A year ago, Sapporo-born producer Yunomi was breaking through thanks to a sound merging pounding electronics with flourishes of traditional Japanese melody. Now, about 12 months over, he appears to be teetering on something bigger — he works with a mid-tier idol group, and he just put out an album of collected works from the…
The deeper we get into the decade, the more remarkable Mei Ehara’s discography becomes. The singer/songwriter created some of the most bracing music in recent memory out of Japan under the name May.e, using just an acoustic guitar and her voice. She switched to the name Mei Ehara, and has added bit more to her…
It’s strange connecting dots after the fact. A few years back, D∀NGER D∀NGER was just an electro-pop outfit with one solid EP behind their syntax-shattering name. They inspired more Twitter conversations about punctuation than anything else, though that’s more the fault of writers than anything else. Three years later and Jay-Z is now JAY-Z, and…
New Masterpiece isn’t a label I’d associate with Japan’s wilder experimental side. The imprint dabbles in vaporwave and a few other hazed-out sounds, but in general they seem like a dance label fluctuating between high-energy and past-glazed hoppers. But the latest from Sayohimebou approaches the head-splitting wildness of Wasabi Tapes or Moyas, with a healthy…
A challenge I’ve personally felt as of late is trying to find a balance between new music — you know, the daily “what new thing is new artist doing now, that is new” — and those pockets of sound that exist outside of any narrative, but are thrilling even without a hook. Nagoya’s Bicco Beat…