As those year-end demands start creeping up, it’s easy to forget about all the great music you’ve actually listened to rather than all the stuff you still need to get through. Parkgolf’s Reo came out in August, and is a big step up for the Hokkaido-born producer. Part of that comes thanks to how he expands his discombobulated sound to other styles, mixing up his usual energy rushes with diversions into rap production and hazy pop. “Dance No Aizu” represents the latter, and a video for the Emi Okamoto-featuring song popped up tonight, which is all we need to re-celebrate Parkgolf’s latest. This one’s a highlight, especially when you look at the details — the silly do-dos, the keyboard splatters, the percussion. But even if you gloss over that, the hook works wonders. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
Brave Beat: Stones Taro’s “Don’t Be Afraid”
Japanese netlabels have a slight reputation for putting out busy, zig-zagging music. Oftentimes, that’s true! But I’m always struck how mellow Sabacan Records output over the last two years has been. The latest to come out from the digital destination, producer Stones Taro’s “Don’t Be Afraid,” adds another example to fuel this suspicion. The song is a mid-tempo house number, slowly mutating over its run but never taking any dramatic turns. It’s just enjoyable dance music, complete with vocal sample that lends a little extra force to this breezy number (just listen to those xylophone-esque notes! hand me a Mojito!). BDH’s “Solid Dub Mix” adds some fizz to the mix, but the ease of the original still comes through even the biggest stretches of dissolving sound. Get it here, or listen below.
Hyper Takes: Palecore’s Hajimemashite And “Akira Super Love2017”
Last Friday, as part of Red Bull Music Festival Tokyo’s programming, producers Seiho and Okadada held an event called At The Corner at Shibuya’s WWW X venue. It featured a lot of young artists from all over the nation — including this blog’s faves The Neon City and Toiret Status — and the one that seemed to get people buzzing the most was the duo Palecore. I will confess to spending most of their set just outside of the stage talking with people, catching glimpses on the TV and having people tell me about it afterwards…but clips have surfaced online, and it indeed looks wild.
PALECOREの中毒性やばくて終わったあとSNS上の動画見漁ったのでまた絶対にやってください#ATTHECORNER pic.twitter.com/2UBNlGgRgn
— moemiki (@harpy_1203) November 4, 2017
The pair are shrouded in some mystery — they are from Tokyo, and that’s about all I can find, even from the official comment from Seiho and Okadada. They do have one five-song release titled Hajimemashite which highlights their frantic sound, falling somewhere between neo-traditional and plunderphonics. Opener “#1” approaches juke with its pace, merging sliced-up vocals with older instrumentation (and gong hits), while “#3” takes an older folk song and pushes it towards club ecstasy. “#2” finds Palecore nabbing Croatia Squad’s Euro-cheese “We Don’t Need No Sleep,” speeding it up and setting it against electric guitar chugs. It all exists in the same universe as Wasabi Tapes or Foodman, Palecore jamming disparate sounds together to create something jagged (and different). Latest song “Akira Super Love2017” builds on this, with a lot of skittering voices and percussion. Listen below.
New Foodman: “Moyashi Kids”
Foodman rightfully gets celebrated for his stranger sounds — see the recent celebration of “Oyaji Voice,” focused on the connecting-thread of a vocal sample. Yet it’s important to also remember dude can just lay down a great groove, too. “Moyashi Kids” doesn’t feature anything worthy of the usual adjective arsenal writers bust out with his work — he’s one of the few artists who can make “weird” sound like the highest compliment — but rather just features a great, somewhat jittery beat. It’s still very textural, but works just as well as a simple track. Listen above.
commune310 Shares Compilation2017 Featuring Coralmines, The Sub Account And More
Online label commune310 excels at the compilation game, and their biggie-sized Compilation2017 delivers as expected. Unlike seasonal offerings which sometimes have a bend to them, this is just a collection of great electronic music from Japan, on the higher-tempo side of things but with plenty of variety. It’s one of those “jump in and see what you like,” but a few of our favorites: Coralmines offer up one of the more playful (as opposed to pounding) numbers here, complete with bicycle horns and bright synth lines. Musicarus creates sample-centered funk on “Stronger,” while Moto Kano’s “Re Youth” stands as a stuttering highlight of the higher energy songs present on this collection. Though The Sub Account’s “With U” comes pretty close to matching it, with big bass flip-offs in tow. Get it here, or listen below.