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Tag Archives: stuck in summer

New Stuck In Summer: “Wasting Time”

Looks like the person behind the Stuck In Summer project isn’t just locked in to one season – new song “Wasting Time” focuses on the foolishness of unrequited love, as Stuck In Summer sings “but i should not go back to your side/all things I’m holding are lies,” not to mention the title (only time he’s wasting…is his own). Yet the track itself puts a positive spin on it, as it boasts a bouncy beat accented by sun-smothered electronics, like a crude Tough Alliance number. It might be a tough realization, but Stuck In Summer knows things can only get brighter from here. Listen above.

New Stuck In Summer: “Too Late”

The Stuck In Summer project has been playing around with this style – chopped up vocals rippling over one another, wrapped up in hazy-dazy synth. It can sometimes be a bit too suffocating…dreams shouldn’t always sound so busy…yet “Too Late” offers a piece of how good the approach can be. Critically, this song unfolds at a slower pace than a couple of songs Stuck In Summer has posted over the last few weeks…also not helping dreams is hyperactivity. “Too Late” is more careful, letting the dizzying electronics and an especially pretty vocal snippet build up carefully, so that when they do go into overdrive it feels earned. The pace also allows the sweet feeling conjured up by Stuck In Summer drip over the listener more effectively – every syllable and faux-string hit delivers a wallop. Listen below.

Make Believe Mix June 2012

This might be the most Kansai-centric edition of the Make Believe Mix, a nice sampler of sounds from all around Japan just in time for the summer. It starts with Tokyo’s LLLL before shifting to Osaka’s Post Modern Team. From there, we stick around in the city to listen to the recently formed Foodie and Les Glass Glace. Our stay in the region ends with Stuck In Summer’s “You,” and then it is a short train ride to Nagoya to check in on House Of Tapes. Last, we jet all the way to the western edge of the country, to check out Fukuoka’s Breezesquad and his remix of a Little Boots song.

Below is a list of artists and songs appearing in this month’s mix, in chronological order. Click the links to read more about them and find out how to buy/get their music. All artists featured gave me permission to include their music in this mix.

LLLL “Spider Web” – From the “Spider Web/Drafting Still” digital single. Get it here.

Post Modern Team “Heartbreak” – Online release. Get it here.

Foodie “Red Flash” – Online release. Listen here.

Les Glass Glace “Sumorsaete Daydream” – Online release. Listen here.

Stuck In Summer “You” – From the Stuck In Summer EP. Get it here.

House Of Tapes “Another Space” – Online release. Listen here.

Breezesquad “Shake” (Remix of a Little Boots’ track) – Online release. Get here.

New Stuck In Summer: Stuck In Summer EP

Anyone living in Japan at the moment probably wishes for a bit of summer overload – the nation is currently dealing with a typhoon, with ANOTHER typhoon on the way for the end of the week. Here comes Osaka’s Stuck In Summer, though, to give us all a splash of the season with their Stuck In Summer EP. Before even listening to a note of this thing, it’s clear they have summer on the mind…because every song save for one features the word “summer” in the title. Oddly enough, the best track on this release is the one without “summer” in it’s name – opener “You” takes the project’s sweat-lined synth pop and introduces a woman’s voice, a sweet touch alongside Stuck In Summer’s primary male singer. The rest of the songs on Stuck In Summer veer closer to a more keyboard-centric take on the current crop of Japanese indie pop, tracks like “Don’t Be Afraid, It’s Summer” and “Summertime’s Gone” (which comes complete with opening sample about surfing). Try to ignore the lame weather through some summery pop. Get it here, or listen below.

Stuck In Summer: “Summer Time’s Gone”

About two weeks ago, Tokyo’s Shortcake Collage Tape posted a song called “Polaroid Full Of Kisses” that ended up being a far more craftly bit of indie-pop to pin down than the name implied. It was a fuzzy memory of a song, vocals ripped from anime and sampled flute dropped into a woozy downtempo gunk. It was a nice reminder that, while tons of young Japanese artists take to Soundcloud armed with rollicking guitar and a deep knowledge of the Sarah Records catalog, plenty of indie-pop kids are capable of adding crinkles to the sunny formula. Count Osaka’s Stuck In Summer alongside Shortcake and OMEGABOY as a project refusing to be straight-up cardigan rock – “Summer Time’s Gone” opens with an aged sample that sounds like some sort of 80’s surf-bro movie, a technique that also opened up fellow Osaka group Ice Cream Shout’s 2010 song “Tattooed Tears.” Once the dudes drop back, the song reveals itself to be a mix of bouncy synth-pop and more straightforward indie-pop…see, the vocals…with a few diversions into more dusty sampling down the line. Stuck In Summer come off as trying to recreate the smirk-bearing pop of Swedish acts like The Tough Alliance or (especially) The Embassy, but even if you don’t want to try to read lips “Summer Time’s Gone” a nice variation on the great kawaii-pop explosion of 2012. Listen below.