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Category Archives: Music

New Normal: Uyuni’s Jellyfish

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Uyuni’s backstory leading up to the release of her first EP Jellyfish is one that’s becoming slightly more common. She took part in a hip-hop collective called +Vacation, swerving between rap and a more traditional singing style. So, she exists in the same lane as someone like Haru Nemuri, or even Oomori Seiko (hold that thought), a singer/songwriter unbothered by the borders that once stood around them. This new normal dots her first solo release. Opener “Miss You” moves from rapid-fire rap set over piano notes and synth sparks before twisting into a more pop-oriented hook. Better still is “Nemu,” which uses guitar and snippets of her own pitched-up voice to create the backdrop for her to sing-speak through a variety of issues, leading to a big thumping hook. “Eye” presents more straightforward rock, and then she drops a helpful hint at the end by covering “Fantastic Drag,” a nod to what already felt like two influences on her work but which comes through clearly with this pretty faithful version. It all feels a little familiar, but it is a reality that works. Get it here, or listen below.

New Young Juvenile Youth: “Sugar Spike” And “Darkroom”

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The world electronic duo Young Juvenile Youth conjure up has always dabbled in unease, but new single “Sugar Spike” finds them diving straight into loneliness. The number, part of a new monthly single project, doesn’t even try to fake a smile, straight out rejecting the idea of “sugar-spiking happiness” and simply letting an admission of loneliness ring off into the abyss. Helping drive this feeling across is a more understated musical backdrop. The group could sometimes get a little too busy in earlier releases, loading up on so many nervy touches that it just got all cartoon whirlwind. But here, Young Juvenile Youth leave ample space on the verses for Yuki Matsuda to roll her thoughts over, and it makes the moment that reflection breaks apart into every direction on the hook all the more impactful. Listen above.

“Darkroom,” the January offering, is more in line with the Young Juvenile Youth of the last few years. It throbs ahead via synth, creating a constant unease made a little too busy via all of Matsuda’s echoing lines. But at its best moments, the stuttering vocal repetition creates a nice pattern that breaks through the sinister atmosphere. Listen below.

New Manon Featuring Sleet Mage: “Winter Lil Life”

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On paper, Manon should be an artist right in our wheelhouse. It is offbeat pop featuring a lot of production work from HNC, an artist responsible for some of this blog’s favorite songs of the 21st century. And yet…nothing Manon has put out to now has really clicked with me, and even seeing her live failed to inspire much beyond “work in progress.” Part of the issue might be the timing of it all — Manon arrived at a moment when a lot of labels realized “kawaii hip-hop” could be a thing, and this is at least partially how Asobisystem (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Yasutaka Nakata, etc.) pushed her, even if she didn’t do much to stand out from the pack. Though maybe it all just comes down to the music, which is too rough to be top-tier pop but also sounds too polished to reveal any interesting wrinkles. And now with so many young independent artists actually managing that balance, Manon’s music feels disjointed.

“Winter Lil Life” inches closer to a workable model for Manon…she doesn’t try to do too much, opting for a nice follow-the-bouncing-ball flow frosted in Auto-tune that works well with the keyboard flights of fancy. But look…we are here because of Sleet Mage, who steals this completely via their short verse, hopping between weird sing-song and traditional rapping, throwing in shouts out to anime and playful adlibs alongside the frosty emotional bars we’ve come to expect from the Sapporo artist. Ultimately, “Winter Lil Life” is just a slight shift in the right musical direction for Manon, but a big leap in showing that she’s at least in the same orbit of artists worth learning from. Listen above.

New Snail’s House: Scenery

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After the interstellar get-down of Alien Pop II, Scenery gives Snail’s House a chance to catch their breathe and return to carefully constructed pieces that reveal themselves slowly but surely. This album comes much closer to last year’s intricate L’été, a series of numbers coming close to fading into the background but have been put together in a way to change and intrigue as they reveal themselves. It bubbles up in the 8-bit hop of “Itsumo No Michi” and it sneaks up in the back of the particularly aching “Stray Cat,” which uses field recordings to place the music (while also busting out…like, doors opening and closing as percussion, which is a nice tactile touch).

The bulk of Scenery plays out like AP beats to study/chill too, offering music that works as background but reveals a lot of depth when given more attention. But the best moments come when Snail’s House snaps you out of the easy-going vibes using vocals. “Floret” jars the listener out of a loop via a manipulated loop of a voice saying “there is no past / there is no future,” taking the easy-to-zone-out quality of the music and smuggling in some life koans into it to get you thinking (or dreading). “Medicine” uses them more as additional texture, but the warm sound of a human voice drifting over the beeps and notes lends this an emotional touch sometimes more subtle. It’s still relaxing, but a reminder that Snail’s House is still mixing it up. Get it here, or listen below.

Omoide Label Presents Hajimete No Juke Featuring Oyubi, Tsumami And More

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The cutesy stuff ends almost right away, following a Vocaloid-powered “cooking lesson” about how to make juke music. Hajimete No Juke then proceeds to show just how much actual variety the Chicago-born style allows. This is really just another juke compilation featuring Japanese creators from Omoide Label, and as is often the case with any biggie-sized set released online, part of the fun is just getting in deep and seeing what sticks with the listener (which is especially true for Japanese juke sets, as they always seem double stuffed compared to other offerings). Some familiar names pop up — Oyubi closes the compilation out with a distorted skitter via “Engage Alarm,” another strong track from the young artist in 2019 — but let us get in the mud and enjoy names once unfamiliar to us. Such as Tsumami, who offers up one of the more rumbling numbers here via the simple but rattling “Suspetcion.” Or Snarewaves playful sample-whirl “Swirl,” which mashes up all sorts of voices into one dancefloor carnival. Get it here, or listen below.