Frasco really moves on “Reality.” The duo have spent most of their existence at a more mid-tempo speed, creating synth-pop adjacent to the chill sounds gaining popularity in the greater mainstream while working in wonkier electronic details to give their songs a color all their own. But “Reality” moves at a swift pace, the usual synths that served as swirly backdrop now joining a machine beat to push everything forward. The speedier tempo also reveals that the group’s vocals sound just as catchy when zipping along rather than getting twisted around. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New Tamana Ramen: Kuki EP
Poemcore always felt like it was one or two artists away from developing into a full-fledged micro-movement in the Japanese underground. But it never really formed into something solid to build around, probably peaking with…a virtual YouTuber? That’s all good though, and it has allowed an artist like Tamana Ramen to go off and do their own thing without fear of being fenced off. Her new Kuki EP offers an off-kilter blend of spoken word and rap, set over music that moves effortlessly between bleary-eyed and unsettling. Opener “Raisins” lets her voice unfold over synthesizer gusts, all of it very pleasant until weird distorted gurgles come in to add some tension to a song slowly turning melancholy. “Own” comes closest to positioning Tamana Ramen to the Japanese hip-hop community circa 2019, setting her flow against a twinkly backdrop and slowly letting it deteriorate without turning into faux-Atlanta copies. “01”pivots to synth-pop, offering the most immediate and catchy offering here (fans of Ame To Kanmuri, get on this one), while closer “Genome” (above, in a slightly different form) is a slowly mutating number that keeps everything low key. Listen to it on your favorite streaming service.
New Nostalgia: Uami’s “K. Kuyou Gara”
Remember flip phones? Uami sure does, and “K. Kuyou Gara” serves as an ode to “Galapagos” phones, those chunky pieces of plastic that were once so ubiquitous (and kinda still are with salarymen who just need to make calls to one another). It’s a delicate song, featuring muffled vocals and lyrics reflecting on the fantasy that this tech once brought people, when it was a truly new proposition. The twist? All of Uami’s song are made and recorded via iPhone according to the SoundCloud description. So you have this really intricate creation done on smartphone — check the percussion! — that honors the memory of the device it killed. Those are the levels I crave. Listen above.
New Satanicpornocultshop: New Fuck EP
Wherein Satanicpornocultshop let their freak flag fly. The New Fuck EP finds the long-running outfit bringing their skittery style to some slightly sleazier material, highlighted by the title track, a sliced-up take on Disco D’s “Fuck Me On The Dancefloor.” The bulk of the EP finds the group trying out ghettotech, using ample amounts of Vocoder-soaked samples come through clearly on the title track and on late jammer “Knob & Slider.” But they let the rhythms themselves do most of the work on the middle part, no words appearing at all on “Slave Teacher” and the vocal tied to the pulsing “What Do You Want To Be” surprisingly PG (fitting, since the sample comes from a Calvin Harris pop number). But the urges underneath come through clearly. Get it here, or listen below.
New Chai: “Choose Go!”
Chai hasn’t sounded as direct at any point as they do on “Choose Go!” Not all of their songs delve into metaphor and clever fake outs, but more than most do, whether poking at the concept of “kawaii” in modern Japan or simply turning a love song into an ode about dumplings. “Choose Go!” though doesn’t mince words — it’s a song about chasing after the goals you want, complete with motivational passages about how even failure just leads to more chances to try, which is beautiful in its own way. This directness carries over to the sound, which features one of the more direct melodies and bouncy beats they’ve put down, knocked off balance letter in the song but ultimately staying together. It’s fitting for a song about persisting, that it always stays locked in, pushing along like the words demand. Listen above.