Producer Amunoa usually makes swift, sample-skipping tracks that feel like confetti cannons going off. But on “Alright Now,” they go a little bit more inward and try out a more relaxed pace. It opens in a daze, faded guitar notes swirling around before giving way for a beat content to shuffle along rather than burst out. It offers plenty of space for Amunoa to play around with a sweet little vocal sample, bending it all over the place, and to dapple more guitar and synth notes over it. If most Amunoa songs are letting something out, this is the sound of breathing something in. Listen above.
Category Archives: Music
New Hentonacyoyu: Eisha Shitsu
Jazz — like 8-bit music — has factored into plenty of juke over the years, so what Hentonacyoyu does on Eisha Shitsu isn’t trailblazing. But they do it really well across these five original tracks. Hentonacyoyu sprinkles the sort of piano and guitar melodies you expect to hear in film scenes set in smoky bars over the first few songs, while also letting modern drum machine beats volley around too. Acid bass squiggles in on “Usuzumi,” but after that it is back to piano-based melodies, even if they get blurred up on closer “Wa.” Get it here, or listen below.
New Mayor Kenji: $egalopolis (Disc 1)
$egalopolis (Disc 1) is an argument for hyper culture consumption. The latest from Wasabi Tapes is more collage than works by other projects on the label like Toiret Status and even Pachinko Machine Music, and even feels a bit more quilt-like than other works from the artist now going as Mayor Kenji. But this sprawling album — 32 tracks! — is one of the more impressive experiments in sample overload the label has put out. Video game dialogue leads to faded voices from long-forgotten YouTube videos, while a song like “Robin” matches sludge sounds up with fuckin’ Hanna-Barbera cues. Grooves and skeletons of what could be songs emerge throughout — the frantic beat of “Black Market,” the springy synth work of “Secret Lab” — but songs are often so short that the overall effect is like listening to a bunch of ideas stapled together. It’s another fascinating peak into the world of Wasabi Tapes. Get it here, or listen below.
New Technic Runner: “Junjo Cyborg 80%”
June is always a great time to revisit highlights from earlier months. Long-running electro act Technic Runner delivered a charmer earlier this year that is still very much worth diving into, and now they’ve shared a new track that feels like it could slide right on to Dream Machine. “Junjo Cyborg 80%” is a bouncy bit of electro-rap, finding the pair tag-teaming over a janky (but damn fun, which is really what matters) beat, singing about…well androids, dystopian futures and microchips. Listen above.
Chewin’: Gum Girl’s “April”
Make Believe Melodies can always get behind a skippy bit of indie-pop, so Gum Girl’s “April” is a welcome bit of hoppy music to our ears. It’s also a nice step up for the band, who last year leaned closer to fest-approved fare with a song anchored by male vocals. That one is OK, but “April” improves the style significantly by letting a woman handle the vocals — she just sounds so much better, and so much more emotive — while also letting new elements like piano plonks come through more clearly. A nice number for a sunny day, nothing too complex but a perk. Listen above.