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.
I recently had a chat with someone about music in Japan. One takeaway – and an observation I’ve heard many times before in bars up to Retromania – is that some fans in Japan get super into a niche sound, and become experts of it. And that’s true! And can lead to great music! But…
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…
Ahhhhhh, hip-hop beats that would actually be expert-level setting to rap over. Tokyo producers Lidly and Canooooopy aren’t strangers to the type of heady music that would leave even Lil’ B scratching his head about what to do with it. The two have teamed up for a new EP of heady stuff titled Geomysteric Psyborg,…
“Young Love” is one of the most exhilarating songs I’ve heard so far in 2013. It comes courtesy of a Japanese band I had no idea existed until last weekend called Andersons, a boring name concealing something really special. “Young Love” does a lot of what the music I’ve fallen for so far this year…
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…
Time for MAP! This month, we picked Tokyo’s Ykiki Beat and the summer-ready “Garden.” Listen to it…and a bunch of more great songs…below! Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 34-track compilation through Ge.tt here….
