The real hook here is that Lumine Ikebukuro — a specific branch of a series of department stores in Japan — has its own SoundCloud page. Late capitalism, what a trip! But hey, that’s 2018 for you, and if a place selling handbags and shiny shoes wants to recruit promising young women artists from Tokyo’s…
Call it a happy coincidence between my music writing and online-culture writing, but this week I’m (kinda) diving into the world of “moe” for the latter. And, at the same time, a new anime-sample-heavy EP from Tomatosim drops via Omoide Label. I’m not particularly into anime — I know most of the bigger names mostly…
It feels like Toriena has been prepping for a major-label debut for a while now, but the moment has finally arrived this October with her first major album. “Time Capsule” offers a glimpse at one way she can go with a larger spotlight on her. She teams up with Yunomi to craft a number in…
The music Smany has been making over the years already relied on a certain amount of delicateness. Like Flau artists Cokiyu or Cuushe, or someone like Nariaki Obukuro, she has used silence as the perfect way to twist the emotions central to her work. But before she worked fully with electronic sounds of her own…
A common failing of online musical movements is a lack of evolution. Nobody has to find new angles on a burgeoning sound, but at some point you end up with a lot of people slowing down or speeding up the same basic thing. That’s one of the reasons Local Visions has been such a welcome…