Hyakkei

The changing landscape of social media apps in the late 2010s and early 2020s made it easy for offbeat songs -- sometimes long after they were released -- to burrow into users’ algorithms as soundtracks for short-form videos. Such was the case for Japanese math rock band Hyakkei, whose 2006 track “Kagefumi” exemplified their intricate, exceedingly pleasant math rock and placed on Billboard’s TikTok Top 50 in 2024, more than a decade after the group went on hiatus. Drummer/composer Ken Tanaka continued to make music as a solo artist into the 2020s, releasing several albums aesthetically similar to Hyakkei's work.