Well, didn’t see this one coming – Tokyo duo Puffyshoes, previously keen to writing songs about fast food and monsters, have made a 19-minute-long album where the lyrics end up the highlight. It’s slightly unfair to categorize their past work as Fischer-Price-market friendly, as the strongest moments of the lo-fi band’s previous two releases zeroed…
New review over at The Japan Times, this one about the latest andymori album. Check it out to discover why I wasn’t all that impressed by Kakumei outside of the under-two-minute tracks. I will admit that the title track, listenable below, is probably gonna’ be jostling for space on my year-end song list. Shame the…
In May, I found myself spending a rainy weekend in Tokyo. Somewhere between trips to Denny’s and the official NHK store to buy gifts for friends, I ended up in Shibuya’s club district, a vast stretch of nightclubs and love hotels staring each other down, intoxicated folks spilling out of both. This district, the name…
What’s the absolute worst thing you can hear coming from a telephone? A rush of static? “Sir, I’m sorry to inform you…?” A telemarketer? Tokyo’s DUB-Russell imagine the most terrifying noise that could slip out of the receiver would be Satan’s personal waiting music. The duo’s Grasp Echoes album reminds me of the noises a…
If NOKIES! can learn only one lesson from their debut release, I really hope that it’s they are a group that should release solely EPs. The type of energetic, soft-to-loud rock the Osaka group favors works well in the relatively short confines of an extended play, but could easily turn to exhausting fake enthusiasm if…