Fogpak Grows Up With Fogpak #20, Featuring Chanbe, Shpmskk, Teleco And More

The Fogpak series of electronic music compilations has reached 20 releases with its latest — theme, “Adult,” congrats Fogpak you can buy cigarettes from a vending machine — and the newest set offers the same mission as the 19 that came before. It spotlights ten artists — in recent versions, Fogpak became more global, but in #20 it leans domestic, with only Hanoi’s Tenkitsune and their chiming “Kigurumi World” — working independently. The refrain I always bust out for this comp is “just dive in and find what you like,” but #20 boasts such a tight running time that I actually kind of go the opposite way this time. This set works so well together, starting with the soft burbles-turned-sputters of Osaka’s Shpmskk before ramping up via the sample-blending strut of Dyelo Think’s “Local Pop” and personal highlight “Tokyo Metro” by Teleco, a high-energy number built from bubbly vocal slices that imagine electro-pop broken up into hundreds of pieces and re-arranged from there. Odekake calls on the voice Kaya to add extra emotion to the bouncy “Film,” while Fogpak veteran Chanbe delivers a whispy, pitch-bending cut with “Rouge.” So yeah, sure, find your favorite, but seeing how these songs play off of one another is just as great. Get it here, or listen below.