The duo of KiWi have stood out over the last year thanks for songs that know when to hit the boosters and go full-on energetic — last year’s exhilarating “Hanabi,” along with the recently released, connect-the-dots-to-Diplo banger “M.A.Z.E.” The Scene Of Ordinary highlights there other side, their almost theatrical bend in creating zippy songs full…
Off of their just-released full-length Strings, Boyish’s “Hikoukigumo Sora Ni Hitosuji” presents a way to incorporate saxophone into an indie-pop song without crashing into full blown city pop. Which is becoming more of a problem in 2016 — look, I’ll go to bat for ’80s city pop any day, but the current “city pop revival”…
At this point, Hokkaido-based project Yunomi could (and should!) replace at least a mini-album of their squishy, cuddly electro-pop. “Akenai Yoru, Samenai Yume” is the latest entry in what is becoming one of the stronger runs of releases over the past 12 months, and it touches on all the elements that have made Yunomi stand…
I’m trying this new thing for the next couple of months where I try to be “productive,” especially in the morning, and sometimes to achieve that you just have to look at the songs you’ve recently favorited and be like “yeah, let’s write about this.” So here are a few recent highlights! — Oh, what…
Rap duo Chelmico are back just in time for the summer, and to celebrate the start of the season they’ve shared the bouncy “Love Is Over.” This one finds the duo of MCs Rachel and Mamiko joining up with production team Mikeneko Homeless for a deceptively sparse number, one veering away from the sax-backed struts…