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Category Archives: Music

Digital Voices In The Rain: Goto Nao’s SleepSleep EP

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Omoide Label has become one of the best digital spots in Japan to find interesting utilization of Vocaloid and UTAU technology in electronic music. Goto Nao’s SleepSleep EP only adds to this growing reputation. The producer turns to UTAU program Kakoi Nizimine to provide singing on these three songs. The program’s voice isn’t particularly experimental on its own, and Nao doesn’t push it — compared to mus.hiba’s embrace of whispery software — but Nao surrounds the computer-generated lines with an electronic glow that brings out the emotion at its core. Opener “AM2:30” follows the most predictable path, the song opening with rain samples and soft keyboard notes, but building up to a drop that’s part Marshmello, part Porter Robinson. Thing is, the parts where the voice meets the music stand as SleepSleep’s most interesting moments. And that’s on full display on the next two cuts, which avoid predictable formula in favor of solid songcraft (like how the second track here lets the voice collide with the little digital fidgets interrupting it). Get it here, or listen below.

New House Of Tapes: “Not Eternity” And “There is No Encore”

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Two new songs from Nagoya’s House Of Tapes emerged over the weekend, both highlighting different sides to what the electronic producer — one of Japan’s more prolific independent electronic acts — has been up to recently. “Not Eternity” finds him in a particularly dreamy space, his singing muffled but surrounded by bright synth pings. Ultimately, the vocals offer some disruption, as when they leave the number “Not Eternity” approaches a particularly shimmering headspace. But the words cut through, and add some ennui to the proceedings. Listen above.

“There Is No Encore” treads similar ground, as it too features prominent (albeit frazzled) vocals from House Of Tapes. Yet it’s less dream-worthy and a bit more muddled, at least until late in the song, when it opens up and House Of Tapes’ synth melodies really get a chance to shine. Listen below.

Electro Overload: New Songs From Motometointe And Aire

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Great week for fans of near-suffocating (in the best possible way that word can be deployed) electro-pop originating out of Japan. First up is “Weekend,” a bouncy dance-pop cut courtesy of Motometointe, a duo featuring Nmotome and Intend. While the busy electronics and generally upbeat pace hit immediate pleasure centers, its the tag-team vocals that really lift the song up for me. Intend jump-ropes between rapping and a more familiar, monotone singing come the chorus, while Nmotome interjects with a Rip-Slym-y verse his own to lighten the mood. Listen above.

And from today, Kanagawa-based artist Aire shared “Kokoro No Katachi,” a loose-limbed electro-pop numbered embracing the futuristic bend of this style with Vocaloid singing. It’s still human, after all — besides Aire’s charged-up composition and production, the lyrics come courtesy of Y2 and the song features nice guitar touches courtesy of O2I3. It all comes together to form a rubbery number apt for a sunny day. Listen below.

Rich Blips: Chip Tanaka’s Django

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Hirokazu Tanaka isn’t just any video game soundtrack composer. He’s a legend, having helped create the familiar 8-bit musical backdrops for games such as Metroid and Tetris among others. And the songs for Earthbound, a game which I played a lot as a kid, and which boasts a soundtrack that still goes strong today. Part of his skill lies in the simple fact he’s not drawing from a childhood spent sitting in front of an NES — he played the role of architect in shaping how a new generation of kids (and now, artists) hear chip music. He can’t fall for nostalgia, because he shaped nostalgia for many.

This is part of the reason that Django, the first full-length album under his Chip Tanaka moniker, sounds so good. The other is that Tanaka is just a great artist, whatever sound he leans in to. Django finds him applying 8-bit sounds — among others — to reggae, not novel on its own, but done well on cuts such as “Ringing Dub” and “Pop Bomb” by a dude who spent the 1980s playing in Kyoto-area reggae outfits (aside: peep that James Hadfield interview with Tanaka in the Japan Times today). Free to go in whatever direction he wants, Tanaka creates sunny-day hiccups (“Beaver”), ping-ponging cascades of bleeps (“Drifting”) and skittery pop (“Prizm”). It’s colorful and ever-surprising, rising well above the trappings some chiptune albums fall into when they get a little too fixated on childhood memories. No need for the guy who made a lot of them. Get it here, or listen below.

New HoneyComeBear: “See You”

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Electronic duo HoneyComeBear fit plenty of emotion into their topsy-turvy creations. “Rainy Girl” got this point clearly, and “See You” underlines it even further. They are pretty close to one another — both unfold slowly for something billed as “future bass,” at least until just after the chorus, when all the hyperspeed bits rush in. “See You” marinates a little longer, the verses taking their time, accented by bell chimes. It makes the drop (or…uplift?) all the more memorable. Yet the MVP of the song ends up being vocalist Kaako, who gives the song the human drama it needs to make all of this click. As long as they let that shine through, they are worth keeping an eye on. Listen above.