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Category Archives: Music @ja

New Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: “Invader Invader”

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One of my grand theories…the sort you start scribbling notes on in Tumblr before being like “nah, gotta develop this a bit more” before hitting the big ol’ “X” in the corner…is that Yasutaka Nakata is secretly one of the major influences of contemporary EDM. One day, I’ll actually write that, but for now we have “Invader Invader,” the latest single from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, produced by Nakata, and his most overtly brostep song to date. He’s flirted with the wub before, but here he’s dropped (heh) an honest-to-God Skrillex-aping section into one of his tracks, one designed for maximum flipping out to. Yet this is Nakata were talking about, and he isn’t one to simply subscribe to tends (give or take a song here or there). The brostep part of “Invader Invader” is only a small portion of one of Kyary’s most ambitious singles to date yet, one featuring robo-backed singing and an energetic chorus that stands out thanks to the drama (and wildness) around it. Listen below.

UPDATE: The video also just came out (maybe that’s where the audio above comes from) watch below

New Perfume: “Magic Of Love”

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This year saw a first from techno-pop trio Perfume – a dud. “Mirai No Museum,” a song written for a Doraemon movie, was greeted with mostly shrugs and “ehhhhh, hope the next one is better” from the group’s usually rabid fanbase. It did alright sales wise, but failed to ignite even real hate from anyone – it was just sort of a disappointment. There have been a handful of Perfume singles that have split the fanbase – “Spending All My Time’s” glorious Calvin Harris impersonation springing right to mind – but this felt like a whiff everyone just wanted to move on from.

So that puts new single “Magic Of Love” in a weird position for Perfume – a highly anticipated track that seems extra important following a miscue. The group debuted this song on their radio show this week, and it might be a little too soon to tell whether this is a legitimately great song or it’s just so much better than what came before it I’m overrating it a bit. A whole bunch of spins, and I’m leaning towards the prior. “Magic Of Love” manages to retain the bright cyborg sound they’ve made their own, while Yasutaka Nakata adds enough intriguing details to make this more than just a solid Perfume single. The hook brings to mind Capsule’s “Step On The Floor,” but that’s not really a bad thing. Yet it’s what exists around the chorus that makes this great. The most noticeable moments come when Nakata pushes the members of Perfume away from the digital fuzz they are always splashed in and we here them just singing. He’s done this before – the climax of “Spice” being the best example – but it works well here. Less immediate is what Nakata does between verses, playing around more than usual with his electronics, like he’s just throwing vials full of rainbow-colored liquids into a pot and seeing what happens. “Magic Of Love” always seems to be changing in some small way…something the lockjawed “Mirai No Museum” failed at. Glad to have you back Perfume. Listen below.

Shiny Shiny: Kenie_T’s “Crystal”

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“Electric” doesn’t even begin to describe this one. Kenie_T is a Tokyo producer who…well, we don’t know too much about. He’s friends with mus.hiba, and he’s released some fine material in the past. Yet his latest work, “Crystal,” is his most absorbing yet. His connection with mus.hiba also carries over to his music – mus.hiba creates enveloping tracks using synths that swirl around and Vocaloid, a touch that adds an android touch that is simultaneously unsettling and seemingly a commentary on…something. “Crystal” lacks any voacls, human or software provided, but proves just a blanketing as any of his pals works. Save for the beat, Kenie_T constructs all of this song from synths, layering them in a way that makes “Crystal” sound delicate, everything light and sorta fragile. He even demonstrates that fragility by summoning a prickly synth line to rev across the track at various moments, a trick that disrupts the prettiness on display. But even those disruptions can’t derail “Crystal’s” loveliness. Listen below.

New Shiina Ringo: “Irohanihoheto”

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May 27 marks the 15th anniversary of the debut of Shiina Ringo, an artist who has released a few classic albums and has had a huge impact on a generation of Japanese music fans. To celebrate, she’s releasing a new single on that day and…it presumably hit the Internet sometime today. It’s called “Irohanihoheto” and it’s a refined number. It moves at the pace of her earliest songs, but done up in the string flourishes that glazed her later albums…and her last single, which wasn’t that long ago. This isn’t Shiina Ringo emerging on the anniversary of her debut to reveal a(nother) new form, but rather her reminding the Japanese music landscape that she’s still here doing her thing wonderfully.

And hey, let’s talk about that chorus. She adds in dramatic spikes…see the new set of strings that rise up the second time around…and manages to wring a whole lot of tension out of this song as a whole. It’s her best single in quite some time…and that’s including Tokyo Jihen…and a nice reminder of what one of Japan’s best is capable of. Listen here.

Cop This Now: FOGPAK #6 Featuring OKLobby, Licaxxx, PNDR PSLY, Calum Bowen And 29 Other Artists

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Do not approach FOGPAK #6 as an album. To sit down and listen through this 33-track collection in one go is far from an unpleasant experience – it’s great! – but did you see the part about 33 songs? Expect to devote at least two hours of your day to FOGPAK #6…which is a lot of day. Real talk, I’m now sorta behind on my work because of this. I love it, though.

Anyway, you should be approaching every FOGPAK as a reference guide to Japan’s sprawling electronic music scene. On one level, it’s an opportunity to check in on some familiar names and see what has been tickling them as of late. Tokyo’s Licaxxx sounds like she’s been listening to a lot of trap music based off her contribution “Bizarreness,” which features rap-derived “yeps” and sounds you hear in almost every TNGT banger. Yet she isn’t so easy to predict – she offsets all of that with this feverish synth that makes the whole thing sound deeply uneasy. OKLobby gets cutesy with his synthesizers…and vocal samples…on “Mr. Gone,” and compilation compiler PNDR PSLY provides a more relaxing number in “Singing Studies.” Q/Ghost shines with the fidgety “Breakfast For Metaphor,” which sounds one part Flying-Lotus bass squanker and one part De De Mouse. One of FOGPAK #6’s best comes from…I believe…the first foreign contributor, mus.hiba-pal Calumn Bowen with his “Miss You.” It’s a perky jaunt aided by warped vocals, handclaps and late-song chanting. Picture a street full of cartoon flowers singing, except said fauna might be on Molly.

Yet the real treat of any FOGPAK collection is encountering names you didn’t know before. Edition six has a lot of stellar names Make Believe Melodies didn’t know before downloading the comp, but I plan on keeping tabs on ’em now. Fukuoka’s BigVirgin boasts the worst name here, but that’s forgiven when listening to “Leisure,” which splits the difference between being a woozy meditative piece and bordering on footwork. Tokyo’s Leaping Phaser delivers the iciest number hear, his electronics morphing at a glacial but entrancing clip, while Shoueno layers the vocal manipulation on thick…but with emotional results. I’m also fond of Kobe’s Left One, who gets quite menacing on the slow-burning “Stoner Wing (Stand Alone),” and the mysterious Maritime (no SoundCloud! no Twitter!?) impresses with the upbeat “Odd Eye.” Really though, just listen yourself and plot your own path through the Japanese electronic wild. Get it here.