Apologies if this blog has seemed a bit nostalgic lately…that’s partially because many of the artists that were formative for me from 2010 — 2013 when doing this came back with new material that has put me in a weird headspace. And now here comes indie-pop outfit Boyish, a group that started life as a bunch of guys playing zippy and melancholy twee-adjacent rock under a layer of feedback. But I’ve also realized — especially after listening to “Saudade” — how much of my experiences with certain bands are just, like, things I’ll never really be able to share with most people. Shout out to the two dozen people who went to Shibuya Echo (more a living room than a livehouse) to watch Boyish play every few months, but for most folks this is nothing. I think this realization — which, really, I should have had much earlier in life, but that’s 2018 for you — makes “Saudade” hurt a little more. It’s a slow, mournful number, punctured by a saxophone that opts for sadness over urban chilling. It’s probably a little too long a sulk session, but I’m also in a zone where I am happy to soak myself in it. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New Yuri Urano (Yullippe): “Autline”
Now going under her name Yuri Urano, Yullippe is expanding on her unsettling industrial-flaked sound on the first preview of an EP out on Central Processing Unit next month. “Autline” teases the same chilly atmosphere that has drifted through the bulk of her works up until now, the slow chug and rumble of the beat hinting at something ominous on the horizon. But the real unease comes from stuttered syllables delivered by Urano herself. The steady stream of “da’s” mesh well with the chirpy synth notes and the more intimidating bass touches, everything morphing around every little bit to keep the tension coming. Listen above.
New Soleil Soleil: “Medicine” And “One More Reason”
Soleil Soleil is closing out August nicely with two new dance tracks apt for pre-sunset evenings and pleasant temperatures. The Osaka producer has long created great house from pop samples, and “Medicine” excels at delivering energy. It’s simple, but Soleil Soleil knows how to use basic ingredients to create something rollicking, and in the case of this song something that has a slight jitter to in it (see: the way those words crash into one another). Listen to that one above. “One More Reason” is just far more euphoric, using split-second vocal snippets to create a dizzying run of dance music. Details in this one are less important, because the way everything blurs together into ecstasy wins the day. Listen below.
New Puffyshoes (!): “Let’s Fall In Love”
A season of returns continues with rock duo Puffyshoes announcing their return with a new song. The pair released a lot of music at the start of this decade, all of it wrapped in a layer of feedback that concealed the often downbeat lyrics — songs about parties and crushes usually weren’t looking at them from a totally positive angle. “Let’s Fall In Love” tows similar terrain — the object of attraction isn’t there, and the lyrics leave space to reflect on loneliness (Puffyshoes have always made a lot out of economy too –they fit a lot of feelings into a song less than two minutes long). But they also sneak in plenty of excitement at the prospect laid out right in the title, and that thrill is what powers them forward. Get it here, or listen below.
New Parkgolf: Hiyamugi
Parkgolf has been exploring what happens when space gets a little more emphasis in a song. This is quite the shift for a producer whose earliest releases excelled because of breakneck pace and maximalist embrace of noise — dude has a song called “Woo Woo” which just captures the energy flowing through his work. But in the last year he’s slowed down a little bit, whether with vocalists or in new age experiments. Sure, he’s still got the wilder side going…but even that is carving out room for a rapper.
Hiyamugi represents the biggest twist yet from Parkgolf. This is a three-song set featuring some of the more spacious music he has made yet. It isn’t minimalist, but there’s a very clear switch-up in sound here. The title track does it best, packing a punch as it jitters between sections — this is the closest I’ve heard any artist come to hitting on the alter-dimension wonder of Moyas since that one dropped — but also leaving room for bird sounds, delicate synth droplets and warped vocals. Here, the “woos” aren’t revving anything up, but puncturing through silence. “Yamori” again works bird chirps into the song, opting for a pleasant skip over anything wild, while closer “Mado” ends this brief run with some strings. Get it here, or listen below.