Arakajime Kimerareta Koibitotachi e

Nearly 15 years after he first started his 'electro dub band', Shoji Ikenaga finally seems primed for the big time. Arakajime Kimerareta Koibitotachi e (roughly, 'for predetermined lovers') started life as a solo project on the Osaka live circuit, but Ikenaga would eventually relocate to Tokyo in 2008, recruiting a full band along the way, and he's been hard at it ever since. The group's music is now only loosely aligned with anything resembling old-school dub: new album Calling (which you can listen to here) is frontloaded with songs that are more redolent of the post-rock and jam band scenes, although there are some skank-tastic grooves saved for the flip side. Arakajime will be playing on the Field of Heaven stage at this year's Fuji Rock Festival, but prior to that they're wrapping up the album tour with a solo date at WWW, complete with visuals by VJ Rokapenis.