Osaka-based producer Erik Luebs moves into darker territory with “Red C,” the first song from forthcoming release Wasteland. It’s a constricting number, new layers emerging gradually as “Red C’ moves from minimal to something completely enclosing, every available space seemingly taken up as the song enters its final phase. The percussion is the best detail, at least to these ears, moving from a throb to something far more clanging in the back half. It’s an absorbing number that has us looking forward to the larger release at the end of the month. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New I Saw You Yesterday: “Lisbon”
Indie-pop outfit I Saw You Yesterday have come up a a bit since they shared the summery Malibu EP via Ano(t)racks last year. The group has a new album out on April 5 called Dove, and “Lisbon” is a taste of what’s to come. What hasn’t changed — the band are still making slightly fuzzy indie-pop featuring guitar melodies apt for warmer months, and anchored by a sweet chorus. What has changed — I swear the lead vocals sound more like Paul Banks than ever before. Listen above.
Spin It Around: Volley Boys “Sotsugyou”
This year’s Record Store day in Japan features all sorts of special releases and reissues…which is to say, same as it ever was, please pay a lot of yen for a (still great) Tentenko single on vinyl. Still, aside from all the sales gimmicks, it has prompted Tanukineiri Records to get the band Volley Boys to put out a new cassette number. The main number is “Sotsugyou,” and it is a lovely bit of indie-pop, laid-back but avoiding the fall into post-DeMarco slacker rock so many acts across the nation have embraced. Rather, the group mix surf melodies with all-together-now vocals — and one heck of a guitar solo — to create a catchy number great at all times of the year. Listen above.
New PellyColo: Universal Catalog
How do you build up from a series of great singles and EPs that did throwback funk and city pop better than most of the acts who actually have been christened as such by more mainstream outlets? Well, now you make a science-fiction themed full-length. PellyColo’s Universal Catalog goes all in on the space theme, though I’m not sure if there is a story here or just that each number is connected by the cosmos. In any case, PellyColo is still laying down smooth and funky numbers, starting from the lounge-ready skipper “Moon” (a song about interstellar travel…he even mentions a gift shop) to the neon-tinted rock instrumental “Star Fighter.” Universal Catalog shows off the full range of PellyColo’s skills, from the bouncy pop cuts he’s been doing so well over his career (“Inspector”) to flashes of exotica-baiting mood pieces (“Penglai Channel”). Get it here, or listen below.
Chaos Conductor: Phew’s Light Sleep
I’ll ideally have more on this one soon, but also worth pointing out — long time experimental artist Phew’s newest album Light Sleep is out now, and very much worth your time. She has created an album of unnerving electronics — made from an array of older synthesizers — and beats that just lurch forward, everything feeling wonderfully off. Slow-burning numbers such as “Echo” and “Antenna” feel like crawls towards the end of the world, all anchored by Phew’s vocals, tied to nothing and prone to going in whatever direction she pleases. More to come, but for now get it here, or listen below.