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Category Archives: Music

New DJ Fulltono: “Tribal Dancer”

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DJ Fulltono keeps it simple on his latest release, which comes via Italian label Beat Machine Records. And dude has earned the right to deliver a pretty straightforward slice of footwork wonder — he’s definitely one of the reason’s the country’s footwork scene has mutated into the wonderful thing it is today. “Tribal Dancer” busts out a skittery beat and lets it work its magic, with a vocal sample sneaking in to give a little texture and human warmth to all that percussion. This release gets rounded out by a remix courtesy of DJ Earl, who pushes it to a more blinded-by-the-lights place (which is to say…he obscures the vocal sample, and let’s the music go in different places). Get it here, or listen below.

Open For Business: Girls Tape Store’s To The Dizzling You EP

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Girls Tape Store formed in 2001, and released albums in the next two years of brittle and bubbly electronic music. And then — radio silence. Then in summer of 2017, the project started up again. To The Dizzling You is the latest release to emerge from this new start, and finds an artist interested in tinkering with yesterday while also moving forward. Two songs here are edits of numbers that came out during Girls Tape Store’s initial run — “Distance” goes from a dreamy stomper to something more digital here, while their best song “Balloon” actually becomes a touch hazier and at times loopy in 2018 form. I always like artists who go back and play around with songs they’ve already put out, even the ones that stand out in their catalogs, and Girls Tape Store’s curiosity to poke at these now results in great music…while also shining a light on what came before. Plus, there’s the title track, a fuzzy bit of dream-hop falling somewhere between squiggly Cornelius and more recent bedroom pop. Get it here, or listen below.

New Feather Shuttles Forever Featuring Tenma Tenma, Kyooo, Hikaru Yamada, Yo Irie, SNJO And Mari Nishiumi: “Teian”

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Anyone can strike a cool pose, but it’s a lot tougher to let loose and embrace joy. The Feather Shuttles Forever project has used a lot of the same sonic palette as other bands of various stature in the Japanese rock scene — horns, lots of horns — but whereas many of them go for this laid-back, 21st century city vibe that can sometimes feel a bit too nonchalant. “Teian” occupies the opposite end. Everything pops from the start, the horn arrangements going for giddiness (some serious Especia vibes in the music), and best of all is the tag-team approach to singing. The main players of Feather Shuttles Forever and a few guests take turns doing their thing over the bouncy music, each bringing something a little different to the song (shout out to the Auto-tune). This just-go-for-it vibe gives “Teian” a really gleeful atmosphere, and makes it one of the project’s finest yet. Listen above.

Pulse Rhymes: Mayoikurage Featuring Thmmre’s “Make Me Feel”

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This year has seen a lot of electronic artists rejecting genre fences and incorporating all kinds of ideas into their music, chief among them hip-hop touches. Well, it goes the other way too. Mayoikurage is a rapper in Osaka who is part of Raiju Crew, a collective making rap music. On their own, however, Mayoikurage gets a little more heady, whether by rapping through an Auto-tune haze over a Justin Bieber number or getting blurry on “Make Me Feel.” It’s a self-remix, but both Mayoikurage and guest thmmre push the song towards a trippy edge, thanks to vocals that hop-scotch between rapping and singing, often cloaked in digital fuzz. The music moves at a skip and lets details in the back blur up, giving this one an out-of-head experience that still has a pop heart to it. Listen above.

New Tricot: “Potage”

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Tricot’s twisting and turning approach to rock tends to grab the most attention, but it’s the emotional fierceness lurking underneath all those tempo changes that really punches. If the music itself can sometimes feel a little too plotted out, it’s balanced out by Ikumi Nakajima’s singing, which allows for more roughness around the edges that sometimes borders on total release. New song “Potage” — debuted on NPR earlier today — puts the focus on this part of their music. “Potage” features fewer of the pivots dotting the group’s work in favor of something a bit more straightforward, all the quick shifts more in the details than up front. It puts the focus on the singing, which goes from a whisper to near-shout, and ends up being “Potage’s” most unpredictable element. Listen above.