Busy Busy Week Catch-Up Post: Talking City 1994, Miii And Kenie_T

This seemed to have been the week when a bunch of really talented Japanese artists went and released great new music all at once. Keeping up with all of it could be tough, but for the most part we touched on everything we wanted to. Except for the following three songs, two from acts we’ve been enjoying for some time and one new one that we will be keeping an eye on from here on out.

– Lost in the year-of-the-end list-o-mania back in December – Osaka’s Talking City 1994, who released a very strong EP of disjointed but catchy synth rock. Earlier this week, they released a new song called “Shine,” which finds the group getting into a slinkier disposition. It’s a funky number that seeks out a good groove and then electric-slides its way to the end, with only the vocals and a few synth additions in the back adding an element of unease to the song. Fingers crossed they put even more out in 2013.

– We long ago established that Tokyo producer Miii isn’t just a brostep-only producer, as he routinely branches off into all sorts of sounds. Still, the opening to newest track “I Was Blue” shocks because, for an entire minute, the only sound present is a mournful piano. It’s eventually joined by a skeletal beat and some minor-key twinkles, but this is Miii at his most minimalist, as he lets the ivories dominate the sonic and emotional center of the song. It’s also tagged as “emo,” so I hope Miii is doing OK!

– Last, a new artist certainly worth keeping an eye on – Kenie_T. He’s friends with mus.hiba, who Tweeted about Kenie_T’s new song “Computer Romance” at the beginning of the week. Like mus.hiba, Kenie_T dabbles in Vocaloid sounds, most clearly evident on his older track “Find The Spring” available here. Yet “Computer Romance” pulls an interesting trick – after an opening that brings to mind the two songs on Moscow Club’s 2012 Bradbury EP, Kenie_T covers the songs in synths, turning it into a bright pulsing wonder. He breaks up all the synthesized swooning with a harp-like twinkle affect, and in the second half he introduced the Vocaloid voice…buried in the cascade of electronics. That digitized voice sounds celestial under all those synths, and the track as a whole is quite gorgeous.

Similar Posts

  • New Shugo Tokumaru: “Decorate”

    宅録ミュージシャンのトクマルシューゴが、2010年の作品”Port Entropy”に続くシングル、”Decorate”をリリースしました。今までの楽しいおもちゃ箱のような曲以上を望んでいる人にとっては期待はずれかもしれませんね。今回も、遊び心に満ちた曲に仕上がっています。ベル、木管楽器とアコースティックギターが曲の多くを占め、目覚まし時計のような茶目っ気のある音も面白いです。彼のスタイルは全く損なわれていないです。視聴は上から。シングルを購入すれば、トクマルシューゴによる、かつてMTVで大ヒットしたバグルスの、”ラジオ・スターの悲劇”のカバーも聴けます。シングルカットがどうなっているかは知りませんが、ライブバージョンは以下から視聴できます。

  • Fogpak #7 Is Massive, Features Kai Takahashi, PARKGOLF, Mioriyuri And 45 Other Artists

    The Fogpak compilations, albums collecting songs from independent electronic artists all across Japan, have been getting a lot longer with each new installment in the series. The sixth edition featured 33 tracks, and that already felt like a challenge to get through. Now comes the seventh in the series which ups the ante with 48…

  • Sharp Corners: Plastic Pop’s “I Die In Tomorrow”

    This is, as the project’s name implies, a pop song. It just happens to be captured through a very damaged prism, all the catchiness of “I Die In Tomorrow” turned sinister and unsettling, a bad dream rendered into a just-under-two-and-a-half-minute track. The beat is jagged and the vocals are blurred out, the actual words nearly…

  • New LLLL: Mirror

    東京のデュオ、LLLLの楽曲には良い意味で不穏な空気感が漂っています。セルフ・タイトルのデビューアルバムも、続くシングル”Spider Web/Drafting Still“も、何かが陰に潜んでいるようなスリルを感じさせてくれます。今月リリースされたデュオの最長作品、”Mirror”というミニアルバムでは、目の回るようなサウンドがさらに強調されていて、それでいて今までの作品よりもポップさが増しています。一曲目の”Oddness”のイントロでフィーチャーされているシンセからすでにホラー・映画のような雰囲気が感じられ、後に出てくる音色も、スピード感に変化を与えていたり、曲に深みを足しています。色気のあるボーカルも上手く抜けていますし、曲をキャッチーで聴きやすい物にしています。 次の曲、”I Wish You”は、ボーカルの処理の仕方や、それに絡むダンス・ビート等、構成がスウェーデンのザ・ナイフを彷彿とさせています。このグループもエレクトロ・ポップをダークな新しい物にしているので、共通点が多く見受けられます。”Mirror”に収録されている他の曲も、安定してポップかつキャッチーで、それに加えられたダークさがLLLLの最大の武器かつ個性で、作品に深みを与えています。 Mirror by LLLL