Maybe this is what intense fandom really feels like…grasping for any crumb of new music even when it explicitly makes it clear this isn’t the final product. But it feels like a while since May.e shared new music…I think it was about a year ago…so the emergence of “Maiasa,” even in “demo” form, is a…
Tokyo indie-pop outfit has been making sunny, twisty songs for a while now, highlighted by the 2010 collection Golden Summer. It has been a bit since any new material from the group appeared online, but here comes the skip of “Heartbeat” to highlight what makes them jump out from an ever-crowded field. It features imperfect-but-endearing…
I talked to Megumi Wata — along with primary songwriter Shintaro Sakamoto — for The Japan Times today. And in some shameless synergy, I also waited until today to write about “Blindman,” the title track to her fantastic album released last week. Whereas as her breakthrough single and first album leaned heavily on unease, “Blindman”…
Now here’s a way to keep the ’80s vibes going without any bumps — team up with a Swedish producer who has waded just as deep into the sounds of the Reagan years, to the point he has sampled America’s most beloved jellybean connoisseur extensively in song. Tokyo’s Satellite Young teamed up with Stockholm’s Mitch…
Serving as a nice continuation of that Cairo post from yesterday, here comes Ano(t)raks latest release from Tokyo’s I Saw You Yesterday, the four-song Malibu EP. It’s a zippy set of feedback-tinged indie-pop, featuring half-submerged vocals and some nice moments of release to counteract the melancholy hanging over some of these songs (see “Daisy,” a…