#10 Wai Wai Music Resort WWMR 1 If total number of plays need to be considered for any favorites list, Wai Wai Music Resort ran away with my 2019. Whether because I needed to concentrate on work or simply wanted a stereophonic sound trip bound for endless summer, WWMR 1 delivered pure breeze. It’s also…
#20 Chelmico Fishing Take a moment to appreciate how timing really is everything, and how many artists could have shot down a different path entirely if you wind the clocks back or forward just one year. It’s not hard to picture a reality where Chelmico are closer to idols like Lyrical School or Rhymeberry if…
#40 Universe Nekoko Kimi No Youni Ikiretara Bump into someone walking down the main shopping arcade in Koenji and you have pretty good odds that they play in either a shoegaze band. Few styles have persevered in Japan like this corner of rock, and as a result standing out from the field can be a…
At some point this fall, Make Believe Melodies turned ten. I’d known this decade milestone was looming — mainly because 2019 also marked my tenth anniversary of moving to Japan to work in the countryside teaching English to bored teenagers “for a year or two, tops” — and toyed around with ways to celebrate. Then life happened…
The best releases on NC4K have a kind of out-of-body vibe going for them, with the sounds making up their dance tracks feeling just a little hazy and untethered. That’s present on blackglassG’s Common Story EP, where the wooziness comes across subtly and in a way where the fun never gets cancelled out. The title…