我々の”favorite songs of 2012 lists”のような年末特集を組むのは非常に難しいです。限られた数を選ばなければいけないので、結果選べないアーティストもいるからです。去年でいうと”My Aquamarine/Spinning Wheel”をリリースしたElen Never Sleeps。このシングルは素晴らしい曲を２つも収録した、ENSがアーティストとして急成長した作品です。そして2013年を迎え”Silver”をリリースしたENSは、今年もさらに彼らしさを発揮させています。新曲”Shine On Me”は去年の”My Aquamarine”を彷彿とさせるものの、ビートがENSの今までの曲の中で一番ダンサブル。コーラスの部分では、風変わりなボーカルやストリングスを始め、さまざまな音色が飛び交っているものの、互いを殺しません。こういった細かいこだわりが光ります。
One of the tougher parts of putting together a year-end feature – like our “favorite songs of 2012 lists” – is cutting it down. This means some really great stuff gets left outside…and last year, one of the toughest omissions to make was Tokyo murmur-pop dude Elen Never Sleeps, whose “My Aquamarine/Spinning Wheel” single featured two great songs and marked a jump forward artistically for Elen. It’s looking like ENS won’t be facing a similar dilemma in 2013, as he’s just released two tracks in advance of his new Silver EP, and both find the solo artist making further artistic strides. “Shine On Me” initially resembles last year’s “My Aquamarine,” but features a livelier beat that is the closest ENS has ever come to being dancey. The real development, though, is greater attention paid to sonic details – the most catching element of “Shine” is the almost-meowed noises that make up the chorus, but equally as strong are the strings that rise up throughout the song.
The title track from the EP, meanwhile, is more reflective, but features ENS adopting a slightly deeper voice for most of the song. It’s the less daring of the two tracks, but refines the Elen Never Sleeps sound further. Listen below.
No nonsense here – here’s a Japanese outfit out of Sapporo that provides info but not too much information about themselves. They put on a party every once in awhile, and have a few songs online that came out prior to “Queen Anne.” But man oh man, “Queen Anne.” This is direct, bouncy pop, no…
Idol-pop and the Internet are made for one another. The former deals in fantasy and blurred lines, of selling people a very lifelike dream. The web, meanwhile, is the perfect place for an artist to drop into and create a new…well, anything. The two have been slowly merging over the last few years, and that…
CUZ ME PAIN projects Faron Square and :visited are no loner around making woozy dance music, but pivotal-member-in-the-prior-and-uhhh-the-whole-project-of-the-latter Yyoke has a new project under the Tokyo label’s umbrella. White Wear has been kicking around, mostly making remixes, since last year, but now he’s got his first EP out. Called A Black From White Space, the…
Things the new Foodman EP Hamakko reminds me of: – A space-themed Hanna-Barbera cartoon playing from an old, broken radio…in another dimension. – Jazz generated by a malfunctioning Commodore 64. – Alternate world soundtrack to the Ocarina Of Time Water Temple. – Alien theme park announcements. – The weirdest/best open-mic-night. – A really strange plate…
The video teaser for “Just Wanna Feel” – click the image above to watch it – spends most of its time focusing on Tokyo’s Sapphire Slows. She stares at the camera and is usually in the center of the frame, a departure from her more shadowy image from 2011 where she played with a mysterious…
Pulling off an intimate atmosphere in music isn’t easy, but completely doable in various ways. One could always go for minimalism, using as little as possible to create the feeling of staring someone in the face, like The XX. There is also the sexy R&B route, but that’s not exactly the “intimacy” at hand. ELEN…
