Ian (F) Martin
@ianfmartin.bsky.social
Writer and indie music scene person, based in Tokyo. Author of Quit Your Band! Musical Notes from the Japanese Underground (Awai Books, 2016) / バンドやめようぜ！ (Ele-king books, 2017) and owner of Call And Response Records.
Chickened out of getting Tactics Ogre and bought Crisis Core instead. I think I like the idea of SRPGs better than the fiddly, fussy reality.
January 6, 2026 at 11:07 AM
Chickened out of getting Tactics Ogre and bought Crisis Core instead. I think I like the idea of SRPGs better than the fiddly, fussy reality.
Today I have been enjoying the psychedelic pleasures of the album Circuses and Bread by The Durutti Column.
January 6, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Today I have been enjoying the psychedelic pleasures of the album Circuses and Bread by The Durutti Column.
Tormented by the sound of someone slowly eating toast.
January 6, 2026 at 3:30 AM
Tormented by the sound of someone slowly eating toast.
In this sort of mood tonight: youtu.be/QOAwiusq-vM?...
Bubblegum Crisis - Opening | "Konya wa Hurricane" ( 4K REMASTERED )
YouTube video by Devil may cry
youtu.be
January 5, 2026 at 6:44 PM
In this sort of mood tonight: youtu.be/QOAwiusq-vM?...
If going to regret Tactics Ogre, aren’t I?
January 5, 2026 at 5:44 PM
If going to regret Tactics Ogre, aren’t I?
Not sure how they would quite fit together (12 seems a lot of members for one band) but Chamber, Domino, Forge, Glob Herman, Karma, Kid Omega, Layla Miller, Madrox, Monet St. Croix, Sage, Surge, Trinary.
(Some are in there because their powers would suit certain sounds. Some because of their vibe)
(Some are in there because their powers would suit certain sounds. Some because of their vibe)
which 12 members of the x-men or x-men spinoff group/mutant would be a in post-punk band together, re: that guided by voices song
December 29, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Not sure how they would quite fit together (12 seems a lot of members for one band) but Chamber, Domino, Forge, Glob Herman, Karma, Kid Omega, Layla Miller, Madrox, Monet St. Croix, Sage, Surge, Trinary.
(Some are in there because their powers would suit certain sounds. Some because of their vibe)
(Some are in there because their powers would suit certain sounds. Some because of their vibe)
In the right bar for a Boxing Day evening with sounds.
December 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
In the right bar for a Boxing Day evening with sounds.
4AM Status Quo keeps the room alive.
December 25, 2025 at 7:05 PM
4AM Status Quo keeps the room alive.
A resurrection of mine, @raloufpiston.bsky.social and David F. Hoenigman's annual tradition of doing a Christmas Day music podcast on David's Blown Speakers channel. This year we talk about David Bowie and Trevor Jones' Labyrinth soundtrack.
youtu.be/6zYWY3OeIUg?...
youtu.be/6zYWY3OeIUg?...
Blown Speakers -- ep 85- David Bowie & Trevor Jones' Labyrinth (1986)
YouTube video by Blown Speakers
youtu.be
December 25, 2025 at 8:17 AM
A resurrection of mine, @raloufpiston.bsky.social and David F. Hoenigman's annual tradition of doing a Christmas Day music podcast on David's Blown Speakers channel. This year we talk about David Bowie and Trevor Jones' Labyrinth soundtrack.
youtu.be/6zYWY3OeIUg?...
youtu.be/6zYWY3OeIUg?...
Time is running short to listen to our poptastic 2025 Christmas tune, inspired by the life and antics of almost-definitely-real 1980s funnyman Roy Jay, in its intended festive setting.
It's that time of year again!
This Christmas, @grantmcgaheran.bsky.social and I wrote our annual Christmas single about 1980s funnyman Roy Jay, who is definitely not an AI hallucination but an actual real man from the telly.
Song mainly inspired by Erasure.
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com/track/spooki...
This Christmas, @grantmcgaheran.bsky.social and I wrote our annual Christmas single about 1980s funnyman Roy Jay, who is definitely not an AI hallucination but an actual real man from the telly.
