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Category Archives: Music

New House Of Tapes: Drift EP

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House of Tapes always gravitates towards the more cacophonous sounds, but look between the cracks and the Nagoya artist smuggles in a lot of beauty. The Drift EP offers one of the single best examples of this right away with the title track, which features buzzsaw electronics and a heavy-hitting beat. But in between those tougher elements, one of the prettier melodies House Of Tapes has thought up sneaks through, revealing charm hidden beneath punches. The rest of Drift leans closer to the aggressive — “Steps,” at least is pressure applied heavily, while closer “Karma” stews in unease via its slower beat and sudden effects. But that first moment is a heck of a hook and a reminder of the layers at play here. Get it here, or listen below.

New Mukuchi: “Reizouko”

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Mukuchi excels at jolly little pop songs, whether on her own or as part of Feather Shuttles Forever. She’s the prior for “Reizouko,” and it’s a funny bit of bedroom pop to start off the new week. The music itself relies on some jaunty piano notes alongside a few more toy-like details — I swear part of this sounds like a cheap laser you’d get at a dollar store blaring off. It’s a chipper backdrop for Mukuchi’s singing, pleasant and often silly, reveling in how words sound over the run of “Reizouko.” A nice bit of fun to get going this week. Listen above.

NC4K Shares Their First Compilation, Featuring Paperkraft, Stones Taro And More

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Kyoto label NC4K is nearing their one year anniversary of existence, and just in time comes their first compilation. It gathers most of the producers in Japan who have put out music via NC4K over the past year, kicking off with the airy skip of Stones Taro’s “Fall Out” before switching to a number by Paperkraft that loads up on the vibraphone notes to create a chipper tune. Pee. J Anderson serves up a highlight with the disorienting rush of “Blondes,” a house number that nails one of NC4K’s best qualities across releases — the feel that this is all one huge motion blur. That also creeps into Jank’s “Make Me Feel” and Sumorai’s wonkier across the board “Soul Circuit.” Yet it is these moments that really underline how special this label is becoming. Get it here, or listen below.

New Le Makeup: “Lush”

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Le Makeup’s letting his voice get louder and louder. “Lush” is the latest track from the Osaka artist that finds them revisiting the skip of their early Bala-Club-esque experiments and adjusting it to their current one-day-at-a-time mindset. But the bigger development, as mentioned, is how clearer Le Makeup’s vocals are getting, here coming through clearer than on anything from last year’s Hyper Earthy and becoming the song’s big moment of release late, when everything picks up in intensity. Get it here, or listen below.

New Pasocom Music Club: Condominium. — Atrium Plants EP

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That collective attention spans have been drastically reduced thanks to social media is probably a net negative for society as a whole, but one small perk of this shift in how information comes and goes seems to be that musicians have to act a lot faster than before in putting music out. Pasocom Music Club already released one of 2018’s best albums this past summer in Dream Walk, a computer romp celebrating both the Jusco beat, the bubble era, and peak netlabel days in a package that split the difference between nostalgia and the future. The Condominium. — Atrium Plants EP offers a slightly different side of the project. The four songs included here actually come off as a snapshot of their live show more than anything else — whereas Dream Walk attempts proper pop in the Club’s circle, Condominium offers up more club-direct stuff, starting with the house rollick of “Exhibition” and then creating a woozy dance track loaded up with bird sounds on “Atrium Plants.” Through the first three songs, this is Pasocom’s live show captured perfectly in EP form. Yet here comes the swerve with “Seed,” featuring Q.i with vocals. She only appears for a bit, but her voice shows the catchiness lurking beneath the pulse of an otherwise deep-set banger. A reminder that this isn’t an exercise in floor-filling dance tracks, but showing how all sides of the group connect to one another. Get it here, or listen below.