World’s End Girlfriend don’t keep things simple. The project’s new song “Meguri” clocks in at nearly ten minutes, and finds Katsuhiko Maeda crafting a dramatic slow burner. The first half is all build — Maeda arranges strings and piano to create a dizzying climb upward, pretty but also a touch unsettling. It’s when the electric…
One of the driving themes of CHAI’s music thus far — made all the clearer after talking to them — is inclusiveness, of celebrating the unique characteristics we all possess. “I’m Me” isn’t quite a manifesto for the four-piece — that remains the herky-jerky “N.E.O.” — but it’s definitely them at their most direct, avoiding…
Mega Drive takes a lot of expectations and flips them around. The compilation serves as fledgling label Local Visions’ first release, and gathers artists from Japan and abroad together to dabble primarily in styles that would be seen as niche genre by most — and with arguably the main sounds being touched on across Mega…
Sendai band Swan High mostly take it easy on Islands, though their sort of laid back ultimately translates as a chance to try out whatever they want. Across the eight songs here, the group dabble in a variety of rock stylings, most of them on the softer side of the spectrum. “Find A Way” channels…
Hello! Project turns 20 this year, and everyone celebrates in their own way, I’m sure. If you are Japanese artist Dale Nixon, you call up your Tokyo rapper friend Valknee and you record a hip-hop EP celebrating the agency behind Morning Musume and many others. Hello comes advertised as “HelloHop,” and Dale Nixon exclusively samples…