Every month, scrmbl highlights some of the most noteworthy releases from Japanese artists available on Bandcamp. Sometimes, this coincides with the platform’s own Bandcamp Friday —an event where the company itself waives all revenue share and instead lets artists reap all the money made off sales. 

That is the case today, with Bandcamp presenting its final installment of the event for 2025 today (though the company has already announced plans to bring it back in 2026, with the next one happening at the very start of February). Lots of incredible Japanese albums came out with the end of the year in sight, so a great chance to listen to some last-minute contenders for your year-end lists…or simply discover some great new music from the country.

Foodman — Nameraka

Nagoya-based experimentalist Foodman’s music has always relied on off-kilter rhythms to make his surreal interpretation of suburban life a reality. He actually released two sets over the past month underlining his approach to percussion, with his collaborative EP with American artist Nikki Nair highlighting his wonkier sense of moving music forward. On subsequent solo work Nameraka, he’s speeding up. Featuring three tracks pushing 150 BPM and made using a single Electribe device, it’s Foodman going fast and focused on his interpretation of club music. It’s kinetic, but still full of the odd little details that make him one of the country’s best electronic artists. Get it here.

PR0P0SE — Lighthouse EP

The combo of rapper Onomatope Daijin and producer Thamesbeat have been active for quite some time — as the dance community celebrates Maltine Records’ 20th anniversary, it’s a good time to note they released on the netlabel back in 2012 — and continue to create. Latest release Lighthouse almost feels like a throwback to those early “net rap” days, highlighted by the jazzy skip of “Kobe Girl” and the Latin-tinged breeze of closer “Fanfare,” with Daijin’s Auto-tune-smeared rhymes contributing to the web feeling. Really though, it’s the playful energy the pair bring that make this sound like a throwback…but also a total blast in modern times. Get it here.

ItoShin — Expressway

A glistening house cruise for those late nights out on the road or otherwise. This model of heart-racing dance is a speciality of ItoShin, and Expressway allows him to play around with that sound a little bit. There’s plenty of deeper tracks here, but also a cut like “Falling in Love” which finds the producer using breakbeats to up the emotional nerves of the song without losing its physicality. Get it here.

Various Artists — ISOS five seasons: Aki

Despite making its name on rave-outs distributed online, Minna-No-Kimochi’s origin as they remind in the description for their label’s latest compilation comes from bedrooms and parties held in fields. The tracks included on Aki reflect this intimate and natural backdrops well, with a mix of ambient absorption and more skittering desktop-music experiments (see CVN and Yoshitaka Hikawa coming through with dizzying productions jostling past the peace coming before them). It’s a great listen, and one capturing the group’s ethos just right. Get it here.

nagareyama righteye — can we get all?

Vocaloid-meets-shoegaze artist nagareyama righteye follows up this year’s zig-zagging behind faint echoes with the emotionally dramatic can we get it all? The energy remains — see the drive of “stuck” or the crunchier riffs of “stumbler” — but there’s also a touch more space and pacing to making sure all the feelings the project is conveying via the synthesized voice of Otomachi Una (the consistent singer across, another difference between the digi-ensemble of previous works). Get it here.

babababa Featuring Adachi Rei — “Ningen Wa.”

The beauty of digital voices is the wide variety of tones and types available to play with, like a new toolbox rather than, say, the flattening realities of generative AI. Producer babababa takes a conceptual turn on new single “Ningen Wa.” which utilizes the deliberately robotic (and also somewhat Animal-Crossing-esque) voice of Adachi Rei to create a woozy number about a post-apocalyptic world. Besides the thematic ambition, the way babababa plays with Rei’s delivery — turning her clanky vocals into something percussive — reminds of how much creativity this instrument can inspire. Get it here. 

wool pool — Dry Cell

Speaking of a technology continuing to reveal new artistic applications — 8-bit sounds continue to be a source of major inspiration for many bedroom creators, and Shizuoka’s wool pool shows just how ecstatic they can sound on Dry Cell. This is a constant cascade of pop hookiness rendered through retro sounds, offering a unique texture but defined by melodies. Get it here.

Morimoto Naoki — yuragi

Memories of the everyday transmitted through a slight layer of fuzz but always hinting at something delicate. Morimoto Naoki’s ambient album yuragi features a constant graininess like it’s old film being played, but underneath is a gentle arrangement of guitar, bells and toy instruments capturing the warmth of the mundane. Get it here. 

BUDDHAHOUSE — “Welcome to The Weekday”

Finally, a track to help you groove through the drudgery of the week. Producer BUDDHAHOUSE’s “Welcome to The Weekday” isn’t completely free of the grind — the repetition of the song feels a little bit like heading out to work everyday, while the samples giving directions give serious boss vibes — but it is able to find temporary escape through house euphoria. Get it here.