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Category Archives: Music

Not A Regular Punch: Sumitomo’s “Egotistical Gabber”

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(Programming note: site is currently going through a lot of technical difficulties, and actually writing posts is a massive challenge. Might be a bit more inconsistent for the next few…uhhhh, days, I hope? Stay tuned)

Look, we all get stressed out, and we need to deal with it in our own ways. This week has been a wash thus far — see above note! — so stumbling across Sumitomo’s long-burning “Egotistical Gabber” was a welcome treat this week. But it isn’t purely about turning to hard-hitting electronic music as forms of relief. “Egotistical Gabber” plays out like the opposite of CRZKNY’s latest album. Whereas that full-length plays out like a pretty straight-forward gabber celebration, Sumitomo’s nearly nine-minute-long jam is a gabber mutation that spends significant time away from the pulverizing beats. Which only makes the moment it does embrace the punches all the more forceful. Get it here, or listen above.

New Satanicpornocultshop: The Rise And Fall Of…

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This year is already feeling like a particularly strong one for Japan’s juke community, with plenty more to come. Yet Osaka outfit Satanicpornocultshop just went and dropped the first great front-to-back album of 2018. The Rise And Fall Of… doesn’t mark any massive departure from their usual sound, nor does it find them even pushing juke music into some new, experimental territory. Rather, it finds Satanicpornocultshop sticking to the style’s basics, loading up on jittery beats and sliced-thin vocal samples sourced from all over the place. Part of the fun is just in seeing what they pull out next and take a knife to —- Edwin Birdsong’s “Cola Bottle Baby” (errrrr, or is it Daft Punk?) gets mashed up with Auto-tuned gurgles, Michael Jackson becomes a stutter, and Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” goes through the meat grinder on the tongue-in-cheek “Ooo Sperman.” This set is just really fun, and for all the clever nods and small jokes, Satanicpornocultshop make sure the tracks here move and bump. Which, ultimately, is one of the keys to the genre. Get it here, or listen below.

New Pavilion Xool: “Taker Giver Pool”

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“Taker Giver Pool” offers another angle on producer Pavilion Xool’s sound. The young Tokyo-based artist has some swift moments in his catalog, but “Taker Giver Pool” unfolds the quickest of anything they’ve released yet. The beat just moves quicker, the whole song feeling all the more woozy because of Pavilion Xool’s use of pitched vocal samples, pushing them in both slowed-down and sped-up directions. Coupled with the galloping pace, it makes for a lovely bit of disorienting music. Listen above.

Never Fades: Still Dreams’ “Spaceship”

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There was a time, not all that long ago, that it felt like at least one new indie-pop gem surfaced out in Kansai on a weekly basis. I doubt the collective music fans of Osaka, Kyoto and beyond have moved on from their Sarah Records collections, but the pace certainly slowed down a little bit over the last year. New project Still Dreams serves up a great reminder that the indie-pop atmosphere stays strong. All of the familiar touchstones comes across — a mid-tempo jog, simple but effective guitar, some sweet-sounding vocals hiding melancholy — though Still Dreams push it in a dreamier direction than, say, Post Modern Team. Check the electronic flourishes, or the bass notes, or even the lyrics, which approach something more surreal than most (“I’ve got a spaceship in my garden”). Kansai stays on the indie-pop game. Listen above.

New Aya Gloomy: “Shizukane Kieru”

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Aya Gloomy’s initial foray into music after joining up with Tokyo’s Big Love Records was to create a buzzing, unsettling number that gave just enough room for her singing to come through clearly, even if the whole song felt like it was being sucked into a whirlpool. Now she has her proper debut album out in less than a month, and latest number “Shizukane Kieru” prioritizes space over all else. The beat and melody are sparse, giving plenty of room for Gloomy herself to sing, and for the most part she comes through clearly (though at a few points a faint echo comes up, and at other times her vocals get multi-tracked). Yet “Shizukane” remains as unnerving as last year’s busier releases, achieving that by letting so much room through that little details and changes make everything feel just off. Listen above.