Another one from the “technically, 2017” file, but “Arousal” feels like a good bridge between the old year and the one we’ve just landed in. Osaka’s Paperkraft had a nice little year, establishing himself as one of the better artists in Japan you could tie with the “lo-fi house” tag (though, to be fair, that’s a whole longer discussion, but the sounds related to that maybe-genre do intersect) while also help produce one of the year’s most intriguing pop debuts. “Arousal” finds Paperkraft grabbing parts of Bjork’s “Venus As A Boy” and converting it into a fuzzy house number. The key is how Paperkraft focuses on just the right phrases — which, with Bjork, is probably necessary, since most of her songs are like free-form thoughts spilling over — which helps focus the song and puts the center all on the energy. Listen above.
