Osaka’s 99 Letters doesn’t quite make chiptune music – sure, his songs overflow with video game bloop-bleeps and nearly every promotional photo of him features an old-school Game Boy. This stuffs on the same “loaded with Nintendo sounds but not defined by it” bender Crystal Castle downed en route to success. 99 Letters hits even…
Love And Hates get a lot of play around these parts, but I’ve failed to mention the twee-crunk duo isn’t either members primary gig. Both have solo gigs, one of them playing as Miila and the other as HNC. The latter has a new album, Cult, out on Dec. 2 and a good number of…
Here’s a reason I love doing this blog business – it leads to personal musical discoveries I never would have made if I weren’t constantly trying to learn more about Japanese music. Latest unearthing – Hair Cut Valentine. This artist (group?) doesn’t have much of an Internet presence, just a MySpace page with a few…
Not much commentary on this one – Toss And Volley make schizophrenic electro music that’s both kind of danceable but also really strange. Imagine Black Dice reducing the volume about 60 percent and trying to play a dance club. Just listen to the songs on their MySpace page. The tracks range from the skipping madness…
I’m only a year late to this, but a discovery is a discovery. Furil make dreamy pop, but not like most “dream pop” outfits. This duo combines swirling minimalist electronics with elements of J-Pop, leading to sugary sweet songs built off tiny keyboards and the occasional club bass. This combination’s so good I have no…