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Category Archives: Music @ja

mus.hiba Teams Up With Harmful Logic For “Whispery Voice”

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Vocaloid-user mus.hiba has been teaming up with a lot of folks recently – first, Bo En and him came together for the cut “Winter Valentine” on the English music maker’s Pale Machine release. And now he’s bringing the syllabic sounds of Sekka Yufu to the late-night sounds of Irish producer Harmful Logic’s chilly “Whispery Voice.” So far in his career, mus.hiba’s use of singing-synthesizer sounds has stood out from most Vocaloid music, more ghostly and experimental than most of the stuff on Nico Nico Douga. Yet the sparse, gloomy atmosphere Harmful Logic conjures up on this track makes Yufu’s digi voice sound deeply creepy, as if she’s peaking out of a corner on a foggy street. Usually, mus.hiba wraps up the vocals in dreamy synth washes, but over Harmful Logic’s more sparse production, they just hover and become something else entirely. This song comes off of Harmful Logic’s lovely new album Lost In The World, which you can get here.

New De De Mouse: “Milkyway Planet”

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All the trademark sounds are right there on De De Mouse’s latest song “Milkyway Planet.” The keyboards sparkle, and his thinly sliced vocals are as fast as they’ve ever been in his career. Yet “Milkyway Planet” never explodes into technicolor, never turns into a drum ‘n’ bass workout or zippy pop number. It is De De Mouse at his most contemplative, letting the voices swirl around while the twinkles around build up, but never to any sort of climax or drop. Rather, they just become more enveloping, the song avoiding the typical “journey” feel De De Mouse seems to go for in favor of pure stargazing. Watch the video above.

Connected: Bo En’s Pale Machine Featuring Avec Avec And mus.hiba

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Ho hum, another Maltine Records from an artist not based in Japan, another opportunity for me to come up with some weak excuse to write about it anyway. But wait! English artist Bo En’s Pale Machine features collaborations with two of Japan’s finest producers going – Avec Avec and mus.hiba. Jackpot, no need for excuses!

The entire album is a cross-cultural whirlwind of sounds, as if one left the Nintendo Wii main screen on while watching a random assortment of YouTube videos – many in non-English languages – really loudly. Bo En’s music rarely sit stills for very long, as nearly every available space on Pale Machine gets splashed with some stuttering electronic sound or vocal sample (save for the elegant “Intro,” which simply serenades before everything gets dizzy). Bo En himself switches between English and Japanese for his vocals, while also switching between heavily-manipulated vocals (which themselves boomerang from robot-ish to cartoony…on just “Miss You” alone) to singing untouched (like on closer “My Time,” a track inspired by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s “Oyasumi,” except if it were more like a drunken sing-a-long diving into electronic freak out). It makes for a whizzbang album, an even more all-over-the-place Max Tundra-like affair. It might end up a love-it-or-hate-it-affair, but I’m on the heart-filled side and I hope you’ll join me.

Oh yeah, about those collabs…first up is Bo En and Avec Avec’s easygoing “Be Okay,” which features both diversions into bossa nova and a sample from Luther Vandross’ “A House Is Not A Home” which you might recognize as coming from Twista and Kanye West’s “Slow Jamz.” And then “Winter Valentine” with mus.hiba which…I’ve already written about! Still fantastic here. Get the album here (or donate for it).

New Annie The Clumsy: “You Are A Massive Winker”

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I have only seen one episode of New Girl in my life, but Annie The Clumsy sorta reminds me of the central character in that show (episode?) gone more blue. I don’t want to settle for any “manic-pixie-dream-girl” junk, but both exude a quirky charisma all their own that’s easy to appreciate. Annie The Clumsy’s newest track “You Are A Massive Winker” is a jaunty bit of bedroom pop peppered with chiming sounds and, at the end, a lovely bit of multi-tracked singing matched up with violin that makes for a surprisingly regal conclusion. Fun little love song, right? Well, what sets Annie The Clumsy apart is how she’s not afraid to be blunt about her desires – “please could you stop winking at us/’cause it makes us wet and fall in love with you.” The “winker/wanker” bit is too meta for its own good, but the rest of “Winker’s” lyrics are as un-twee as it gets, and that’s a welcome shift from the usual melancholy stuff. Listen below.

New Ykiki Beat: “Younger Life”

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Is it an ode to times that have passed, or a celebration of a period in one’s life that will soon be history? The beauty of “Younger Life” is it leaves that a little bit open-ended…it could be a memory or it could be in the moment, but Ykiki Beat’s strutty number about the joys of losing yourself to dance (errrrrr not the other one) works either way. The vocals fly by like seconds ticking away, small details of a scene doomed to eventually fade, Ykiki Beat’s lead singer keeping up the pace admirably. The music fits too, far more reserved than the group’s last song “Garden,” full of guitar lines that are shifty but still laid back and summery. Listen below.