The themes for Japanese electronic compilation series Fogpak have been getting a bit simpler as of late, moving from like “Twilight Tengu” and “Blurred Gold” to number 14’s simple premise of “sports.” Nice and open ended, and as someone who splurged on NBA League Pass this year, a welcome addition to what has been the country’s best independent electronic series for a while now. This is a showcase of energetic electronic sounds — and not quite a SoundCloud-ready representations of the Denver Broncos linebacker corps, though some sports elements sneak in.
Some familiar names return, ranging from Kyoto’s Toyomu on the woozy “Hira Swim” to Loopcoda, who creates a bouncy bit of electro-pop where his usual array of Vocaloid voices get sliced up extra thin into syllables, spacing them out between samples of…tennis players? Chanbe recalls Giraffage with helium-soaked vocal twists, while Yasuha. closes the collection on a downbeat note with the slow-burning “Loser,” a reflective conclusion to a mostly thumping affair. And, of course, Fogpak continues highlighting non-Japanese producers too, here including a bouncy bit of bouncy R&B by U.S. artist Sakehands and the spacious bubble-popper “Kawaii Sneakers” by Rick Sakura. Get it here, or listen below.