HeartI’m sure the Yoshida Brothers are well known by Shamisenites already, I love their blend of rock and Shamisen, and their energy. Rin’ is one of my all time favorites, I love the variety of traditional instruments they use and the variety of music they do too.
Hello!
I listened a song by Yoshida because I saw on YouTube a video of Italian kabuki dancers. It’s very energic!
For AAA (triple a) song, I don’t like it… maybe, I think, more chance to traditional instruments (was there also shamisen or not?) was Yes, it’s ONLY MY OPINION…better…
Wow! It’s very exciting to know about another person who knows Rin’!!!
I discovered Rin’ two ears ago and I discovered jiuta-shamisen for this reasons!
I’m looking to do a project covering most of Rin’ songs, with some friends: one who plays koto, shamisen (jiuta) and juushichigen (17-stringed koto), one who plays shakuhachi and another who plays biwa… I call them “friends”, but they are people I contacted searching on Internet “koto lessons” etc. This project is called wapop, because we want to do a fusion with wagaku (the Japanese term for traditional music) and pop.
I’m very proud of this! Maybe, it will start last year, but the problem is finding a biwa player! It’s so complicated!
Of course, we’ll do our version of Sakura Sakura…
Sakura Sakura is the first song I heard by Rin’. I discovered this unit for a misunderstanding!
100% anything by Wagakki Band, and their side project, Hanafugetsu. Shamisen, shakuhachi, koto and wadaiko plus western guitar, drums, bass and shigin vocals together are amazing. Hanafugetsu is three of the band’s members, shigin vocals, shakuhachi, koto, and piano.
Lots of interesting groups I’ve never heard about before. Thank you Evyn for asking the question.
And “Thanks God!”, Ian came up with the first band I had in mind.
I’ll try to listen to this new stuff in the next weeks.
I listened to Wagakki, but I don’t like how the singer sings… I heard shigin, but it’s a bit different, personally… Thoug I like the structure of the songs by Wagakki!
A Rin’ member, Tomoka, made a CD called Meguru Sato, Meguru Kimi. Has anyone got this CD? It’s because I love these songs, but can find only a concert performance on YouTube… oops… :(:(
The late Takeharu Kunimoto did some INCREDIBLE stuff playing blues shamisen.
I’m trying to track down some of his CDs, listening to him make a traditional Japanese instrument work so well in American blues was the final push in my decision to start shamisen.