Last night I watched a short documentary called Tokyo Rising exploring some of the creative output by Japan following the devastating earthquake in March. It’s presented by Pharrell Williams and is beautifully shot. It’s inspiring and interesting and well worth your time. Check out the trailer!

I suppose I should be embarrassed for putting up this post but I’ve found myself hooked on the song Gee by the Korean group Girls’ Generation (my friend Kiran is to blame for first bringing them to my attention). It’s surprisingly catchy, I warn you before you watch the video below please be aware that you may find yourself replaying it over and over!

Their 2009 hit single “Gee” holds the record for being the longest running #1 song on KBS’s Music Bank, having held the #1 chart ranking for 9 consecutive weeks.

If you liked what you heard, you can listen to their latest album Run Devil Run on Spotify or order yourself a physical copy here.

Scala & Kolacny Brothers are an all girl Belgian Choir that have created specially made arrangements of songs from well-known bands. It was almost a decade ago that I first heard their rendition of U2′s With Or Without You.

I thought it was incredible but this being before I had access to the Internet I never was able to explore their music further. It wasn’t until the trailer for the upcoming Facebook film debuted that I was once again reminded of them. The trailer includes a spine tingling cover of Radiohead’s Creep.

Much to my delight I’ve discovered that most of their music is available on Spotify. If you have access to the service, use this link to listen to their latest album which includes even more fantastic choral renditions.

How To Destroy Angels is the side project of Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor’s collaboration with his wife Mariqueen Maandig. Following in the footsteps of Radiohead’s experiment with a ‘pay-what-you-want‘ pricing policy, Trent Reznor has enamoured major props from me for really embracing the digital music revolution.

There has been a huge shift in the way music is now discovered and delivered and after what seems like an eternity, it finally seems that the major record companies are slowly starting to adapt to this change by dropping Digital Rights Management (DRM) from their songs and by partnering with services like Spotify, Grooveshark and the upcoming Rdio.

The recording industry has to employ new business models, they should look towards artists like Trent Reznor who along with offering his latest E.P. for free also offers exclusive limited edition extras for those who want to support his music financially. When fans of music are treated as such and not criminals, I’m much more willing to support the cause. So go and listen to the record and if you like it, consider buying something from the store. Also while you’re at it, maybe support another musician struggling to finance her European tour.

Since the demise of the 1UP Yours podcast — what with everyone leaving the show — I’ve followed Garnett Lee to his new home at Shacknews. His latest podcast, Weekend Confirmed includes a section for fans to promote their music.

One such band are the heavy metal group Haunted Shores, I’m not a metal fan by any means but this is a superb cover of the Final Fantasy theme song, check it out below!

In the early days of the internet, I remember first coming across Napster and the epiphany I experienced on the realisation that I could find and download music to my hearts content. Of course back then, downloading a song on dial-up connections would take forever. We all know of course what happened to Napster and that seemed to be that.

My second epiphany occurred when I first came across Spotify, a completely free and legal music service that’s supported with advertisements. It’s shocking to think that the music industry who consistently failed to adapt to the way music fans want to enjoy music finally did something right. It’s as simple as searching for a song or an artist and pressing play, you can share your playlists and if you pay for the premium service you can sync your music to your portable devices.

How could they make this already brilliant application better? Well they’ve just introduced an update which allows you to import your own music collection from iTunes into Spotify and Facebook integration to share music more directly with your friends. The video below explains it far better than I can, so watch it.

UPDATE: If you don’t want to wait around for the latest update, you can be a little sneaky and download it directly from here!

Every once in a while I come across music that I find that I can’t stop listening too, right now that music comes from the band Geographer. Voted by Spin as an undiscovered band you need to hear now.

“Kites” taken from their Animal Shapes E.P. has been on repeat since yesterday when I first heard them and had had hypnotised enough to elicit one of my special dances that I’m prone to do when I’m on my lonesome with no fear of being caught. They fuse Indie and Electronica and remind me a little of Grandaddy featuring vocals that bring to mind Thom Yorke.

UPDATE: Luckily for you kids, the good folks over at Spotify have already catalogued the Animal Shapes E.P. for you to listen to right now, so hurry! so you can listen to it there.

The Guardian report that Jonny Greenwood from my favourite band, Radiohead will make a return to film scoring. He’d previously worked on “There Will Be Blood”, for which he received a Grammy-nomination. What’s the new film he’s working for, well it’s none other than Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami which is being directed by Anh Hung Tran. The film isn’t due for release until December in Japan. However so far it all looks like it’s going to be a very promising production.

The McG, Takashi Murakami and Kirsten Dunst collaboration video has finally surfaced online. I found it through Trends In Japan, check it out (if only to check out Kirsten Dunst, I’ve had a crush on her since forever).

Beach House are offering fans a free taster of their latest album strongTeen Dreams on their website. I’ve just been listening to their previous album Devotion along with albums from both

Dirty Projectors and Telepathe. That’s pretty much all I have to say about that.