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Category Archives: Music @ja

New The Paellas: “Sugar”

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At their best, The Paellas…especially the lead singer…sound like they are in the same room as you as their music unfolds. The bulk of their material up to this point has sounded like the work of a doomed lounge band, the group’s words muffled by fuzzy recording. Everything is a little more clear on new song “Sugar” – one half of a forthcoming “DIY single” – but The Paellas still manage to nail the intimacy AND the dread. It is a sparse number, the group allowing plenty of space alongside the guitar, drums and bass for the group’s lead vocals to do their whispery thing. Like repeat the phrase “are you going to give me some drugs?/are you going to give me some more tonight?” It really takes off when his voice turns into a whimper, selling the desperation at the heart of this and turning it gut wrenching. Listen below.

New Elen Never Sleeps: Rum EP

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The vocals found on Elen Never Sleeps’ songs are always an interesting confrontation – they are not traditionally “good” but the relatively ragged delivery are charming in their own way. They are pushed further than ever before on new EP Rum which finds Elen Never Sleep crafting his most vocally daring collection yet. It opens with the previously released title track, a shuffling little number that has a beach-side vibe to it but conceals some intimate lines (“too hot inside you” whoa). Yet it is also an outlier here, because vocally it is one of the most relaxed tunes here. It is on the following track, the driving “Skyline,” where the singing starts ramping up. Come the chorus, the words are being shouted a touch louder and the vocals are coming out in a higher register than before. Not pretty…but also bluntly earnest, Elen Never Sleeps really driving home the emotion at the core of this track. Similar jumps up in delivery happen on the peaceful “Saudade” and reach their apex on “Emerald,” where dude sounds like Bjork in his shouting. Again, though, it is some real emotional blood-letting, and makes the album all the stronger. Get it here or listen below.

New Vibrations: Waver Friends And Secret Space

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There is no shortage of home-based producers in Japan today…and here are two more. It’s tough to really put a name to what Waver Friends does, mostly because I STILL am not sure what the ultimate definition of “vaporwave” is. I am leaning towards calling this at least “vapor inspired,” as it is a faded-sounding track featuring a lot of repetition and the sort of vocal sample (unintelligible, old sounding) you hear all the time. It is also a very catchy little production. Listen below.

Secret Space, like Waver Friends, has been kicking around for a little bit now, and has even released a rather hit-or-miss EP. Yet new song “Sign” finds this relatively mysterious project take a big jump forward in quality. It’s a simple song, but effective – Secret Space piles surging sytnhs on top of a beat (and one another) and builds it all up to a thrilling, big-screen conclusion. Listen below.

New INNNIT Compilation Features Shigeto, Seiho, Madegg, Magical Mistakes And Many More

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Osaka’s INNIT parties, events held every few months where folks are invited to bring their own music and watch it get played, are still going strong, and have only gotten better as time goes on. This Sunday at Osaka’s Grand Cafe, they will host Ann Arbor’s Shigeto alongside regulars like Seiho, Magical Mistakes, And Vice Versa and so on. In advance of this, they’ve released a lovely mix of new songs which you can hear below, or get physically at the event this weekend. It highlights the stylistic range the event has been able to attract – it opens with the wild drum ‘n’ bass of Ryuei Kotoge, and along the way hits on the more minimal construction of Magical Mistakes (“All White Paint Room”) and the lumbering darkness of Kyoto’s Eadonmm (“Tide Up”). Seiho delivers delayed satisfaction with “Night Of Liar,” which skitters about a bit before hitting the big juicy rave-out center, while Madegg lays out an understand number with “Lie.” And Shigeto contributes a strong number too. If you are in Osaka, please go to this, they are good times.

New Post Modern Team: Post Modern Team

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Well, turns out this is a real indie-popping weekend after all: Osaka’s Post Modern Team, behind some of the absolute finest songs in Japan’s current indie-pop boom, have just released their self-titled debut album. Post Modern Team mostly collects all of the group’s previously released numbers – which means this comes loaded with “Never Let You Down,” “In The City,” “Heartbreak” and all the other tracks Post Modern Team have been releasing into the wild over the last few years. If you’ve been following them since they burst onto the stage (and they really did…their first song was “Never Let Me Down,” the best Japanese indie-pop song of this decade so far) you might know these…but here they are all together, which makes for a hell of a debut. Get it here, or listen below.