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。
Memories are imperfect things. That’s something home-recording artist i-fls understands so well, especially on his latest collection Diary Of Spectre. We like to treat nostalgia as something warm, something that gets stirred up in us and reminds us of simpler times. Yet that’s just the stuff of movies – nostalgia, once treated as a disease,…
Teen Runningsが何とカリフォルニアのインディーポップバンドのSea Lionsとスプリット作品”Home Recordings”をリリースするみたいです。彼等を”purveyors of indie and bedroom pop”（インディーとベッド・ルームポップの供給者）と紹介するNeotomic Records!がこの”Home Recordings”を限定版のカセットとしてリリースするとの事。Teen RunningsはMaroon 5の”Won’t Go Home Without You”のカバーや、ネットに出回ってたりする過去２年のデモ・トラック等を収録する模様。今は”We’ll Never Stay Together” が聴けるようになっていて、これはTeen Runningsの長所だけを強調した名曲です。さびれたボーカルをフィーチャーした爽やかなサーフ・ロックで、全てはフィードバックで崩されています。試聴はこちらから。
“Restraint”(制御)という単語をDe De Mouseと結びつける事などないと思っていました。彼の音楽は通常、ボーカルを切り刻み、その切れ端をスピード感のあるビートの上に乗せるようなスタイル。任天堂DSの音楽ゲームだったら最大級の難易度ですね。ドラムンベースの影響が薄い曲に限っての話ですが。新作Sky Was Darkからの曲、”Floats And Falls”は何と９分もあるのですが、今回はただ速いだけではありません。逆にスローなこの曲では、シンセが上手く曲を展開させて行きます。ボーカルのみにスピード感があります…というよりは、跳ねるようなスタイルがそう聴こえさせるのかもしれませんが。 “Floats And Falls”は５分が経過したその時点で既に完成された曲なのですが、それだけで終わらないのが今回の注目点。曲は不意に展開し、ビートが消えてボーカルとシンセのみのパートになります。その後も次々に新しい音色が加えられ、曲を終わりへと導きます。長くも飽きのこない、優れた工夫が施された作品だと感じます。De De Mouseの曲の中でもダントツで平和な、広々とした空気感を放っていて、彼の新しいスタイルを象徴した、新しい始まりを感じさせる曲になっています。ビデオは以下に。
Osaka’s Outdoorminer (also known as Cloudy Busey) has proven over the last few years he’s great at creating unsettling, late-night moods. Between his two solo projects, he’s excelled at making music for downtrodden walks home, whether they be complete with vocals or, as is the case with the Outdoorminer alias, just music. “Badmood” follows up…
I’ve gotten way too old for nights out. A couple years ago, the idea of going to a club and getting silly until the sun came out sounded like a thrilling prospect, a chance for who-knows-what to happen. Nowadays, I’d much rather get eight hours of sleep and wake up with enough time to cook…
In Your Galaxie presents an interesting test for shoegaze-leaning outfit Head On The Sofa – can the reverb-loving music they make remain strong for an entire album? Up until now, they’ve only released EPs, often clocking out after five songs. It felt like just the right amount of time for Head On The Sofa, who…
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.
The piano isn’t the only instrument Osaka duo Sayutony’s rely on – the vocals and sudden drum beat erupting midway through “In Your Heart” give that ballad its punch – but it is the central tool to their whimsical little songs. Indie-pop standout “Dog Skip” follows the jaunty piano’s lead for four minutes, rarely straying…
Faron Square posted two new songs onto his MySpace in the past few weeks, and maybe this duo will make Monday just a little more enjoyable. “Bliss,” currently in “Demo” state, sounds plenty nice, but the highlight-worthy track is the bouncy “Devotion.” It’s the rare piece of bedroom pop that manages to sound…sexy? Maybe it’s…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCcEbye6wuU”] Tokyo Girls’ Style – “Kodō no Himitsu” When I originally wrote about Tokyo Girls’ Style’s “Kodō no Himitsu,” that geographically-accurate idol group getting only the slightest attention as I instead decided to praise chiptune outfit YMCK. Their NES-tastic remix still sounds plenty good, but as the year draws to an end and I look…
I was thinking the other day about the trajectory of musical trends, especially after it was announced Tatsuro Yamashita and Takeuchi Mariya were writing a song for Arashi. It’s a moment that signifies the whole City Pop revival thing has reached a certain peak — not because the sound present on that song is even…
The Bawdies’ entire schtick isn’t particularly deep – they play “good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n’ roll,” the same sort of uncomplicated idea a Jack Daniel’s bottle would embrace. It’s all guitars, drums and dusty vocals, the product of listening to a lot of Rolling Stones’ LPs and having a research team aware that throwbacks sell….
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7eiFlwEHr0″] Weird to think that, at the beginning of the year, Osaka’s precocious NOKIES! released their debut EP 7 Songs. That brief release, a seven-song (duh) collection of mostly head-snapping pop brimming with shouts and yells and youthful energy, got lost in what has been a great year for Japanese music. Yet now, as list-making…