今週日本のインディー界において大きな話題だったのはジャスティン・ビーバーでしたね。大阪のCloudy Buseyが曲をカナダのポップ・スターに歌わせたいと言ったのが発端で、今度はGive Me Walletsがジャスティンのヒット曲、”Boyfriend”をカバーしたみたいです。以下から視聴できます。Give Me Walletsはジャスティン・ティンバーレイクのようなミニマリズムを取り除いて、よりコンプレックスに、より速いテンポで曲を仕上げました。ジャスティン・ビーバーみたいなハイトーンは一切目指さない独自性がこのカバーを素晴らしい物にしています。
May.e has quickly become one of the artists I will always find a chance to gush about, and today I got to do some more praise heaping in The Japan Times. Go read that! In a nice coincidence, she also released a new song online called “Oide (Come On)” that’s another gorgeous cut from an…
This seemed to have been the week when a bunch of really talented Japanese artists went and released great new music all at once. Keeping up with all of it could be tough, but for the most part we touched on everything we wanted to. Except for the following three songs, two from acts we’ve…
A little over halfway through Annie The Clumsy’s Vol. 1 collection, the singer plays a lovely little number about being with a lover, a lover who just overwhelms our protagonist with presumed swagger. Then, the proverbial shank to our thighs – “everything you do/makes my uterus ache/not my heart but my uterus ache.” Everything about…
２０１２年に入って既に二枚のEPをリリースしているフットワークのプロデューサー、Picnicwomenが、続いて今年度三枚目を発表しました。”Super Freak”では新しい挑戦が聴ける訳ではないのですが、スピード感やスリリングなボーカルサンプルは健在です。”Again”はよりメローな方向性を模索しているのですが…結局は打ち込みのドタバタ地獄に突入し、彼の持つユニークなスタイルを主張しています。”Milk Man_s Wife”はエイフェックス・ツインの”Milkman“のカバーで、”I would like some milk from the milk man’s wife’s tits.” というフレーズが繰り返されます。試聴は以下から、購入はこちらから。 Super Freak EP by PICNIC WOMEN
The biggest twist to this is the central vocal sample (and the title of the song) comes from “Blurred Lines.” Kobe’s Tofubeats manages to take a track that is (still!) pretty burned into the minds of contemporary music fans/people who just walk by stores prone to playing the biggest summer hits and flip it into…
ネットレーベルのMaltine Recordsはもともと結構J-Pop推し。でも今年はJ-Popから影響を受けている作品だけではなく、もっと正統にポップを追求した作品を幾つかリリースしています。Avec AvecのEP、”おしえて“もそうですし、東京女子流のリミックス集なんかもあります。で、今回のFazerockのMaltineからのEPもそう。この、”あの星にのせて”では、普段の作風よりも大人しく、ウォブルベースやドロップも控えられてます。Reddam(今回はボーカルで参加。Reddam自身のリリースもオススメですよ）とのコラボ作品なので納得ですし、互いのスタイルが上手く調和しているかなと。でもMaltineにはポップに特化してほしくなくて…その時々の潜んだ才能を持つアーティストをプッシュしていて欲しいのが正直な意見なのですが…今回のようなリリースも勿論面白いですよね。ダウンロードはこちらから。
So looks like the big trend in Japanese-indie music this week is Justin Bieber. First, Osaka’s Cloudy Busey described his new song as something the Canadian pop star could sing, and now Tokyo outfit Give Me Wallets have covered Bieber’s song “Boyfriend,” which you can listen to below. Give Me Wallets replace the Justin-Timberlake-evoking minimalism of the original with an array of synthesizers and a higher BPM. This take imagines Bieber’s song as a technicolor disco track, and is a good (and smart…the lead singer never even inches towards Bieber’s high-note delivery) number.
It’s a little too early to start celebrating the decade in music, but Soleil Soleil’s EQ works as a nice cap to a stretch of time that saw the Kansai electronic scene just flourish. The Osaka producer orbited around parties like INNIT at the start of the 2010s, first releasing music under the name OMEGABOY…
DJ Aflow’s been part of the Japanese juke scene for quite some time, having put out albums on vital label Booty Tune all the way back in 2012 and consistently put out material since, whether on their own or with Foodman and California’s SELA. Smog offers up a speedy set celebrating DJ Aflow’s approach to…
I’m not the one to ask, as I failed to actually get out and see any cherry blossoms that weren’t directly next to my train station. Yet I think the sakura season has basically ended, which makes producer Jasskall’s “Sakura” all the more bittersweet. Like a lot of electronic numbers that have landed on this…
Magical Mistakes is the latest artist under the Day Tripper Records’ umbrella to release a full-length album, as his Everything Uncertain CD arrived in stores this week. Coinciding with that item dropping…you can also get it at the Day Tripper site if you’d rather not leave home…is a video for the song “Later On,” viewable…
I’m not a designer of any sort, so please enjoy this clip art. Something that tends to happen with end-of-the-year lists is writers and publications end up creating narratives for the year that just unfolded. The dominant one for 2014 so far has been “what a horrible year,” which…fair enough, if you followed the news…
Tokyo electro-banger Baroque has two new tracks running over on his MySpace. “Leyline” kicks off with a steady drum workout before busting out dentist-drill squeals. It all comes together to form a solid piece of piston-strong dance. B-side wins the day though: “It Doesn’t Come Off” takes some funky guitar and pulverizes it with noise….