Ryoma Maeda, working under the name Milch Of Source, has worked as the producer on scatter-brained-pop artist EeL’s latest albums. On one end of the spectrum, he contributed to the mess that was her 2011 album For Common People, a collection of songs spinning around like a tea cup ride for no reason other than to make people feel dizzy. Yet he also produced EeL’s Little Prince, rapid-fire pop done right, and one of my favorite Japanese albums ever (quick aside: what separates Little Prince from For Common People ends up being the variety of tracks – her newest album lacks anything like the reflective “No Heart” or the headphone-skittering “A Beloved Child.” Milch Of Source does those sort of restrained songs just as well as the drum ‘n’ bass madness). For that alone, he’s always going to grab my ear attention, and I’m a man of my word after seeing he released a solo album.
Outsider Musics In My Life gathers tracks from all over his career and plunks them down into one space, a space potentially only available via HearJapan. Well, or this place for Japanese speakers. From what I’ve heard, this sounds a lot like the manic-goodness of EeL’s best stuff, almost violent breakbeats elbow-dropping onto cutesy electronic sounds with all sorts of brain-bending touches. Take first track “It’s A Clumsily Sunset,” which initially sounds like how cotton candy tastes before the Aphex Twin-worthy drums piledrive in…and as the song goes on, he even seemingly slows down to time for a split second. Listen below.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBmrXN3mtog”]
The rest of this best-of collection sports more variety – sure, plenty of other skull-thumpers, but also a few slower tracks mixed in for good measure. EeL herself even pops up on two songs. Listen to a teaser below.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-voIvXvuX8″]