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Fogpak Grows Up With Fogpak #20, Featuring Chanbe, Shpmskk, Teleco And More

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The Fogpak series of electronic music compilations has reached 20 releases with its latest — theme, “Adult,” congrats Fogpak you can buy cigarettes from a vending machine — and the newest set offers the same mission as the 19 that came before. It spotlights ten artists — in recent versions, Fogpak became more global, but in #20 it leans domestic, with only Hanoi’s Tenkitsune and their chiming “Kigurumi World” — working independently. The refrain I always bust out for this comp is “just dive in and find what you like,” but #20 boasts such a tight running time that I actually kind of go the opposite way this time. This set works so well together, starting with the soft burbles-turned-sputters of Osaka’s Shpmskk before ramping up via the sample-blending strut of Dyelo Think’s “Local Pop” and personal highlight “Tokyo Metro” by Teleco, a high-energy number built from bubbly vocal slices that imagine electro-pop broken up into hundreds of pieces and re-arranged from there. Odekake calls on the voice Kaya to add extra emotion to the bouncy “Film,” while Fogpak veteran Chanbe delivers a whispy, pitch-bending cut with “Rouge.” So yeah, sure, find your favorite, but seeing how these songs play off of one another is just as great. Get it here, or listen below.

Fogpak #19 Arrives, Featuring Loopcoda, Chanbe, Fire Emoji And Many More

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Always a good month when a new Fogpak compilation emerges, bringing with it a handful of budding trackmakers from Japan and beyond. The 19th edition emerged on Bandcamp tonight, boasting the theme of “reverse” and featuring an ever-shrinking tracklist. The latter fact, though, isn’t a bad thing, as a tighter run gives this edition of the long-running compilation series an album-like feel…helped on by how nearly every song here operates in a softer (or, at least not hard-hitting) way. Ultimately, the theme feels more like a reference to the past…i.e. nostalgia or melancholy…with the songs more reflective and spacious.

As is always the case with Fogpak, the best way to go is dive in and find your favorites. The familiar names deliver for me — Loopcoda continues a hot streak with his fizzy number here, featuring some twisted vocal samples that give it a disorienting feeling. Chanbe, meanwhile, offers up a lithe bouncer on “Evil,” while nay closes out the album with the acoustic whirring of “Re-birth,” serving as a nice bookend to American artist Middle School’s “I Slept Through The Snow.” New names, meanwhile? Fire Emoji comes cloaked in relative mystery — also, that name — but offers up a hiccuping bit of mid-tempo niceness on “Bird Language,” featuring a sneaky piano melody giving way to bubbly center, while similarly vague project VR_Sub offers one of the busiest songs with the post-Tomggg playroom pop of “I’ve Forgotten.” Get it here, or listen below.

Fogpak #18 Is Here, Ready To Hit Those Teenage Feels With Leave E, Yasuha And More

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Doesn’t matter if it comes out on a Monday morning or Friday after 10 pm, when a new edition of Fogpak hits the Internet, this blog is going to cover it as soon as possible. The 18th collection appeared tonight, centered around the theme of “Teen,” and the artists contributing to the latest installment of the series that has highlighted emerging electronic artists in Japan (and abroad) nail it. The bulk of the songs here are jittery, nervous creations, the sort of tune you could call “future bass” but which in the context of this feel more emotionally vulnerable…more adolescent. As always, the Fogpak rules apply…you should just dive in and find your favorite tracks, and then follow those creators. But a few highlights on an initial jump out around these corners. We recently wrote about Leave E, and here is the producer providing a dramatic bit of bass music via “No Reply From Her,” featuring some sped up vocal sampling. Touches of chiptune — which, in my estimation at least, can be as deeply teenage as it gets — pops up in the first two songs here, while Yasuha.’s skippy “I Remember” adds in melancholy to an otherwise shuffle-worthy number. Listening over it, this is one of the strongest Fogpak’s in recent memory, and one you absolutely should dive into fully. Get it here, or listen below.

Fogpak #17 Rises, Featuring Chanbe, Yackle, Bruno Uesugi And More

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Just in time for the supermoon yesterday, Japan’s premier indie electronic compilation series Fogpak returns with volume 17, boasting a theme of “moon.” As usual, the folks behind the collection put the spotlight on rising producers from across Japan — and around the globe — with this edition featuring plenty of highlights. In general, #17 is a high energy affair, featuring an ample about of skittery beats (Nagano’s Moment delivering a highlight utilizing such on “Sensitive Heaven”) and anti-gravity drops (OK, this is mostly accomplished by Bruno Uesugi and Yackle’s sparse “Lunar Beach,” my vote for most theme-appropriate cut here). Moments here definitely slow down and get downright strange — see Chanbe’s air-absorbing slow jam “Silhouette” or the vocal-tripping workout of Yasuha.’s “Crescent.” As usual, a great set where you are encouraged to find your personal favorites.

Oh, and special shout-out to producer HOZi, who covered Sheena Ringo’s “Marunouchi Sadistic” using talk box, which is…new. Get it here or listen below.

Fogpak #16 Here For The Summer Holidays, Featuring Batsu, Yoshino Yoshikawa And More

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Just in time for summer holiday season, the 16th edition of the Fogpak compilation series has emerged, boasting the theme “vacation” and several instances of seagull samples. As has always been the case, Fogpak primarily puts the spotlight on emerging electronic artists, with a few familiar names popping in for good measure. So is the case here, where Trekkie-Trax-associate Batsu offers up a jittery cut in “XOXO” and Yoshino Yoshikawa creates an ever-changing number with “Levitating Castle.” Fogpak #16 starts on the faster side…highlights include Kotono House’s zippy, bass-heavy zoomer “Sweet Vacation In Lucid Dreaming,” and the footwork-by-way-of-Jersey-Club of Kanya’s “Female Pilot”…before settling down in the back half, with the restrained stomp of Gluon’s “Glued Myself” (nice!) and Midori Kida’s tranquil “When The Flowers Bloom.” Also of note…more rap! As ever, the best way to approach this is just dive in and see what you like. Get it here, or listen below.