SC, that's because PZ tried to substitute http:// for www when he made the link. If you don't have the http://, there's no way for the browser to tell that you're not pointing to a file on your own website, so it goes to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/www.hifana.com/ rather than http://hifana.com/
Now would probably be a good time to mention No-WWW.org.
That was colorful. While we're on the topic of music, here is a non-Japanese, political music video that is still good nonetheless: Running from Your Shadow.
Fantastic! After only hearing Zeni Gava (makes my ears bleed) and Ken Ishi (gives me seizures), that was quite nice. Amazing video. I was hoping the fish would avenge his brethren in the end and would eat and digest them, though.
Kirian:
"Is it just me or was their weather channel measuring the hurricane's pressure in hectopascals rather than millibars? Interesting cultural switch."
Hectopascals are the SI unit for pressure. The 6.4 billion people in the world who use the metric system (i.e, everyone outside the USA), use hectopascals.
It's very good, but that isn't hip hop. It's well inside the phylum of electronica, but I don't think I can subclassify it any further. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'm a fan of electronica, and I haven't heard of Hifana before.
Hectopascals are the SI unit for pressure. The 6.4 billion people in the world who use the metric system (i.e, everyone outside the USA), use hectopascals.
Not necessarily. A millibar is exactly a hectopascal; tire pressures, for example, are measured in bar where I come from. And air pressure isn't mentioned on TV.
Hectopascals are the SI unit for pressure. The 6.4 billion people in the world who use the metric system (i.e, everyone outside the USA), use hectopascals.
Not necessarily. A millibar is exactly a hectopascal; tire pressures, for example, are measured in bar where I come from. And air pressure isn't mentioned on TV.
Technically, the SI unit of pressure is the pascal, and I knew that--I teach chemistry--I was just surprised, mainly because I've usually seen pressures in kilopascals but not hectopascals (hecto- is not a commonly used SI prefix around here). I would have expected 90 kPa rather than 900 hPa.
And yes, 1 mb = 1 hPa, and the bar and millibar are used in countries other than the US, especially by meterologists.
FWIW, the imagery and sounds are strongly Okinawan; pretty far from mainland Japan, and a place with its own distinct groove going on.
A quick check of Japanese Wikipedia doesn't say where the ladz are from, but says the name is Okinawan for "southern wind" or "southern flower". Seems they were originally inspired by a NY DJ named Clark Kent. And so on.
Hip hop? How can it be hip hop without badly spoken rhyme overpowering drums and throbbing bass?
This is techno or electronica or some such. In any event, it's cool and I like it. Now if only I could turn up some of the Vietnamese Club music I was hearing in a near- U of M cafe recently...
@ #22 Completely agree. @ #20 now that did rock. I always enjoyed Balzac, which is Japanese Punk (heavily influenced by the Misfits, as noted by their hair and makeup).
There is anime recently released on DVD in the states called "Samurai Champloo".
Even the Dub is excellent and captures the hip hop infused Edo period Japan perfectly. The music isn't bad either.
Also a DS game "The World Ends With You" has an excellent selection of Japanese Hip Hop, Techno, Rock tracks plus it shows the fashion side of Japan. Even people who hate hip-hop when exposed to Japanese Hip-Hop like it since lets face it most American Hip Hop isn't hip hop anymore but gangsta rap wannabe crap.
It's funny but when I had people listen to Japanese Hip Hop the people swore it was black Americans singing in Japanese.
Some readers have correctly mentioned that this isn't hip-hop, but was "techno or electronica or some such." As to its subclass, this is "break beat." What's interesting about them is that when they perform live they use 3-4 turntables and sampling units which they trigger live. No sequencing. This is perhaps why P-Zed called it hip-hop. Anyway, pretty awesome stuff with a fantastic sense of humor and funky beats. Coool.
This sort of music isn't quite my thing, but the combination of music and animation was rather oddly appealing. I went out and found a higher-resolution video of it, here:
The fact that they are Okinawan was interesting; I am reminded of a video of an Okinawan folk music/dance, where a young woman with very long hair was shaking her head and flinging her hair all about — much like the mermaids in the video. A quick Youtube search for Okinawa folk does not bring up anything like that, though, so perhaps I am misremembering.
Cool.
The link isn't working for me.
Kakkoii desu ne...
C-c-cool.
Japanese metal might suck for the most part, but their hip-hop isn't half bad.
Su-goi!
Boobies!
So, hip-hop soothes the savage b(r)east?
SC, that's because PZ tried to substitute http:// for www when he made the link. If you don't have the http://, there's no way for the browser to tell that you're not pointing to a file on your own website, so it goes to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/www.hifana.com/ rather than http://hifana.com/
Now would probably be a good time to mention No-WWW.org.
Should say: "that's because PZ tried to substitute http:// with www. when he made the link."
I reckon even Dali would have considered changing his drug dealer if he had seen this stuff.
Cool.
Most Awesome! I'm still bouncing to the beat!
As long as we are throwing up links to Japanese pop...
Tokyo Jihen - Himitsu for DJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7O-IDGXRgE
Shiina Ringo is God (am I allowed to say that? ;)
Boris rocks your face off!
Is it just me or was their weather channel measuring the hurricane's pressure in hectopascals rather than millibars? Interesting cultural switch.
And check out this indo-japanese cross pollination:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v7juZI1QMY
That shit is the mad notes!
That was colorful. While we're on the topic of music, here is a non-Japanese, political music video that is still good nonetheless: Running from Your Shadow.
