Calling it a “trend” might be a stretch, but something that has definitely appeared more in Japanese electronic music over the past year is an embrace of traditional sounds. This probably goes in cycles — it wasn’t long ago Omodaka was doing this merger incredibly well, and it has popped up at times since (Seiho,…
Today, Seiho’s new album Collapse comes out globally via LA label Leaving Records. It’s a big moment for an artist who, five years ago, was playing sets in small underground clubs in Osaka and launching his own record imprint. Yet Collapse isn’t a stab at crowd pleasing dance, but rather an album jumping from energetic…
The past year has seen so many of the vaunted indie bands of the last few years call it a day, I’m not on a perpetual watch for the next group who used to play 2:30 a.m. sets in Shibuya in 2013 to call it quits (and continue to confirm I’m getting old). Well, thank…
Cemetery is the project of Kota Watanabe, who plays with (or is associated with, at least) the Ariel-Pink-worshipping project Batman Winks. Yet, as demonstrated on “Vit,” Cemetery takes its time to establish an unsettling vibe. The song wisps forward, a persistent beat and vocal samples of a conversation lurking just underneath. It isn’t quite there…
Sometimes, you’ll come across people arguing about music in terms of emotional extremes — something can be “too optimistic” or “too bleak,” or not nearly one of those attributes either. Lulu’s latest song hits on something far more intriguing and real — the feeling of just going through the motions, and feeling tired about it…