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Category Archives: Music @ja

New Metoronori: Veil

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It’s about being surprised in the best ways possible. This, Metoronori’s third album, finds her continuing to occupy her own little, strange corner of the online music world. She creates fragile little sonic worlds…whirring synths, the occasional glance of something a bit shinier, a very annoying timer sound on “III”…that could seemingly collapse from a gust of wind (it is a weird bit of timing that outside my apartment is a lot of wind, and that it all overpowers the tunes on Veil). The sonic compositions themselves are fantastic…especially the deep-space gurgles and lonely piano that appear on the song that translates to “Taking Care Of A Plant,” turning the everyday into the trippy…yet it is when she introduces her voice into the songs that Metoronori’s work truly takes off. She rarely sings, rather outright speaking, often in a way that makes her seem like she’s ducking away from attention. She knows how to work her style excellently. Get it here, or listen below.

Magical Mistakes Remixes Metome’s “Paper Moon”

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Kansai producers doing things. Metome has been having a busy January, having released the fantastic Objet album (this year’s early frontrunner for album of the year…note, it has been eight days into the year). Before that, though, he released a song called “Paper Moon” as part of an EP called Phreatic Surface released through Canadian label King Deluxe. Now another Japan-based artist associated with that imprint, Magical Mistakes (he seems to have another release with ’em coming out sometime this year, if SoundCloud can be trusted…) has remixed “Paper Moon” for King Deluxe’s special Year Three compilation. Listen below, and get the compilation here.

Western Jaunt: Kalan Ya Heidi’s “Marbles Of Maple”

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Fukuoka songwriting duo Kalan Ya Heidi appear to have only one song available for listening online…yet they’ve clearly won over the folks at Dead Funny Records, who will be releasing the group’s first EP this winter. “Marbles Of Maple,” though, is a pretty stunning debut from the pair. It opens like it could end up slipping into badly done folk rock territory, the two trading lines back and forth over some occasional strums. Then the song gallops into life, and Kalan Ya Heidi’s two voices come together to form one great vocal that dashes alongside the rustic instrumentation. They go back to the back-and-forth delivery, but it works way better while the banjos and accordion (!) run forward. And the conclusion finds them turning “la las” into some compelling sounds. Listen below.

What About It? Canata Records Release New Compilation What About Tokyo?

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“This album is the 2nd of a series of compilation albums introducing young Japanese artists, this time with a focus on noise pop. However, this focus does not mean confinement to a single style.”

Canata Records isn’t kidding. The What About Tokyo? comp finds five bands with five very different styles…some more noisy than others…and puts them on display for all to hear. High-schooler Orange Grass weaves in vocal samples (including one of Steve Jobs talking about calligraphy) alongside a barely there guitar line and, eventually some mumbly singing. Secret Space spends all seven minutes of “Free Your Mind” also sounding sparse, but dude also delivers the charging “Summer.” Elsewhere, Spicy Drive leans towards twee, Never Knows Best comes off as the most traditionally “J-Rock” (or, on the jagged “Emotional Defect,” like Bloc Party), and then there is this (NSFW, also sorta disturbing!) which…yikes. They deliver the loudest track of all. Listen below, or get it here.

Jesse Ruins’ Nobuyuki Sakuma Makes Soundtrack To Isabelle: Isabelle X

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I have never seen the film Isabelle, and am not even sure if this is the film Nobuyuki Sakuma is referring to with his Isabelle X project. Here’s a trailer…seems like it could be! Sakuma has gone and created an “imaginary soundtrack” to the film, and even at 22 minutes it is a disorienting listen. Over the course of Isabelle X, Sakuma weaves in what sounds like an interview between two people (possibly a reporter and Sophia Coppola?)…except they are often very distorted, and at times sound inhuman. These sounds pop up all the time, often over music that would otherwise sound straightforward, but takes on a menacing vibe. Alongside the voices, the music here alternates between chugging, menacing passages of minimal electronic sounds to more relaxed stretches all the way to some euphoric moments, like the one ending the soundtrack (albeit it is disrupted by those warped voices and other sudden sounds). Not sure how it works as an actual soundtrack, but it’s a good listen, especially if you like the similar atmosphere conjured by Jesse Ruins’ music. Listen here, or below.