On last year’s Dream You Up, producer De De Mouse embraced modern music and gave into the pleasures of pop like he teleported back to 2007. His latest release be yourself only builds on that ecstatic release, layering synths and vocal slices on top of one another to create a full-length that doesn’t feature any major departures for him, but rather finds him continuing a particularly jubilant streak. That might best be displayed on the title track, which got the video treatment. It is maximalism at its best, less pulverizing and more like a party popper, with voices bouncing off one another while funk-inspired touches power everything forward. As is his style, all those syllables don’t push for greater meaning, but rather serves as another instrument towards creating something really joyful. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New Le Makeup: Pure Voyage Diaries
Le Makeup’s recent documentations of daily life haven’t put much of a priority on his voice. Despite aiming to capture the unnerving feeling of a world getting worse, the young Osaka artist has so far avoided using words to do the work for him, letting the music set the atmosphere and whatever syllables get come through being less about meaning and more about capture the off-center mindset of life in the late 2010s. Pure Voyage Diaries sees Le Makeup raise his voice just a little. “My My” plays out like a proper rap song, one in the mold of Lil Peep thanks to the guitar pangs and generally bummer mood accompanying the stuttering beat, with Le Makeup actually delivering some simple but effective rhymes. It’s a shift — one that continues on the title track — but which remains blunted enough to feel apt for Le Makeup’s mood (and, kinda critically, isn’t Le Makeup trying to make his big “Trump stinks” statement or something…it is still more observational, but now more upfront). And then comes “D.I.E.S.E.L” which is like an indie-pop song bordering on pop punk. Huh what, but also I love it. Because Le Makeup excels at sharing where his mind’s at…and here is where he is at. Get it here, or listen below.
Heartland Daze: CeeeSTee’s Toe / Chimney Up Bow
Building off a yesterday’s celebration of a nascent label, let’s turn our eyes to Kyoto’s NC4K. They’ve become a hub for some of Kansai’s more intriguing dance acts, having released highlights from Paperkraft and Stones Tarro. Now comes a two track set from CeeeSTee that pushes into delirious acid. Both “Toe” and “Chimney Up Bow” sound a touch faded, but the acid house touches add a sharpness and physicality to these songs that raises them above pure meditation (and which give them a real swing, like how “Chimney Up Bow” just loses itself as it keeps building and building). It’s another new side to NC4K, even if the main point is to remind that Kansai remains on top of the electronic game. Get it here, or listen below.
New Tenma Tenma: “Rehearsal”
While still quite young, Local Visions has stood out among Japan-based labels in 2018 thanks to one of my personal favorite mish-mashes of recent times. They dabble in the same sound and (sigh) aesthetic of internet niche genres such as vaporwave or future funk, but owing to the fact the bulk of artists thus far to release through them are Japanese, they add some welcome confusion to styles often finding non-Japanese artists pretending to be Japanese for appearances. But now everything gets mixed up, and besides some fun confusion Local Visions’ music offers a new perspective on digital-age sounds. See the charming elevator sounds of E-Muzak or the shimmering midnight delight of Crystal Cola’s L8 Nite TV.
Tenma Tenma’s “Rehearsal” serves as another curveball from the label. After several relatively laid-back offerings, “Rehearsal” jitters along like a bad TV connection. The beat features plenty of bright touches, but it also ripples and twists frequently, giving the song a dizzy feeling that only intensifies when Tenma’s own singing comes in. Digitally manipulated, it moves up and down in pitch and helps disorient the song further. But all of that unstable movement just makes the song more fun, the whole thing feeling like a tipsy dream. It’s another side to a label to keep close tabs on. Get it here, or listen below.
New Goto Nao Featuring Kakoi Nizimine: Yume Ni Ochiru
Goto Nao has shown their skill with the UTAU Kakoi Nizimine before, and on “Yumne Ni Ochiru” they only further show how singing-synthesizer technology can create something otherworldy. Their latest moves between dreamy passages that make the most of the digital vapor trail coming off of Kakoi’s voice, building up to a more rumbling release peppered with EDM details. And this release gets rounded out by two strong remixes, one courtesy of MSS Sound System and the other from Gaburyu. Get it here, or listen below.