Artist comparisons are always a thorny thing, but let’s dare anyway and say — at his best, Tokyo singer/songwriter Shinnosuke Sugata brings to mind Shugo Tokumaru, both via kaleidoscopic folk-pop and more hushed moments. That has been highlighted on two songs released recently — “Even Though A Closet Is So Dark” leans towards the latter,…
The world X-Files inhabits on Wall Street is a depressing, at times constricting one. The project’s music…jumping between lonely ambient to more unhinged noise…has always brought to mind empty city streets, bathed in a little neon from nearby signs but ultimately feeling empty. Wall Street ups the solitude up significantly, featuring some of X-Files’ most…
Fogpak’s head honcho has been dropping a series of great electronic songs across 2016 — last month’s “Life In Swahili” being a highlight, especially for those in need of a song on the more chilled-out side — and recent cut “Ultraghost” jumps to the head of the pack. It pulls off the trick balance of…
Part two, which was actually written before part one, here Japanese hip-hop music that get media attention tends to either embrace stereotypes to an almost comical degree (Kohh) or radically different enough to just barely receive the rap designation (Charisma.com, Suiyoubi No Campanella). That’s a broad view of things, though, only focusing on what tends…
Or, Make Believe Melodies’ rap update part one for the end of March. What timing! We have (basically) reached April which means we are a quarter of the way through 2016. Fast! That also means publications and honest-to-goodness people have started sharing favorite album lists for the first three months of the year, because the…