Producer Buddhahouse is the latest to get in on the summery atmosphere. He shared two new songs last night, highlighted by the tropical delight of “Mango!” It is less “tropical house” and more closer to a sweltering dance number bringing to mind older Halfby, full of tiki-drink synth notes and breezy percussion. Yet Buddhahouse adds a tipsy flair to the song, sounds careening in and out, while the tempo changes up at various times, turning it into a drunken limbo of sorts. “Sex Drug Rock’n’roll” is a bit sillier, loaded up with pleasure moans that can get a little cheesy at times (the title drives it home, don’t need to reiterate it over and over). But the song itself is also far more relaxed than “Mango!,” and when it gets room to stretch out its a pleasant cut. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New She Talks Silence: “Sorry, I Am Not”
The word “uneasy” gets wheeled out a lot around these digital parts, and the project that first really got Make Believe Melodies to plunk that one down on WordPress was She Talks Silence. We named the then-solo-project’s debut Noise And Novels as our album of the year in our first year of full publishing, and stick by that one — that one, for us, set the pace for intimate, somewhat dark collections more worried about inner workings than what’s happening outside (something we are drawn to…Noah and Metoronori have wowed us with a similar attitude). She Talks Silence expanded to a duo…and is now a solo project once again ahead of Sorry, I Am Not, out this week.
The title track is available to hear now, and a lot of familiar feelings are coming back to us. It’s a darty number, one featuring a minimal backdrop of guitar and nervous beat, interrupted only by sudden wooshes of noise, which add (you know what’s coming) further unease to the song. Yet it’s She Talks Silence’s whisper singing that really makes the song work, adding the intimacy that has always been a staple of her work…and which makes the more unnerving moments hit all the better. Yet even in these shadows, a little brightness emerges late in the song, when the guitar playing picks up the pace and a little sunlight comes in. Listen above.
New Dubb Parade: Sigh
Always nice to see two familiar names join together. Producer Dubb Parade has long been one of the most consistent producers juggling juke, house and techno in Japan in recent years, while netlabel Omoide Label has been a pretty reliable place for underground dance music. They team up for Sigh, a three track set starting off with the pitched-down juke-turned-neon-garage of “Journey Of The Beats,” and ending with a sparse, twinkling rumbler of a song. The highlight, though, is the title track, a darker number anchored by titular sighs and uneasy electronic pulses. It’s a song always on edge, maintaining that unnerving feel for all five minutes of its time. Get it here, or listen below.
New QQIQ: 000-000
The group QQIQ always have worked in somewhat secretive ways. Sure, they posted all of their songs to YouTube, so it wasn’t that mysterious, but they rarely shared any pictures of themselves, and the only way to get their albums was to follow a special online ordering process. And the music could carry that same vibe…at their best, QQIQ captured a feeling out of time, where emotions tumble around freely and words ultimately feel like an instrument rather than something to decode (see their masterpiece, “Daydream”). No band has proven to be more influential in Japan this decade than Soutaiseiriron, and few were seemingly as big as students of them than QQIQ.
The unit announced recently they were calling it quits, and put out a new album (well, featuring songs they’ve been playing since they worked under a different name), 000-000, which can be purchased or streamed via YouTube. It’s a bittersweet release, one highlighting both the elements they picked up from others (the near-whispered vocal delivery) and their twist on it (the zippy, indie-pop-leaning melodies that add an extra sweetness to songs such as “Chord & Melody”). The songs here are catchy, from the opening skip of “People’s Life” to the confident strut of “Night Dancing,” but there is a sense of uneasy on the edges, conveyed by shrouds of electronics hovering over the songs or the moments the singing recedes further into the sound. It’s a strong goodbye. Listen above.
New Gigandect: “More Than You”
Zoom Lens recently released Metempsychosis, a special collaboration with Fakku, which is part compilation and part art book. Would highly recommend getting it, as it includes a lot of great tracks from familiar names (Meishi Smile’s “Angel’s Egg,” The Blinda Butcher’s “Lotus Eaters” and more), plus LLLL’s “If You Say You Love Me Then Die With Me,” which we wrote about a bit back in time. Go get that here.
But this blog needs to at least try to stick to our theme, so let’s zoom in on producer Gigandect’s contribution to Metempsychosis, “More Than You.” It’s a rollicking chiptune number that focuses on the producer’s knack for melodies (rather than, in some previous numbers, was a way to showcase his sense of noise…though, to be fair, stretches of “More Than You” get pretty dizzying too). Listen below.