A sinking feeling I’ve had this year — and one echoed in conversation recently with similarly music-inclined friends in Tokyo — is that music just isn’t that big a deal in most people’s lives. Not to say that this is a Japan-only issue, or even one that instantly should be assumed as bad (I mean,…
Always up for a nice late-afternoon pick-me up. Snail’s House (or Ujico? Two names going on here!) will be releasing an album this winter, and it appears that this song will appear on it. “My Story” is a bouncy, piano-guided number that’s advertised as house which, sure, but is a bit more jittery than you’d…
The run up to Kyoto producer Madegg’s new album New continues with “National Water,” and a bare-bones but appropriate clip, which you can watch above. The young artist has always been good at working tension into his music, and he’s gotten particularly good at it over the past year, moving beyond highlighting great sounds and…
Synth-powered funk has been popular in Japan’s indie scene for — well, potentially since the ’80s ended for all I know, it feels like there are always a few groups embracing the neon-boogie sounds of that decade. It’s a tricky one to do right, as it can turn cheesy fast in the wrong hands. Nite…
Not to rag on my life choices here, but…the paradox of being a freelance worker is that, despite technically not having a set schedule and more free time, you are way more likely to sacrifice that free time in favor of paying work. Weekends, more or less, don’t exist (or maybe I need to set…