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Category Archives: Music

New House Of Tapes: Heavy Heaven

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Nagoya’s House Of Tapes recently started a new netlabel to share music, called Sleep Jam Records. So far, the digital label has put out a compilation and two House Of Tapes’ albums, the latest of which is Heavy Heaven. And it’s somewhat of a throwback for the artist. The three songs here hearken back to his earliest numbers, which were downright suffocating numbers full of harsh noises and concrete beats. And the songs always just existed that way, never needing to build up to it — see opener “Funeral End,” which just opens under punches and doesn’t relent. Yet, it also isn’t pure punishment, as melodies and patterns do emerge in these songs (though it can also be unnerving, as on “Church Sounds,” featuring the most uneasy vocal sample House Of Tapes has ever weaved into a song). Get it here, or listen below.

New (Kinda) Kindan No Tasuketsu: “Minamo Mina Omou Wa”

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Kindan No Tasuketsu have been teasing a few things lately — highlighted by the arrival of a new member — but with no new songs as of yet. So “Minamo Mina Omou Wa” will have to do for now. It originally came out on a special single put out in 2015, but it’s a rarity in their catalog. And now they are including it on a release they will have at a live show…and shared the summer-ready song online. It features many hallmarks of Kindan No Tasuketsu’s sound…the thumping beat, the melancholic singing, a dance-bend running throughout…and is highlighted by a particularly sticky chorus. A good one to start the week, whenever it’s from. Listen above.

New Yahyel: “Iron”

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Electronic outfit Yahyel caught our attention primarily because of the unnerving edge lurking in their music — the way things are bent ever so slightly, or prone for rippling. Yet despite a pretty clear James Blake influence, the group haven’t gone crazy with manipulating their vocals. On previous song, the singing was pretty untouched give or take a few cuts. Not so on latest single “Iron,” which is almost fully a display of electro-tinged singing. The music itself is sparse, giving the floor over to vocals that are far more filtered than usual, and with multiple versions crashing over one another. And it is all in service to a big build up at the end, which makes the pay off worth it. Listen above.

Inner Nutrients: Nazoyama Meisoun’s Mineral

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Nazoyama Meisoun’s work on Mineral makes for a nervy, at times disorienting listen. The 11-song set highlights the producer’s approach to beats, but it is not a simple collection of skeletons begging for something more. “Quartz” rumbles ahead, adding in metallic sounds that seemingly lower on to the song (like…a docking bay from Star Wars?), but always maintaining a glimmer of lightness via bell chimes. It’s also a great diving in point, as most of Mineral’s songs are built on a solid foundation, but are gradually mutated into something different over the course of their extended run times. Get it here, or listen below.

New Gnyonpix: “Tropical Cider Blue”

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“Can this be called juke?” Gnyonpix wonders this in the description for “Tropical Cider Blue,” and my initial reaction is no, as it resembles more of the reggae-inspired output of someone like Quarta330. But also! Maybe lightening up about genre would be a good thing (to a degree) in 2017, and “Tropical Cider Blue” does feature a skitter that pushes everything forward, albeit on island time rather than what you’d expect to hear out of Chicago (or Gnyonpix’s own library, for that matter). Whatever you want to call it, “Tropical Cider Blue” is chilled out and a nice way to end the day. Listen above.