This just slithers, all icy synths and vocals. Miu Mau are a new-wave trio, and on “Monochrome” they have created a prickly number that’s both catchy and a touch mysterious. It is a relatively sparse song – some leading guitar and synth bouncing, which gives way to just drum and woozy synth notes. This backdrop gives the singing plenty of room to work with – the lyrics come across quite clear here, painting a pretty ennui-rich picture. “I’m looking forward to the weekend,” they go, and soon the lead singer is bringing up French films. She jumps between English and Japanese, but the emotional impact comes through in both. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music @ja
New Bugseed: Goldfish EP
Last year, American rapper Wiz Khalifa released a mixtape called Taylor Allderdice, featuring a song called “Nameless.” It featured very minimal, very lovely production, credited to a clothing store in Los Angeles. This would be nothing of note…and something Make Believe Melodies would never ever care about…if that lovely little beat hadn’t actually been made by Tokyo’s Bugseed, one of the bigger names in Japan’s underground hip-hop beatmaking scene. It was an all-around dumb situation, because even though the song in question appeared on a free mixtape, Khalifa was at his commercial peak around this time (dude has fallen a bit since) and even a sliver of attention thrown Bugseed’s way would have been great.
“Feel free to use these beats on your mix and spread this album if you like!” goes the text for Bugseed’s newest album Goldfish, which, well, give the dude credit at least if you decide to. His latest set of beats is him operating in his strongest zone, an area of where he remains a touch above most of his peers here in Japan – creating jazzy, relatively minimal beats that would sound at home on an early ’90s rap album (or, like, a new Q-Tip album). Expect lots of sax blurts (like almost every song here), loungy piano (check laid-back opener “Beneath The Sea” for that one especially) and skittery drum (highlighted by “Boogie”). Oh and also that sorta sounds like fiddle on the brief-but-charming “Sleep Walk.” Listen below, or get it here…and give the man the credit he deserves!
New Eadonmm: “Oblivio Throb”
Quick quiz – what album was Make Believe Melodies most excited about coming into 2013? Even though this year has seen new full-lengths from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Moscow Club, Sakanaction, Tofubeats and a bunch of other artists I adore, someone else had me giddier than any of them heading into January. That would be Eadonmm, Kansai’s most unsettling electronic producer who was going to release a new album sometime in 2013. His spooky productions – along with an absolutely killer set at this year’s SonarSound festival, which found him laying out his twisted darkwave in front of footage of hellfire and nightmarish hospital footage where everyone was wearing animal masks – had me pumped for whatever he would put out. Unfortunately, that LP hasn’t emerged yet.
Though this past week, he did post a new song called “Oblivio Throb” that has once again gotten me giddy for what could (hopefully?) be coming. This song does, indeed, throb, slowly unfolding and introducing new creepy details as it goes along. There is a muffled vocal sample, a carnival-esque synth line and skittery drum programming. It all comes together to form an understated…but goosebump-inducing…track. Listen below.
New Ventla: Smuggled
It has been one of those weeks that has ended up being so busy, I have barely been able to pay attention to much new Japanese music this week. Thanks a lot work day! Anyway, next week will maybe be a bit lighter (and all things willing, this weekend can be a chance to hear all the stuff I missed), but for now here is an album that was in my drafts. Bedroom whizz Ventla released a new, 28-song album on Orange Milk Records called Smuggled. Get it here or listen below during your – hopefully pleasant! – weekend.
New Shortcake Collage Tape: “Chillwave Will Die But She Won’t”
I mean, its definitely a misleading title on a lot of levels, mostly because to reduce Shortcake Collage Tape down to being just “chillwave” does a great disservice. Yeah, the adjectives that comes to mind for this (Mogwai-referencing?) song fit…hazy, blurred, chilled out. Yet it owes just as much to vaporwave, and even dropping something like that is misleading because what Shortcake Collage Tape does so well – as demonstrated on the still-fantastic Spirited Summer – is always stay above genre-related stereotypes. So yes, this is a slowly unfurling electronic track featuring vocals inspired by Chuck Person AND a closing blast of saxophone…but the bulk of “Chillwave Will Die” is an absorbing, atmospheric listen, where the only real intrusion comes from the beat. Though that sax sounds sweet. Listen below.