The past couple of years have seen plenty of Western artists drawn to Japanese sounds — from digging through city pop to seeking out rare Japanese “ambient” records. At times, it has felt a bit one sides, but recently there have been some encouraging signs of communication on both sides. See French producer Moe Shop’s…
All good series have three parts! One and two here. Nagoya’s Tomatoism isn’t a completely fresh face in Japanese underground electronic scene. The producer contributed to this late 2016 compilation, while also releasing this anime-centric set under the name Tomato Chan around the same time. But in 2017 they started dabbling in a sound closer…
Ehhh, screw it, let’s lean in on this “kawaii” thing for today. Via Attack The Music, idol duo Happy Kuru Kuru shared a new two-song set called Good Morning Tokyo. The pair themselves are quite in line with what most people think of Japanese idol music — cheery vocals that are far from polished, songs…
Over at Bandcamp Daily, I wrote about the new wave of “kawaii” artists who are helping expand the sound often associated with that word. Think of it as a continuation of this piece looking at the history of “kawaii” music, and one that tries not too simply settle (the fact is, each artist I talked…
Metome has been consistently active over the last few years, and now some of the more left-field highlights of recent times have been gathered together on new set Shibboleth. This comes from a period where Metome was interested in texture, and how different sounds could sound as they weave in and out of one another….