23ji no ongaku, or “Songs for the 11th Hour,” is a blog about Japanese music, among other interesting oddities. It is the successor to unchained, another blog about Japanese music. unchained resided at this URL from late 2006 through February of 2010, when it was closed and subsequently sort-of-accidentally deleted. 23ji will continue with much of the same content as unchained (artist biographies, album reviews, video posts, etc.) but is more open to off-topic posts, pictures, and unrelated humor.
The blog is titled after an album by composer Kanno Yoko, featuring vocalist Sakamoto Maaya. You can read about the original “23ji no Ongaku” on Wikipedia. The album name was picked as this blog’s title for a number of reasons, none of which are very interesting, but if you’re really curious, you can always ask.
23ji’s author and evil(?) mastermind is Nicole Kohler, formerly Nicole Utz, also known as pengie (as she used to be called on unchained). Nicole is a 20-something writer who has been listening to Japanese music for 10 years, and writing about it for about half that time. By day, she works in customer service, social media, marketing, and (occasionally) website development. By night, she enjoys cooking, playing video games, listening to music, and fiddling around with code (HTML, CSS, PHP, and formerly SQL, which she is very happy to have given up with her last job). She lives in Hellam, Pennsylvania, US, and is available for parties and other events where you may find yourself in need a nerd to stand awkwardly in the corner and look out of place.
Nicole’s favorite musicians are (in no particular order) noanowa, PENGIN, Paramore, StartOfTheDay, Yaida Hitomi, Sakamoto Maaya, Iris, miaou, Epik High, CHARCOAL FILTER, Spin Aqua, THYME, Nishino Kana, HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, Otsuka Ai, BECCA, Buono!, Tegan and Sara, YUI, ikimono gakari, BONNIE PINK, Silversun Pickups, Yellowcard, school food punishment, Panic! at the Disco, Shigi, Vanessa Carlton, Gotou Maki, and Wakeshima Kanon. And the list is always growing.
Have a question about the blog that hasn’t been answered on this page? Ask away!