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Category Archives: Music

New Sakasa: Sprng EP

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After nearly two years of silence, Nara producer Sakasa returns with the Sprng EP. And, if the past is anything to work off of, Sakasa might be offering a glimpse at the future — they were one of the first I remember this decade to make a whole album built around ’80s Japanese pop samples, and now that’s all over the place. Sprng sounds more metallic, at times more clattering (such as the opening number, accompanied by drilling details and an overall feeling of a computer freaking out on you), but with every discombobulated sound falling into just the right place. Samples appear on the faded “Sprng2” alongside a breakbeat, while “Sprng3” stutters about. Get it here, or listen below.

Up To Date: Hidenobu Ito’s “Track 2 Track”

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Electronic producer Hidenobu Ito seems to be playing the Bandcamp game in 2017. He’s been active since the late ’90s, and started a page this year, featuring a mix of new tracks and older ones mastered this year, all accompanied by old photos of Japanese women which would make the future funk tag blush. It’s hit or miss quality wise, but new number “Track 2 Track” is a highlight. Dedicated to Kenny Larkin, the song chugs on for nearly eight minutes, featuring all sorts of dizzying twists. Yet they aren’t just change-ups for the sake of variety — Ito builds “Track 2 Track” from a disorienting shuffle to, in its final passage, all-out release. Get it here, or listen below.

New Iivvyy (Kosmo Kat And HVNS): “Look”

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Don’t expect the “(Kosmo Kat And HVNS)” part to be up in the titles too much longer. The pair, working under the moniker Iivvyy, have established their own liquid-metal take on techno, all Terminator like, over the course of three songs. “Look” marks the third, and it’s as strong a statement a vision as the two songs before it. Glimpses of both artists’ solo work creeps out — the woozy patterns of HVNS, the technicolor puddle-splashing of Kosmo Kat — but those both end up dissolving with the steely techno they conjure up, the beats hitting tough until they turn into slow-melting sections, with the vocal sample coming in and out of frame. If it wasn’t clear now, this is the moment where Iivvyy feels completely on its own path. Listen above.

Caffeinated: P-iPLE’s “Starbucks’ Curse”

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Tokyo noise-rock trio P-iPLE had a productive summer. They released their debut album Do Do Do A Silly Travel By Bicycle Bicycle, and contributed the song “I Can’t Speak English” to Call And Response Records’ Throw Away Your CDs Go Out To A Show compilation. Now, here’s another gateway in — they made a video for their first album’s frantic number “Starbucks’ Curse,” finding the group split across the screen and emoting like crazy. The song itself is a fractured bit of rock, highlighted by vocals growing in intensity throughout. Listen above.

This One’s For Diplo: Reggae For Airports: Central And Reggae For Airports: Pacific

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Future played her, like, 700 songs. It was four in the morning. Finally, I was like, Yo, G, I’m leaving unless you let me play her a song. So I played her a song. And she was like, This sounds like a reggae song at an airport. I was like, I’m gonna go kill myself.

This was the aggregated chunk of an interview with Diplo by GQ this past August, and it is one of the very first things you hear on Reggae For Airports: Central, one of two compilations released by New Masterpiece built around this on-the-nose critique. But it’s not a goof — while moments across these two albums can get funny, it’s really an excuse for artists to play around with an intriguing theme. Central feels the more literal of the two, with the duty-free bounce of Franz Snake’s “Airport Reggae Pt.1” and TEACHI’s chipper skip on “Welcome!” Both of those songs feature samples of planes and PA announcements you would hear in a terminal, giving a sense of space to these songs. Later numbers sound more faded (see CPA BOYZ contribution) or approach chillwave (Yasuhiro Mori’s “Islands”). Yet they all move at a pace that would sound good next to a Hudson News. Get it here, or listen below.

Pacific opens up a bit more while still going in on the reggae sound, starting with Tanaka Scat’s shimmering “Flight Connection” before touching on quicksand-speed meditations (Mendocci’s “SFO”) and sparse funk (Mattgerald’s “Perlucidus”). The reggae comes through strong, of course, highlighted by the bounce-by-way-of-Earthbound of Hi-Channel’s! “Cabin Class” to most surprising inclusion, producer i-fls turning his suburban sound into something a touch more island with “Friendly Limousine.” Get it here, or listen below.