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Category Archives: Music

New Yunomi Featuring Rinahamu: “Fashion”

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Yunomi’s colorful blasts of dance music rarely leave space for detail, but “Fashion” excels at the small stuff. It works well as a Technicolor rollercoaster ride too, with guest vocalist Rinahamu (from Yunomi-produced outfit CY8ER providing higher-pitched vocals) guiding the song from dramatic verses to ragin-out drops. But that’s also familiar — Yunomi has proven they can do this kind of song over and over again. The real thrill comes in picking up on the introduction of new percussion for brief seconds, or the way the beat flips into this reggae-grazed movement after the first chorus. Or just how much new stuff sneaks into the final rush of “Fashion,” new elements smuggled in right before the final synthesized string note. Get it here, or listen below.

Calm Time: Parmot’s If U R Near / Throbe

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: elevating simple beat music to something that can stand on its own isn’t easy, but doable. Producer Parmot manages it with this two-song release, a slightly fuzzy offering in the same avenue as the dizzying sample-twisters that ΔKTR specializes in. “If U R Near” takes squiggly synth-melodies and a jazzy beat to create something that isn’t quite laid-back, but approaches it, with some slight disorienting touches adding the slightest — like, barely grazing — tension to the song. “Throbe” does it one better, letting the faded atmosphere come through more clearly and give an out-of-time feel to what easily could have been sonic wallpaper. But in Parmot’s hands, it ends up being something to sink into. Get it here, or listen below.

New Koutei Camera Girl Drei” “Josephine”

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Last year’s New Way Of Lovin’ wowed us around here, but the basic formula to its success wasn’t all that complicated. Basically, Koutei Camera Girl Drei scooped up electronic styles often passed over by the idol world and mashed them all together. “Josephine,” the first preview of the trio’s forthcoming full-length release, follows in this mold by embracing reggae-inspired sounds, along with elements that crop up in modern dancehall. I’ll tread carefully here because reggae is one of those critical blindspots for me personally, but where “Josephine” pulls me in is how it uses elements present in all these styles and plays around with them to create something familiar and off at just the same time (take the Auto-tune smeared singing…that’s plenty prevalent in those styles, but not like this). Listen above.

New Dronjo Kept By 4: “Radio Her”

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Sometimes you just need a blast of something familiar. Dronjo Kept By 4’s “Radio Her” is indie-pop simplicity at its most stripped down — what starts out as downright sloppy quickly turns in to a nifty guitar dash that just keeps on plunging ahead. And overhead comes some head-down singing, adding extra texture to what quickly becomes a number more about the up-tempo race ahead than anything else. Maybe not great for everyday, but working right now. Listen above.

Diskotopia Shares DSK F​/​W 2018​-​2019 Free Compilation Featuring Foodman, Greeen Linez And More

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Diskotopia’s latest compilation feels a bit chillier than previous offerings from the Tokyo label, with more moments of unease cropping up alongside the usual body-moving flow. These aren’t new moods for anyone associated with the collective, but DSK F​/​W 2018​-​2019 Free Compilation comes off as more fitting for the coldest stretch of the years than previous installments in this series. Maybe that can be attributed to opener “Dawn Without Red” by Greeen Linez, a project that previously has dabbled in a re-imagining of glitzed-out city pop soaked in summer vibes. But here the track feels like its thawing out, moving at a slower tempo and placing more of an emphasis on a melody that slowly revelas all its beauty. The same vibe appears on Foodman’s glassy “Hitori Futari” and even on the high-stepper “Cake” from Submerse, which still struts in no rush and lets plenty of space in.

Alongside this feeling is a general wooziness running through tracks here, like stumbling out of bed a little too early and feeling discombobulated. BD1982’s “Sailing Towers” hides muffled singing over layers of other noises, including distortion, while A Taut Line’s “Guidance Light” sounds faded, a familiar drive slowly vanishing to time. Even more outright energetic numbers from Silvestre and Yuzi Zapping feature moments of sounds skipping, a slight disruption in moments of release. Diskotopia remains ever changing, but solid as ever. Get it here, or listen below.