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Category Archives: Music

New YUC’e: “Summer Night Hiking”

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Is it too early for a victory lap? Maybe not, given the upward trajectory YUC’e finds herself on — 2018 has been a continued high for the all-over-the-place artist, releasing an OK (albeit exploring slightly well-worn territory) EP and playing shows across Japan and abroad. “Summer Night Hiking” comes off like a moment to catch her breath and really soak in all she has managed so far. It’s built on Disney movie piano and a chorus of YUC’e’s singing out la la las. It’s all feel-good stuff, slowly rumbling up courtesy of a welcome jitter of percussion before plunging into what really feels like the fireworks, that bass drop in the center. Here’s the sound of an artist known for winding all over the place catching her breath, but still coming up with a nice mutation on something that should be filler — like, we don’t normally go for ballads around these parts. Critically, here’s hoping she keeps moving up. Get it here or listen below.

New Miii: Mythology

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Electronic artist Miii continues exploring just what someone can do with the bass-rattling properties of dance music on the short Mythology release. Following a bit of string-centric fanfare to open the album, Miii dives right into the experimentation with “Arachne,” built on bass freakouts and discombobulated voices. It’s a drop locked into eternity, with Miii pulling out a variety of melodies and hooks from the chaos. That’s the basic idea behind the next two cuts too, though “Minotaurous” adds in some really squishy slime sounds that builds on the horror element hinted at by the theme (and helps make it the most…epic of the numbers here). A welcome continuation from earlier this year. Get it here, or listen below.

New Figure: “Christmas Eve Of 1992” And “Daylight”

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Indie-rock project Figure has always been just outside of any indie-pop community in Japan, their music being too claustrophobic and darker-tinged to really slide in next to the various Sarah Records devotees across the country. After what felt like an extended break, Figure has a new album out in September via Sauna Cool, and has shared two songs that further set them apart. “Christmas Eve Of 1992” is the slower of the two and approaches ballad territory, but the bedroom sound and melancholy sigh of a vocal give this that Figure feel, as does the gradual build from soft to rumbling. Listen above.

“Daylight” is more traditionally in line with the Figure of the recent past, taking a familiar indie-pop melody and encasing it in distortion to give it a more crushing feel. Between these two songs, the forthcoming album might be as full a statement from Figure as you could hope for. Listen below.

Disorienting Symphony: Moscow Room’s “Swim”

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There’s something wonderful about being knocked off balance. Tokyo trio Moscow Room create something disorienting on “Swim,” a number really maximizing space and sudden noise better than most numbers I’ve heard in 2018. Everything starts like its coming out of a seashell, the vocals and synths just out of reach. But as everything lurches forward, this feeling of being far away works as a way to turn everything unsettling, with the electronics picking up in intensity and turning “Swim” into something downright claustrophobic. And then those moments of pause come up, offering respite…only to let chipmunked voices in to disorient the whole thing. Listen above.

Goofin’: Digital Clinic 2000’s “April Stretch”

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Consider this the sorbet following yesterday’s emotional bloodletting. Digital Clinic 2000 are a bunch of goofballs, and bless ’em for that. “April Stretch” serves as their proper debut, and it is a silly number built around the group delivering echo-soaked spoken word bits over a slinky synth-driven beat. Just check the cheap video coming with it — three dudes, sometimes holding keyboards, dancing in front of a green screen displaying video game footage and various other trippy backgrounds. It’s pretty charming though — so much Japanese “funny” music relies on hyperactivity, dudes with guitars shrieking about desserts or something, that it’s generally a delight to hear Digital Clinic 2000 construct something off-kilter and silly using a simple electronic backing. And that backdrop is pretty catchy too! Here’s how to do weird funny, and to do funny weird. Listen above.