In last month's new releases playlist post, we shared that Laputa has their music available for streaming internationally. However, those were only items released through their first major label, Toshiba EMI.

As of August 28th, the number of items has been increased to also include their works from their second major label, NIPPON CROWN (日本クラウン)! This means you now have access to their 6th and 7th albums, their last 3 mini-albums, and all of their singles post-2001.

If you are new to this band, Laputa were a highly influential band from Nagoya who formed in 1993. They were one of the dominating forces in the Nagoya indies scenes until they relocated to Tokyo in late 1995 to sign a management deal with Shaking Hands Records -- a move that proved successful as they then went major less than a year later.

The batch of albums added to streaming platforms are a bit different stylistically than their earlier works -- there is a lot more emphasis on digital elements, with some songs even being straight trance-rock. Their last album, 誘~New Temptation~惑, in particular, leans into a Y2K futuristic aesthetic pretty heavily.

Laputa ended up disbanding in 2004. Most of the members ended up moving on to other bands; guitarist Koichi eventually founded Everlasting-K and XOVER, bassist Junji started a solo project called HALATION and also joined C4 with drummer Tomoi, and vocalist aki also went solo. Unfortunately, he passed away a year ago today.