I'm switching it up this week featuring two artists: neo-soul guitarist, Toshiki Soejima, and multi-instrumentalist, Naho Soejima (known by her stage name Nahokimama). They are a married musical duo based in Tokyo with their own solo projects that showcase how broad the neo-soul genre can be and that lofi hip-hop should be taken seriously as a genre. They collaborate with a lot of lofi hip-hop producers and have performed live in iconic venues like Blue Note Tokyo.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Japanese media, but I haven't explored many Japanese artists in terms of R&B and neo-soul. I'm sure a lot of us are familiar with the resurgence of Japanese City Pop this past decade, and I'm very happy to have discovered these artists to expand my musical horizons. I would consider their music more lofi hip-hop rather than neo-soul just because it's a bit cleaner and more "ordered" than the neo-soul that I'm used to listening to (which is more jazz based or "chaotic").

I highly recommend checking out some of their live performances on YouTube if you enjoy their music. It's really fun to see how they move with their music, and it's very calming and peaceful!

Headspace - Toshiki Soejima, edbl, Nahokimama

Tokyo - Toshiki Soejima, Nahokimama

Moon - Toshiki Soejima, Nahokimama

Waiting on Her - Nahokimama, B-Side

Ash - Nahomkimama, Toshiki Soejima, Bastien Brison

Velvet Breeze - Flandrs, Florent Garcia, Nahokimama

Atélier - FloFilz, Matt Wilde, Toshiki Soejima

Life is Better (Live) - Toshiki Soejima

Jamming under the Trees - Florent Garcia, Toshiki Soejima

Close To You - Cover - Toshiki Soejima, Nahokimama, Hidehisa Sasaki

Best Part - Toshiki Soejima, Nahokimama, Gensuke Kanki

Rain - Live in Tokyo - Toshiki Soejima

Just the Two of Us - Live at Grapefruit Moon - Toshiki Soejima