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Category Archives: Music

Wasabi Tapes Presents DJ Gaga Slime & MC Pure Photoshop Core’s Golden Slime Core

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The artists on Wasabi Tapes go under a lot of names, but the label has developed a unifying sound that touches nearly all their releases, give or take a Nikkei. They wrangle chaos into something focused, using jarring samples and synthesizer notes smooshed together into something disorienting but fascinating (and, really, fun as hell). DJ Gaga Slime & MC Pure Photoshop Core’s Golden Slime Core builds on the overwhelming vibe of N. Brennan’s releases via the label, letting samples sourced from 21st century video games, The-Dream albums, and more to create headrushes, using modern media as building blocks to their own loopy world. “Andromeda Galaxy” cushions the explosion SFX with breezy synths pushed to the grotesque, while “Gokiburi” replicates Pachinko Machine Music from someone’s bedroom. In a lot of ways, Golden Slime Core is one of the best gateways into their world, because you can find a little of every artist mixed up somewhere in the madness. Get it here, or listen below.

Ano(t)raks Presents Die In Pop, Featuring I Saw You Yesterday, Youthmemory And More

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No label does compilations quite like Ano(t)raks. This decade, their stuffed-tight collections have highlighted artists who have gone on too much bigger things in the Japanese market…and also highlighted some of the more interesting artists to stay in the indie world, too. Die In Pop is the label’s latest, and like previous efforts offers a glance at Japan’s indie-pop scene. This comp zeroes in mostly on the guitar-centric side of things, opening up with a zippy number from Bearwear before touching on other artists from Japan’s vast indie-pop scene. It ranges from the slightly dreamy sounds of BLANCO’s “Paradise” to the more straight-forward jangle of I Saw You Yesterday’s “Girlfriend.” A few familiar sounds come up —- Youthmemory’s “Neo Tokyo,” still a gem — but the bulk of this comp is a chance to jump in and find something new. Get it here, or listen below.

New Feather Shuttles Forever: “Croquette Nanoni”

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It’s an easy come down for a Thursday, but one that’s also a touch more clever than it might initially lead on. Feather Shuttles Forever offer a very easy-going number in “Croquette Nanoni,” one mostly focused on pleasant acoustic guitar strums, soft vocals and whistling. It’s a soothing number with just enough of a lift to keep listeners on their toes — well, ever so slightly on their toes — that ultimately works as a simple bit of bedroom pop. But the (slight) twist — this song is at least partially about a fried food, which makes the murmured singing all the more interesting. Listen above.

Emotion Plus: Hamidasystem’s “Yoru No Hakoniwa”

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Like a lot of projects in recent memory consisting of young women performing music written by someone else in Japan, Hamidasystem don’t bill themselves as idols even if everything about them is pretty idol-ish. Ultimately, that label is more important for a bunch of other matters — perception by fans and media, mostly — but whatever you want to describe yourself, the music needs to be good. Hamidasystem create “melodic electronica,” though it can get a little more nervy than that description lets on. “Yoru No Hakoniwa” is part of a new series of songs that tell a story…but ehhhhh, let’s see where that idea actually goes. In a bubble, the song is a good slow-rising cut, with the whole “electronica” element being emphasized. The singing is important, but it is wrapped around electric guitar and spaced-out synthesizer which ups the emotional payoff significantly. Listen above.

New Capchii: Memories

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Focusing on the cuddly side of Capchii’s music does a disservice to Memories. Sure, it features a lot of “kawaii bass” flourishes, and it has anime-style album art (seriously, this is pitfall number one!), and it does all of this well. But what makes Memories feel like a big step forward for the artist is all the non-fluffy elements. “Melodies, Memories” kicks the album off with a bonafide pop center, getting vocal help from Somunia and constructing something better than 90 percent of happy-sappy idols using a home set up. From there, it’s mostly a high-energy affair, zipping out on the bass-blasted “Connection” and later highlighting dizzying, fluttery electronic escape (with a roughneck border) on album highlight “Emotion.” And you even get sentimental breathers, like the reflective string-assisted “Festival Of Cherry Snow,” which takes one of the better emotional turns here when it blooms into an electronic guitar workout. Get it here, or listen below.