The moment on Zombie-Chang’s “I Can’t Get To Sleep,” the lead-off song from her new album Gang, that really floors me comes maybe just over halfway through. Up to this point, she has bounced along nimbly over keyboard notes and a criss-crossing beat, her voice echoing off into the distance. Compared to last year’s Zombie-Change, everything here sounds a bit cleaner, more direct even as Meirin Yung’s vocals echo off in the back. It’s a really good song, galloping and just a bit unpredictable. And then her voice speeds up, like on the lift up to a big drop, just turning to helium rapidly. And what for no shortage of other artists out there would be the big moment, this is just this strange little aside for Zombie-Chang, something to fiddle around with before diving back in. It’s the closest she’s come to making “anti-EDM” a thing. Ultimately it just makes me excited to dive into Gang. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New Paperkraft: “1 (You Don’t Need To Move)”
Osaka’s Paperkraft is getting in the mood for the spring, as latest track “1 (You Don’t Need To Move)” basks in the (soon-to-come) sun rays. It opens with an extended passage of birds chirping off, setting the mood for the easy-breezy house song that follows. I don’t know whether this one should be filed as “lo-fi house” — I don’t know if anything can really be filed in that category — but it is certainly an easy tune to soak in, more early afternoon than late night. Listen above.
New Hearsays: “Headrest”
Blah blah blah, busy days, blah blah blah I just want to sleep for the next three days straight but that is just not possible. Well, thank goodness for some indie-pop. Fukuoka-based band Hearsays are back with a number that just jogs ahead on all the familiar elements of a nice, twee-leaning song — breezy guitar melodies, subtle but persistent beats, all-together-now singing about sweet subjects. As is often the case, this relies on the well worn, but Hearsays just do it so well. And sometimes, a really well done take on something familiar is all you want to rest on at the end of the day. Get it here, or listen below.
New Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs: “Slow Motion Replay”
Feels nice getting to write that!
It has been a while since Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs, well, were even together, let alone putting out new material. Yet here they are in 2017, prepping a new single and sharing the video now. Reunions — or coming back from hiatuses, I feel either works when talking about a band who quit back in 2012 — are tricky business, in some part because what fans want can cloud out the reality of the situation. “Slow Motion Replay” isn’t the sound of a band springing right back into the raw charge of their peak years, but rather something melancholy (I mean, the title alone gives that away, that a certain amount of reflection is going on) and just a little less chugging. Rather, it builds up, still plenty fierce, but “Slow Motion Replay” just taking a little longer to unfold. Yet when it hits that hook, everything ramps up and the song opens up. Listen above.
New Dos・Ing Compilation, Featuring LLLL, Kosmo Kat, Electric Candy Sand And More
Artist collective / moving party Dos・Ing is back with a new compilation, gathering new songs from the producers orbiting them. It revolves around a loose techno-orientalist theme of sorts, the songs fixated on technology and “futuristic” topics while often placing them in a Japanese zone — which makes sense, given that this is a Tokyo-centered collective with many Japanese artists represented. It can be a bit too obvious at times — one song samples Blade Runner, which is a bit on the nose (it’s also called “Blade Runner”) — but at its best incorporates these far-future elements in a seamless way. See Electric Candy Sand’s contribution, a menacing bit of dance punctuated by sampled commands, or the jittery robo-hiccups of Bruno Uesugi’s “Plastic Memories.” Yet when artists aim for pure mood, it works just as well. LLLL creates hazy, practically falling apart music on “Rumors,” while Steffen¥oshiki ends the whole collection with an optimistic bit of synth neon on “A Sombre Hymn.” And for all the cyperpunk-leaning vibes, their is something like Kosmo Kat’s “Metallic Fur,” a playful electronic number that lightens the mood a bit. Get it here, or listen below.