INNITやIdleMoments等のイベントが象徴しているように、大阪のビート・シーンは非常に大盛況。Magical Mistakesの渦巻くようなサウンドや、Seihoの実験的なビートは、とてもユニークなのと同時にグルーブ感もあります。でも、”Alder”はそのような曲がブラックホールに吸い込まれたかのような印象。IdleMomentsをオーガナイズするEadonmmによるこのトラックは、極めてテンポを抑えた、スローな楽曲。ゆったりと始まり、アンビエントな空気感を堪能しているその時に、ピークを迎えます。シンセサイザーによる壁のようなレイヤーが左右にパンし、異なるテンポのボーカルが、それぞれ違うピッチで奇妙なデュエットを奏でます。ダンスフロアには不向きかもしれませんが、それ以上に、独特な音世界を堪能する事が可能。試聴は以下から。
This month’s MAP is here, and we feature Buddy Girl And Mechanic, who put out one of 2013’s first great albums. Check all this stuff out ya’ll. *collapses from South By Southwest schedule* Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a…
Here’s a nice bit of international cooperation. Japanese producer Canoooopy has teamed up with South Korean music maker Sima Kim for the moody “Tragicomical Sandstorm.” The track starts out subdued enough – just some finger-snapping percussion, some barely there voices and wisps of synths going by. Yet what seems like a just-drifting-by work suddenly blooms…
For most of their existence, Teen Runnings (formerly Friends) coated their surf-rock in feedback and distortion, an intentional move meant to fracture what was otherwise warm nostalgia for a time the group never lived through. New demo track “Sightseeing” initially offers up a bit of a departure for the group – it sounds super clear….
Hey, summer going a little too well for you? Having too much fun in the warm weather? Welp, Kansai indie-pop outfit It Happens have the perfect bummer jam to make you wistful. “Track And Field” is an extremely lonely song, just some guitar strumming and downtrodden singing that’s near impossible to understand due to how…
Osaka’s The Paellas have sounded like a lot of things in the past – a dreary-eyed lot playing sad lounges, aggressive indie-poppers, shadow dwellers. Yet on new song “Golden Eye” they sound incredibly…smooth. This easy-going cut still contains the slight muffled vibe that has always given them a mysterious, late-night edge…the vocals still sound like…
As the image above indicates, “The Hidden Secrets” also doubles as the name for Tokyo indie-pop outfit BOYISH’s newest EP, one which was slated to come out on July 25 but as of 11:18 P.M. on that day isn’t anywhere to be seen (I guess check for an update if it appears by the time this posts). Still, BOYISH have served up a preview in the form of the title track. BOYISH tend to have two modes of twee – they either sound sorta explosive in their ennui or downtrodden and muffled. “The Hidden Secrets” is the latter, as the vocals sound mumbled and have been recorded as to me nearly unintelligible. The guitars and the beat, though, dash ahead and do an excellent imitation of 80’s indie-pop, which is what this group does oh so well anyway. Listen below.
Update: Now you can hear the whole EP below.
Tokyo’s Moscow Club are literary buffs. They originally caught our attention with a song called “Daisy Miller Pt. 1,” (followed up with a “Pt. 2,” both on this lovely album) named after the Henry James’ story of the same name and nailing a similar emotional vibe as the novella. Now they’ve released what their SoundCloud…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4amBer5TNI”] Heavenstamp’s excellent single “Morning Glow” gets a proper video instead of the iTunes visualizer treatment it originally had. The new clip takes people involved in what should be everyday situation and transforms them into dancing fools who move in this really unnerving way, like they might be made out of paper. You also get…
インディ・ポップ・レーベルAno(t)raksが２月に新しいコンピレーション・アルバムをリリースします。既にいくつかの参加アーティストが発表されていて、このコンピが本当に素晴らしい物になると期待させてくれます。Post Modern Team、BoyishやThe Paellas等、お馴染みのアーティスト達に加え、JAM The MODという福岡のバンド等、新しい名前もいくつか。跳ねるギターやため息をつきたくなる歌詞からなる典型的な日本のインディ・ポップを想像していませんか？…とは言うものの、恥ずかしながら私も同じでした。そんな雰囲気を仮定しながら再生ボタンをクリックしたのはここだけの話。 今の所このグループはSoundCloudで”Since Tomorrow”だけしかリリースしていないのですが、これが凄く個性的。フォーキーなインディ・ポップが2007年あたりのダブステップ・リズムに乗っかってる独特なスタイルなんです。なんと言ってもこのビート感が他のTweeなアーティスト達との違いで、暖かく優しいメロディーが特徴的な曲に冷たい緊迫感を与えています。ただ単にジャンルをくっ付けるのは誰にだってできる事。でもJAM The MODは上手く異なる要素を組み合わせる事に成功していて、だからこそ注目すべきなのです。日本のインディ・ポップ・アーティスト達にとっても良いヒントになるのでは？JAM The MODのこれからが気になります…はたしてコンピにはどんな曲を提供するのか…いずれにせよ、これからもどんどん新しい事にチャレンジして欲しいです。試聴は以下から。
The thing about Ventla is that after a really prolific streak that saw him practically release a new album every month, he sorta took a break for a bit last year. Well, he’s back, and gone bigger than ever before. Shuji Suzuki’s latest, For Human Consumption, comes via New York imprint Astro Nautico, and features…
When you need a little burst of energy during a busy day, Osaka’s Satanicpornocultshop always comes through. The juke-leaning collective’s new Green Papaya EP zeroes in on percussion, with nearly every track here interlaying different beats over one another to create shuffling rhythm tracks. It runs from the sparse, skin-tingling wooden sounds of “Mouthwash” to…
As the new week prepares to start up, here are two releases from a pair of Japan’s best netlabels going at the moment. Fukuoka’s Yesterday Once More initially grabbed attention for more body-thumping releases, but have been getting a bit more laid back with their latest releases. Producer Daiki Hayakawa’s Daydream Nation is a heady…