Song mainly inspired by Erasure.
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com/track/spooki...
Spookin' Into Christmas (Fly Like a Penguin), by RIZLA DEUTSCH!
from the album The Rizla Deutsch Christmas Laughter EP
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Time is running short to listen to our poptastic 2025 Christmas tune, inspired by the life and antics of almost-definitely-real 1980s funnyman Roy Jay, in its intended festive setting.
Christmas 8 years ago, Chris Rea had been sick and @grantmcgaheran.bsky.social and I imagined a camper van, full of the artists behind every Christmas classic, driving north with no clear idea of where he is, in order to give him their best seasonal wishes:
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com/track/drivin...
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com/track/drivin...
Driving Home For Chris Rea, by RIZLA DEUTSCH!
from the album The Rizla Deutsch Christmas Laughter EP
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com
December 22, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Christmas 8 years ago, Chris Rea had been sick and @grantmcgaheran.bsky.social and I imagined a camper van, full of the artists behind every Christmas classic, driving north with no clear idea of where he is, in order to give him their best seasonal wishes:
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com/track/drivin...
rizladeutsch.bandcamp.com/track/drivin...
As a longtime fan of the grand tradition of indie Christmas tunes, it made me smile to find that Saki from Grandma's Garden had just written this little lo-fi pop gem and was happy to let us put it out as a Christmas gift from the label.
Merry Christmas!
Saki from Grandma's Garden has just written a seasonal song for all you lovely people to enjoy over the holidays.
Joanne Saki「My Christmas Ritual (Just Don't Drink Too Much)」
call-and-response.bandcamp.com/track/my-chr...
Saki from Grandma's Garden has just written a seasonal song for all you lovely people to enjoy over the holidays.
Joanne Saki「My Christmas Ritual (Just Don't Drink Too Much)」
call-and-response.bandcamp.com/track/my-chr...
My Christmas Ritual (Just Don't Drink Too Much), by Joanne Saki
track by Joanne Saki
call-and-response.bandcamp.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:13 AM
As a longtime fan of the grand tradition of indie Christmas tunes, it made me smile to find that Saki from Grandma's Garden had just written this little lo-fi pop gem and was happy to let us put it out as a Christmas gift from the label.
Reposted by Ian (F) Martin
"buying music is expensive but i wanna support artists and spotify is the only option for that" i have a tip for you:
pirate all the music you want. all of it. no matter how much. set aside each month a spotify subscription's worth of money and use that to buy something off of bandcamp or itunes.
pirate all the music you want. all of it. no matter how much. set aside each month a spotify subscription's worth of money and use that to buy something off of bandcamp or itunes.
December 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM
"buying music is expensive but i wanna support artists and spotify is the only option for that" i have a tip for you:
pirate all the music you want. all of it. no matter how much. set aside each month a spotify subscription's worth of money and use that to buy something off of bandcamp or itunes.
pirate all the music you want. all of it. no matter how much. set aside each month a spotify subscription's worth of money and use that to buy something off of bandcamp or itunes.
My current favourite words are "Anthropic class action lawsuit".
December 21, 2025 at 4:56 AM
My current favourite words are "Anthropic class action lawsuit".
Reposted by Ian (F) Martin
honestly watch this and think really carefully about what’s gone wrong m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xsv...
December 19, 2025 at 11:38 PM
honestly watch this and think really carefully about what’s gone wrong m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xsv...
Reposted by Ian (F) Martin
Everyone deserves to spend the holidays surrounded by people who love and appreciate them.
Except for the guy who invented the webp.
Except for the guy who invented the webp.
December 19, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Everyone deserves to spend the holidays surrounded by people who love and appreciate them.
Except for the guy who invented the webp.
Except for the guy who invented the webp.
Happy but a bit intimidated to find my short column about Mark Fisher and music criticism coming in quite early on in Ele-king’s new-or-forthcoming (not sure the release date) book on Critical Theory, Marxism and Cultural Studies in the UK, among many other far more qualified experts and academics.
