Ever so often, a wonky and downright goofy band will change things up to try to get more major-label attention, usually when the Japanese music industry is enjoying a band boom. Sometimes, it works and other times it results in an interesting group turning into Spitz Jr. Thankfully, Group2 remain just as odd on new single “Milk” as they did on their last release. What starts as upright synth-rock soon settles in to a more dizzy guitar-centered groove, with vocals stumbling off of the music. The whole thing sounds like it’s one uneven step from tumbling out — and when the dialogue sample creeps in midway through, it nearly does go over — but Group2 manage to hold it all together to create a nice bit of haze. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New Capchii: “Let’s Build A Snowman”
Tokyo is still thawing out after a big ol’ snowstorm, so a high-energy like this feels fitting on a day where a little heat would work wonders. Capchii falls into that nebulous “kawaii” zone a handful of Japanese electronic artists have crept into, but “Let’s Build A Snowman” matches fluttering synths and shiny chimes with heavier elements. See the beat, for one, or the flurry of samples crashing through the song and adding a punch to the track. It follows a familiar formula, but Capchii creates a nice balance between sweet and sweaty that pushes it ahead of most. Listen above.
Fogpak Grows Up With Fogpak #20, Featuring Chanbe, Shpmskk, Teleco And More
The Fogpak series of electronic music compilations has reached 20 releases with its latest — theme, “Adult,” congrats Fogpak you can buy cigarettes from a vending machine — and the newest set offers the same mission as the 19 that came before. It spotlights ten artists — in recent versions, Fogpak became more global, but in #20 it leans domestic, with only Hanoi’s Tenkitsune and their chiming “Kigurumi World” — working independently. The refrain I always bust out for this comp is “just dive in and find what you like,” but #20 boasts such a tight running time that I actually kind of go the opposite way this time. This set works so well together, starting with the soft burbles-turned-sputters of Osaka’s Shpmskk before ramping up via the sample-blending strut of Dyelo Think’s “Local Pop” and personal highlight “Tokyo Metro” by Teleco, a high-energy number built from bubbly vocal slices that imagine electro-pop broken up into hundreds of pieces and re-arranged from there. Odekake calls on the voice Kaya to add extra emotion to the bouncy “Film,” while Fogpak veteran Chanbe delivers a whispy, pitch-bending cut with “Rouge.” So yeah, sure, find your favorite, but seeing how these songs play off of one another is just as great. Get it here, or listen below.
Bedroom Blurs: Santa Dharma’s “Compass Moon”
Using just a little echo and some other effects, Tokyo’s Santa Dharma transforms a pleasant bit of bedroom pop into something with blurred edges. The duo utilize a small set of instruments to create a sparse but bouncy little number that then gets wrapped in the aforementioned echo, a few dub touches and a few more zoned-out touches that give it a slight psychedelic feel. The pair show how to turn something straightforward into something a bit more out there. Listen above.
Sampling Sea Compilation Featuring AFAMoo, Asazuke And More
Sampling Sea Compilation gathers ten house tracks from producers across Japan, all featuring a slight faded feel but ultimately forceful dance numbers on their own. While there’s a slight nautical theme running throughout, it never really comes to the surface, which is fine — delicate numbers like AFAMoo’s “Submarine” and Asazuke’s “Midnight Victoria Line” Things get a bit more woozy on Pee.J Anderson’s “Murash” and Yuya Miike’s “Glass,” while the highest energy comes courtesy of House Violence’s “Neon In Tokyo,” which works in a really slick saxophone (ditto TOMC’s city-pop-affected “Back End Lax”). Get it here, or listen below.