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Dead Funny Records Prep New Compilation Album Featuring The Paellas, Fancy Books, Boyish And More

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The label compilation serves as a great way to broadcast a mission statement for an imprint – here are the groups support, and this is who we are. Dead Funny Records have put out some excellent materials by the likes of Osaka’s The Paella’s, Saitama’s Fancy Books and Tokyo’s Jappers, but with their first official compilation album they attempt to carve out an identity for themselves. This 50-minute-plus album primarily features guitar-heavy rock bands from all over Japan – it’s not the most niche style to put on for, but Dead Funny at least set boundaries as the music here ranges from sorta harsh (POP-OFFICE’s lovely “End Of Summer,” the rough-but-strong contribution from the band Half Sports which features such a good gallop) to toothache-causing indie-pop (the hiccuping “Little Girl” courtesy of Old Lacy Bed, a jangly contribution from the always impressive Homecomings) that is still different from a label like Ano(t)raks – despite both sharing Tokyo tweesters Boyish who appear on this album.

It’s not really shocking that one of the highlights of Dead Funny’s compilation album is a new track from The Paella’s. Over the past few years, this Osaka group has developed a style that suits them perfectly – whenever I listen to them, I picture a dimly lit lounge somewhere in a big city, half-empty at like 4 in the morning – and their “Fall Even Further” is a driving number strengthened by the group’s use of subdued vocals. Yet the other great tracks come from groups that haven’t gotten as enough attention – the CD starts with what might be the best song here, a bouncy bit of indie-pop from the band talk called “In Refrain Rain.” It moves at a skip, but the outfit’s use of bells lend it a soft quality. Plus, that chorus is sweet and manages the tricky business of being inflated and sorta wistful. Fukuoka’s Hearsays also score a highlight with their “The Blind,” a Real-Estate-esque bit of Sunday morning pop.

Only one song clashes with the Dead Funny sound established on this comp, and it’s a welcome curveball. Fancy Books’ “Nephogram” barely utilizes guitars, instead creating a spaced-out track where unintelligible voices drift like stardust and a thousand twinkles burn off in the distance. Every label needs that one band that seems out of place but actually pushes the place in new directions. Buy the album here, or listen to it below (first heard on Gold Soundz).

Busy Busy Week Catch-Up Post: Talking City 1994, Miii And Kenie_T

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This seemed to have been the week when a bunch of really talented Japanese artists went and released great new music all at once. Keeping up with all of it could be tough, but for the most part we touched on everything we wanted to. Except for the following three songs, two from acts we’ve been enjoying for some time and one new one that we will be keeping an eye on from here on out.

– Lost in the year-of-the-end list-o-mania back in December – Osaka’s Talking City 1994, who released a very strong EP of disjointed but catchy synth rock. Earlier this week, they released a new song called “Shine,” which finds the group getting into a slinkier disposition. It’s a funky number that seeks out a good groove and then electric-slides its way to the end, with only the vocals and a few synth additions in the back adding an element of unease to the song. Fingers crossed they put even more out in 2013.

– We long ago established that Tokyo producer Miii isn’t just a brostep-only producer, as he routinely branches off into all sorts of sounds. Still, the opening to newest track “I Was Blue” shocks because, for an entire minute, the only sound present is a mournful piano. It’s eventually joined by a skeletal beat and some minor-key twinkles, but this is Miii at his most minimalist, as he lets the ivories dominate the sonic and emotional center of the song. It’s also tagged as “emo,” so I hope Miii is doing OK!

– Last, a new artist certainly worth keeping an eye on – Kenie_T. He’s friends with mus.hiba, who Tweeted about Kenie_T’s new song “Computer Romance” at the beginning of the week. Like mus.hiba, Kenie_T dabbles in Vocaloid sounds, most clearly evident on his older track “Find The Spring” available here. Yet “Computer Romance” pulls an interesting trick – after an opening that brings to mind the two songs on Moscow Club’s 2012 Bradbury EP, Kenie_T covers the songs in synths, turning it into a bright pulsing wonder. He breaks up all the synthesized swooning with a harp-like twinkle affect, and in the second half he introduced the Vocaloid voice…buried in the cascade of electronics. That digitized voice sounds celestial under all those synths, and the track as a whole is quite gorgeous.

New House Of Tapes: Trip Science

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That Nagoya’s House Of Tapes’ debut album Trip Science is an enjoyable experience at all is a small miracle. That sounds harsh, the darkest shade one could throw, but I don’t mean that in a dismissive or ironically surprised way. House Of Tapes’ music has always sounded like a sonic endurance test, the dance-music equivalent of being forced to watch every Gasper Noe film in succession. He’s always categorized his music as “house,” but that has always ben too simple a description. This music is heavy, blasted-out stuff that often sounds crushing.

Yet Trip Science works as an album, mostly because of how committed to his often pummeling sound Hose Of Tapes is. It’s not entirely a heavy affair – bell chimes pop up on “Chaos Tape” while late track “Faint Light” is the one moment on the album where House Of Tapes opens the shades a bit – but the bulk of this release focuses on hard-hitting beats and electronics that sound like they are being sucked into a black hole. Previously released songs like “Starting Point” and the appropriately titled “Noise Attack” still carry the same impact they did when they appeared last year, but now sit comfortably within Trip Science’s frame. This is challenging stuff, but not a challenge to listen to. Get it here.

Funky Fresh: Metome’s Cloud EP

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“Noctilucent Cloud” starts the same way a lot of electronic songs made by independent producers in Japan do – a minimalist beat and some clicking, ominous background noise and what sounds like giant drips of water hitting the bottom of a sink. Nothing wrong with this approach to production, but it would have left Metome lacking much of an identity. A few seconds later, though, he sets himself apart when he introduces a keyboard into the song that is only a few modifications away from soundtracking between-innings at a Chicago Cubs’ game. Metome’s Cloud EP features only two tracks, but each song here sounds surprisingly funky. The second track, “Magic Cloud’ 1970,” doesn’t feature sweet organ sounds, but instead finds Metome cutting some vocal samples up and rearranging them into tipsy little number, one where the singing slows down and speeds up all while some tight bass plays in the background. Listen here.

New Picnic Women: II Women EP

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Ahhh Picnic Women, that jokester. The title to his latest collection of juke cuts comes off like the punchline to what he pulls off the title track, “II Women.” On that song, Picnic Women takes Mariah Carey’s and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” specifically the vocals from Boyz II Men, and pitches them both down and (more importantly for the zinger) up. Besides being funny, “II Women” is also one of the most sensual songs Picnic Women has put together yet, the touches of guitar hiding out in the back of the track giving the otherwise jagged number a silky finish. Elsewhere, Picnic Women lays out one of his fastest songs to date with the EP closer “African,” which pulses faster than anything else on II Women and in his discography up to now. Get another great collection of juke songs right here.