December 19, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Happy but a bit intimidated to find my short column about Mark Fisher and music criticism coming in quite early on in Ele-king’s new-or-forthcoming (not sure the release date) book on Critical Theory, Marxism and Cultural Studies in the UK, among many other far more qualified experts and academics.
Reposted by Ian (F) Martin
As festive season darts mania once again takes over the UK with the annual PDC World Darts Championship, Travis Elborough travels back to 1979 and John Samson's documentary about the rise of Eric Bristow
Low Culture Essay: Travis Elborough on #EricBristow Darts Documentary, Arrows
buff.ly/atfb6pn
Low Culture Essay: Travis Elborough on #EricBristow Darts Documentary, Arrows
buff.ly/atfb6pn
December 18, 2025 at 7:02 PM
As festive season darts mania once again takes over the UK with the annual PDC World Darts Championship, Travis Elborough travels back to 1979 and John Samson's documentary about the rise of Eric Bristow
Low Culture Essay: Travis Elborough on #EricBristow Darts Documentary, Arrows
buff.ly/atfb6pn
Low Culture Essay: Travis Elborough on #EricBristow Darts Documentary, Arrows
buff.ly/atfb6pn
New compilation out today: "POP? - Call And Response Covers the Hits"
I want to give a huge pat on the back to everyone from Team CAR, who all seem to have got the memo to go out and had fun when making their tracks for this.
I want to give a huge pat on the back to everyone from Team CAR, who all seem to have got the memo to go out and had fun when making their tracks for this.
NEW RELEASE!
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, 15 artists from/closely tied to the label recorded cover versions for this madcap album to help us celebrate our reaching the Japanese legal drinking age.
(Digital-only but with cute merch bundle options)
call-and-response.bandcamp.com/album/pop
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, 15 artists from/closely tied to the label recorded cover versions for this madcap album to help us celebrate our reaching the Japanese legal drinking age.
(Digital-only but with cute merch bundle options)
call-and-response.bandcamp.com/album/pop
POP?, by Call And Response Records
15 track album
call-and-response.bandcamp.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:52 AM
New compilation out today: "POP? - Call And Response Covers the Hits"
I want to give a huge pat on the back to everyone from Team CAR, who all seem to have got the memo to go out and had fun when making their tracks for this.
I want to give a huge pat on the back to everyone from Team CAR, who all seem to have got the memo to go out and had fun when making their tracks for this.
Rian Johnson's been open about the influence of G. K. Chesterton on the new Knives Out, and you can see Father Brown in the way Blanc's more interested in the heart of the crime and the morality around it than the puzzle per se. But there's an otherworldly something of The Man Who Knew Too Much too.
December 17, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Rian Johnson's been open about the influence of G. K. Chesterton on the new Knives Out, and you can see Father Brown in the way Blanc's more interested in the heart of the crime and the morality around it than the puzzle per se. But there's an otherworldly something of The Man Who Knew Too Much too.
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happine”
There you go, some placeholder text.
There you go, some placeholder text.
December 17, 2025 at 2:47 AM
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happine”
There you go, some placeholder text.
There you go, some placeholder text.
80s Wire is a helluva mood.
December 14, 2025 at 2:07 PM
80s Wire is a helluva mood.
A certain realignment of priorities in consumption of culture from “how it lands” back towards “how it was likely intended” might be healthy. Not a full turn, because for fuck’s sake think about how it lands, but a bit. A moment.
December 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM
A certain realignment of priorities in consumption of culture from “how it lands” back towards “how it was likely intended” might be healthy. Not a full turn, because for fuck’s sake think about how it lands, but a bit. A moment.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Melt-Banana are the nicest people in the entire Japanese indie music scene.
December 14, 2025 at 4:13 AM
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Melt-Banana are the nicest people in the entire Japanese indie music scene.
Actually made money on an event last night, so of course I immediately spent it all on some of my missing Guided By Voices back catalogue.
December 14, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Actually made money on an event last night, so of course I immediately spent it all on some of my missing Guided By Voices back catalogue.