我々の”favorite songs of 2012 lists”のような年末特集を組むのは非常に難しいです。限られた数を選ばなければいけないので、結果選べないアーティストもいるからです。去年でいうと”My Aquamarine/Spinning Wheel”をリリースしたElen Never Sleeps。このシングルは素晴らしい曲を２つも収録した、ENSがアーティストとして急成長した作品です。そして2013年を迎え”Silver”をリリースしたENSは、今年もさらに彼らしさを発揮させています。新曲”Shine On Me”は去年の”My Aquamarine”を彷彿とさせるものの、ビートがENSの今までの曲の中で一番ダンサブル。コーラスの部分では、風変わりなボーカルやストリングスを始め、さまざまな音色が飛び交っているものの、互いを殺しません。こういった細かいこだわりが光ります。
One of the tougher parts of putting together a year-end feature – like our “favorite songs of 2012 lists” – is cutting it down. This means some really great stuff gets left outside…and last year, one of the toughest omissions to make was Tokyo murmur-pop dude Elen Never Sleeps, whose “My Aquamarine/Spinning Wheel” single featured two great songs and marked a jump forward artistically for Elen. It’s looking like ENS won’t be facing a similar dilemma in 2013, as he’s just released two tracks in advance of his new Silver EP, and both find the solo artist making further artistic strides. “Shine On Me” initially resembles last year’s “My Aquamarine,” but features a livelier beat that is the closest ENS has ever come to being dancey. The real development, though, is greater attention paid to sonic details – the most catching element of “Shine” is the almost-meowed noises that make up the chorus, but equally as strong are the strings that rise up throughout the song.
The title track from the EP, meanwhile, is more reflective, but features ENS adopting a slightly deeper voice for most of the song. It’s the less daring of the two tracks, but refines the Elen Never Sleeps sound further. Listen below.
Yep, still loving this song. Tokyo’s Shiggy Jr. have just released a video to go along with the City-Pop-inspired “Saturday Night To Sunday Morning,” and it puts a bit of a childlike twist on what sounded like a night-on-the-town jam. They set it at…a slumber party! Chorus still soars.
Cool journalistic work on display: I googled “Talking City 1994 SoundCloud” and this song came up! Boom, hire me New York Times. The Osaka outfit (probably, or at least someone associated with them) is responsible for “We Can Ride The Boogie,” which dips into one of the pop music’s finest tracks…Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You”…to…
Man, has it been almost two years since Nagoya’s The Moments caught our attention with “Short Trip.” The Japanese indie-pop boom was just getting underway, and that was one of the first songs to earn dozens upon dozens of repeat listens, and even pop up on our monthly music mix (remember that thing). Now, a…
The Wedding Mistakes make “post-rock,” and we’ve already been over that it isn’t what you expect from that word. Listening to The Wedding Mistakes’ first album Virgin Road makes the term feel even stranger, because the duo seem post everything. The Wedding Mistakes are defiantly genreless, blending together so many disparate sounds together into a…
Eric LuebsによるMagical Mistakesが、最近リリースしたフルレングス作品、”Everything Uncertain”で、ダンスとサイケデリックの境界線をぶち破ってくれました。ビートミュージックからの影響だけではあり得ない奇妙で個性的なサウンドは、不思議な魅力で聴き手を誘惑します。最近早くも新曲、”Always At The Best Part”をSoundCloudで公開しているのですが、先程紹介した作品とは全く違う印象。彼のFacebookによると、結構前から手掛けていたみたいなのですが。ボサノバ調なこの曲はふわっとした空気感をバックに持ちつつも、ギターやビブラフォンのソロが暖かさを加えています。”A groovy one for swaying with drinks in hand”とは彼の解説で、その通り、飲みながらゆったり聴きたい曲に仕上がっています。試聴は以下から。
(Editor’s Note: I’m moving to a new apartment in two days, so posts might be on the briefer side. Gotta pack!) Footwork producer FOODMAN already released one great off-the-wall album of music recently…and now he’s back with another on Hiroshima’s Dubliminal Bounce. Are Kore opens on the harsher end of the spectrum and along the…
