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Category Archives: Music @ja

New House Of Tapes: Warped Colors

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Might as well end a banner year with a bang, right? Tanukineiri and House Of Tapes both had strong years – and they’ve basically been tied together in 2013, House Of Tapes being one of two obvious candidates as the label’s major musical representative (the other is May.e). So, for the Nagoya producers third album, why not put out a digital release that actually seeks to make a little money too? Release it on iTunes, Amazon and even Spotify (no excuses, non-Japan readers), and now Tanukineiri is making strides beyond being a simple netlabel. That’s Warped Colors from the imprint’s side.

For House Of Tapes, this is the final proof that the project has moved beyond the black-hole-conjuring beats making up the bulk of his first two albums. Warped Colors features the aggression that has earned him attention, but it also finds House Of Tapes trying out some new sonic twists. “Mellow Days” is practically two different songs stringed into one, full of twinkles and (a few) gritty synth drills. Vocals…whether shrouded in mist (“Twinkle”) or scrabbled messes (“Mass”)…appear more than ever before. Most importantly, House Of Tapes is really experimenting with structure – before, he was making pure sonic battering rams. Now these songs have lots of twists and turns…along with a physical edge…and Warped Colors is a very rewarding listen. Get it on iTunes, Amazon or stream it on Spotify.

Eight Is Not Enough!: New Fogpak Featuring Foodman, Liquid Sunshine, PNDR PSLY And A Lot More

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Look, it is far from perfect – no compilation with 41 tracks from 41 different producers can go perfect – but the eighth edition in the Fogpak series comes off as particularly strong, esepcially compared to the more hit-or-miss recent entries. This series, which gathers new music from electronic producers all over Japan (and, sometimes, the world), has always been loaded with good stuff, but Fogpak #8 is a consistently good listen that takes all sorts of great stylistic turns over the course of its (very long) running time. Especially striking are the first handful of songs contained here – kuuya opens the comp with plaintative piano before introducing skittering beats and a chopped vocal sample (note those two sonic details, they are the bedrock for a lot of the artists popping up here), and the producer plays around with both…before launching into a juke-inspired bit. In The Blue Shirt delivers a jolly cut-and-slicer of his own with “Slight Intoxication,” before PinokioMachine and YYIOYoffer up hyperactive numbers of their own (the latter turns an Utada song into a Jersey club banger). And soon enough, if all the ratcheted-up energy wore you down, Liquid Sunshine comes in with a lithe mover all his own, full of splaying synths.

Many producers here create songs featuring split-second vocal samples and rapid-fire music, but what’s impressive is that none of it ever sounds derivative, many of the artists here finding ways to put their own stamp on the style (some highlights: Akoustik Shadow’s luxurious approach, Firedrill’s swirly “Id,” PNDR PSLY’s long-distance “Loverproof”). Other notables – Foodman gives us a barely-there track, while Waver Friends indulges in some borderline vapor funk. And maybe the biggest surprise guest of all comes on Ulzzang Pistol’s contribution to Fogpak, wherein he uses the voice of Hatsune Miku to create a dizzy little love song that might as well be set in space. Definitely a must get. Listen below, or get it here.

New Especia: “Our Sp!ce”

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Not content with one of the best J-Pop tracks of the year, Kansai idol unit Especia have another new single out before the calendar turns over. “Our Sp!ce” is released in cahoots with the music retailer HMV, yet the group don’t settle for anything here. Production unit Schtein&Longer keep Especia honest, crafting a whirling song that never settles down for a second, the only individual sounds that stand out being the beat and the occasional gun-cocking-and-shot (?) sounds. It’s a fascinating mess of styles, with elements taken from the ever-trendy trap scene but warped in such a way to sound as peppy as possible. The members of Especia alternate between slow-mo singing and skippier delivery in accordance with the beat. “Our Sp!ce” features slightly more conventional idol-like singing, yet the production makes this stand out all its own. Listen above.

Splice It Splice It Splice It: In The Blue Shirt

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Talking City 1994 is a very talented Osaka-based band, but the individual members are insanely talented too. Soleil Soleil has been creating fidgety dance music of all sorts over the last few years and has probably been the most visible individual player in the group. Yet right up there is the band’s guitarist Ryo Arimura, who makes music independently under the name In The Blue Shirt. He’s been putting out great dancefloor-oriented music over the past year (behind the scenes here: I have wanted to do a post about them, but I kept waiting for, like, a full-length album or EP instead of just one track. Giving in now and just catching up). His latest, “Dreams Made Of Yoshidayama,” is a fantastic cut of sample funk (in a similar vein to SAINT PEPSI or anyone on Keats Collective). It’s a simple trick – unearth an old record, zero in on the tastiest bit, and slice it up into pure sonic confection – but In The Blue Shirt nails it here with this hiccuping number. Bonus points for keeping it brief and making the replay button a must.

Browsing through his entire SoundCloud page is encouraged, but one other highlight from the last month is his “cover” of Bibio’s “Lover’s Carvings,” which turns it into a thumping number (like, seriously, the only real addition are more beats) that flips a headphone number into a floor filler.