Fantastic! After only hearing Zeni Gava (makes my ears bleed) and Ken Ishi (gives me seizures), that was quite nice. Amazing video. I was hoping the fish would avenge his brethren in the end and would eat and digest them, though.
fantastic! i'm in Japan at the minute, and was actually looking for some good hip hop. fantastic animation too.
kanpai!
Why, Japanese metal is good.
For a part, that is.
And a large part of that is Seikima-II, as in Jack the Ripper.
Besides, anyone up on stage with a mask like that just has to be adored.
We switched to hPa here in Denmark about a decade ago, I think.
Still don't think I'll ever quite develop a taste for electronica. But better than the Norwegian performance I attended in Bath.
At #13
Boris most certainly does not rock my face off.
For those interested in Japanese Hip-hop, I suggest you look up a band called Rip Slyme.
"Galaxy":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR_xTTNAi58
"Joint":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo4-nRVgG5s&feature=related
Kirian:
"Is it just me or was their weather channel measuring the hurricane's pressure in hectopascals rather than millibars? Interesting cultural switch."
Hectopascals are the SI unit for pressure. The 6.4 billion people in the world who use the metric system (i.e, everyone outside the USA), use hectopascals.
Hip-hop? That can't be hip-hop, if it was I'd have hated the song automatically. This rocks!
It's very good, but that isn't hip hop. It's well inside the phylum of electronica, but I don't think I can subclassify it any further. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'm a fan of electronica, and I haven't heard of Hifana before.
whoa! those mermaids were hawt. :) Cool tunes...
Not necessarily. A millibar is exactly a hectopascal; tire pressures, for example, are measured in bar where I come from. And air pressure isn't mentioned on TV.
Technically, the SI unit of pressure is the pascal, and I knew that--I teach chemistry--I was just surprised, mainly because I've usually seen pressures in kilopascals but not hectopascals (hecto- is not a commonly used SI prefix around here). I would have expected 90 kPa rather than 900 hPa.
And yes, 1 mb = 1 hPa, and the bar and millibar are used in countries other than the US, especially by meterologists.
And yes, one millibar is exactly one hectopascal.
FWIW, the imagery and sounds are strongly Okinawan; pretty far from mainland Japan, and a place with its own distinct groove going on.
A quick check of Japanese Wikipedia doesn't say where the ladz are from, but says the name is Okinawan for "southern wind" or "southern flower". Seems they were originally inspired by a NY DJ named Clark Kent. And so on.
A little Sunday trivia for you all.
For those interested, another great Okinawan themed electronicish band is Ryuukyuu Underground.
I liked this so much I went immediately to iTunes and bought this album. Thanks for posting this, Mr. Myers!
Hip hop? How can it be hip hop without badly spoken rhyme overpowering drums and throbbing bass?
This is techno or electronica or some such. In any event, it's cool and I like it. Now if only I could turn up some of the Vietnamese Club music I was hearing in a near- U of M cafe recently...
/es
@ #22 Completely agree. @ #20 now that did rock. I always enjoyed Balzac, which is Japanese Punk (heavily influenced by the Misfits, as noted by their hair and makeup).
I have to say, this isn't a hip hop song at all, but more of a rhythmical electronica piece.
The video definately draws heavily from Japanese paintings, which makes it all the more cool.
Thanks PZ!
For a good, trippy blend of animation and electronica, I always recommend Catalonia's "Pinker Tones".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNMEdBhvHK8
Too bad the "Instant Karma Party" isn't fielding a candidate this year.
"For those interested in Japanese Hip-hop"
There is anime recently released on DVD in the states called "Samurai Champloo".
Even the Dub is excellent and captures the hip hop infused Edo period Japan perfectly. The music isn't bad either.
Also a DS game "The World Ends With You" has an excellent selection of Japanese Hip Hop, Techno, Rock tracks plus it shows the fashion side of Japan. Even people who hate hip-hop when exposed to Japanese Hip-Hop like it since lets face it most American Hip Hop isn't hip hop anymore but gangsta rap wannabe crap.
It's funny but when I had people listen to Japanese Hip Hop the people swore it was black Americans singing in Japanese.
Where's the squid?
LOVED IT!
Maaaan! I love that Hifana video. Brilliant. Ok, I love videos...
another Hifana video by the same animator-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuUTg4gvYJE
a band called futureshock, video in Japan, very cool-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQlNMBVUHtw
some old school Ulfuls, a silly video- these guys are a little bit like TMBG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yONqwyTBcq0
and as long as we're doing cool videos, here are two of my favorites, Kylie Minogue (no, it's good, really), and the Foo Fighters,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUueEVXw7ec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H0BMfqFP9c
Some readers have correctly mentioned that this isn't hip-hop, but was "techno or electronica or some such." As to its subclass, this is "break beat." What's interesting about them is that when they perform live they use 3-4 turntables and sampling units which they trigger live. No sequencing. This is perhaps why P-Zed called it hip-hop. Anyway, pretty awesome stuff with a fantastic sense of humor and funky beats. Coool.
This sort of music isn't quite my thing, but the combination of music and animation was rather oddly appealing. I went out and found a higher-resolution video of it, here:
http://dekku.blogspot.com/2005/10/hifana-wamono.html
and more here:
http://dekku.blogspot.com/search?q=Hifana
The fact that they are Okinawan was interesting; I am reminded of a video of an Okinawan folk music/dance, where a young woman with very long hair was shaking her head and flinging her hair all about — much like the mermaids in the video. A quick Youtube search for Okinawa folk does not bring up anything like that, though, so perhaps I am misremembering.