Flau Records has released a new, surreal video for dream-pop artist Cuushe’s “I Love You,” which you can watch above. It is a nearly four-and-a-half-minute jumble of lips, diamonds, spaghetti and much more. It is also a great opportunity to listen to the song once again, off of Cuushe’s Butterfly Case album (which I reviewed over here). “I Love You” is Cuushe’s best song to date, a hypnotic number that spends its first half creeping forward before hitting pay-dirt in its second half, when the singer simply repeats the titular phrase over and over again. This devotion to a simple but powerful sentence – coupled with Cuushe’s singing and the sudden urgency of the music around her – results in one of the most emotionally blunt passages in Japanese music this year.
Category Archives: Music @ja
New Young Juvenile Youth: More For Me, More For You
Well, thanks, more is better!
Young Juvenile Youth popped up in the second half of 2013, and with second EP More For Me, More For You, I’m ready to call them one of the most interesting new acts going into 2014 in Japan. The collaboration, between singer Yuki and producer Jemapur, creates relatively sparse tracks focusing on the vocals, their songs mixing in plenty of unease to make them easy to come back to. Jemapur’s production goes a long way to nailing down this effect on their latest – a track like “Optique” could be a straightforward bit of trip-hop nostalgia, but his music works in sprays of acoustic guitar and reversed noises that give the song a hair-tingling edge. Jempaur’s sounds also meld nicely with Yuki’s vocals – she’s not a showy singer, but her muted delivery and decision to jump between Japanese and English adds an air of intrigue to these three songs (and she steals the show on “Bitter,” making repetition sound especially sweet). Their best moment comes on the title track, which is the best negotiation between the pair. Jemapur crafts a smooth (but creaky – sounds like there are floorboards deep in the mix) that allows Yuki to flex her intimate delivery. Oh, and Magical Mistakes contributes a solid remix to this too, if you needed further reason to listen. Check it out below.
New YMCK: “Sasetsu Shite Usetsu Shite”
YMCK, like fellow Japanese artists Omodaka and the older material of 99 Letters, pulls off a rare thing – being able to make music based primarily around 8-bit sounds and turning it into something beyond novelty. “Sesetsu Shite Usetsu Shite” could be goofy novelty in the hands of someone more interested in playing Mega Man III than music, but YMCK have always put creating catchy pop ahead of simply slobbering over the noises made by a an old Game Boy (to be fair, their visual imagery is entirely devoted to pixels). Critically, they never suffocate their songs with blips and bloops, taking what they need to let the melodies and chorus come through. They are simple in the best way. Here, the key is that easy-breezy chorus, nothing more than the lead singer saying “turn left, turn right” a few times, but with lovely delivery. Listen above.
New Pa’s Lam System: Virus Window
Might want to give this one some time – producer Pa’s Lam System’s new album Virus Window went up on the Maltine Records’ site a little while ago, and everything seems to have crashed thanks to demand for it. I can’t even download it at the moment! But we do this album features his club-thumping “Bit By Bit,” and he’s also posted the second track “Stand And Dance,” which features Sho Ueno’s vocals a typically busy electric current conjured up by Pa’s Lam System. The third track, “Fuzzy Control,” remains a mystery around these parts, as do the three remixes rounding out the collection. Hope for lower traffic in the morning. Get it here, or listen to “Stand And Dance” below.
New FOODMAN: Are Kore
(Editor’s Note: I’m moving to a new apartment in two days, so posts might be on the briefer side. Gotta pack!)
Footwork producer FOODMAN already released one great off-the-wall album of music recently…and now he’s back with another on Hiroshima’s Dubliminal Bounce. Are Kore opens on the harsher end of the spectrum and along the way touches on chopped-and-sliced Indian sounds to straightforward R&B. And the sound of a fly spliced up into a juke beat. Get it here, or listen below.