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。
Ano(t)racksというレーベルはまだ新しく、あまり多くをリリースしていません。大阪のグループThe Paellaの前作EPのリリースが記憶に新しいのですが、先週、Soon V.A.というインディーポップのコンピレーションをリリースしました。これは注目すべきアップロードでしょう。最近どのようなアーティストがインディーポップシーンで活躍しているのか知る事ができるので、シーンに詳しくない人にとっては、知る良いきっかけになると思います。今年リリースされたMoscow Club周辺のアーティスト達によるコンピ、C86を賞賛するようなリリースですが、大きく異なる点があります。C86ではシンセサイザーを多用するアーティストが多かったものの、Ano(t)racksではそうでもありません。BOYISHの”Couldn’t Remember”はシンセサイザーが使われていますが、他の曲ではドラムマシンくらいです。ギター、ドラムとボーカルのみの編成の、イギリスのバンドに触発されたバンドが多いからなのかもしれませんね。参加している大阪のPost Modern Teamの”In The City”はシンプルかつキャッチーで、The PaellasとTwangy Twangyは自分達の個性をさらに追求しています。 さらに、Ano(t)racksは女性を目立たせているグループが多いと言えるでしょう。京都のHomecomingsの”You Never Kiss”では可愛らしい女性の歌声に鋭いギターを重ねていてとても美しい世界観を演出しています。このコンピのハイライトと言っても過言ではないでしょう。Old Lacy Bedの”Coastlands”はとても楽しく、 大阪のFoodieは愛らしいグルーブでアルバムを締めくくってくれます。ダウンロード、視聴はこちらから。 Soon V.A. by Various Artists
Sakanaction’s latest single “Music,” due out January 23, finds the group touching on some of their older material. The way lead singer Ichiro Yamaguchi stretches out syllables in the verses brings to mind the single “Endless,” while the late-song surge in emotion resembles another cut from DocumentaLy, “Monochrome Tokyo.” Yet this isn’t the sound of…
先週東京のデュオ、She talks Silenceが新曲”Walk Away”をSoundCloudで発表しました。Minami Yamaguchiは短いイントロの中で”walk away now”の持つ意味を明確にし、そこから速いテンポで短い３分間程度ギターをかき鳴らしていきます。”I know you’ll hate me”という印象的なフレーズが象徴するように、後ろを振り向かずに前へ前へと進みたい気持ちと共に疾走する美しい曲です。試聴は以下から。
The “list a bunch of your favorite acts” trick is a classic approach to songwriting – some folks who have indulged in it include Daft Punk, The Tough Alliance, LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk again (sorta). Tokyo’s Alloapm pulls this card on the opening track to their new EP Wavepop. Over an upbeat assortment of synths,…
Tofubeats already has one great album and a handful of well-produced singles for other artists under his belt this year…and, welp, he has another gem now with “Don’t Stop The Music.” Here, the Kobe producer embraces a more laid back structure compared to the often manic tracks on this year’s Lost Decade, letting the music…
There are a handful of bands in Japan right now that have been hyped up in the last few years that are capable of good music but seem jussssssssssst short of being something really special. andymori was close, but chose the easy money rehashing indie-pop 101. Kinoco Hotel has the look and live show, but…
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.
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs No New World is as welcome a surprise as you could ask for in 2018. The band largely stopped putting out new material following 2010’s triumphant third full-length from the trio, an urgent and propulsive set of songs that shoved against the usual placid pace of Japanese rock music. They…
Indie outfit Nayutanauyta earn their dreamy title with their songs thanks to their embrace of Auto-tune, which lends a hazy vibe to their creations. “Sagittarius” is an especially strong example of this approach, as a slow number building up to a guitar solo turns into something more thanks to the vocal warping. This is a…
The Internet’s ability to make borders go poof and bring us all a little bit closer has been a great boon to music. I doubt I need to lay out the countless success stories…or the ones emerging every single day…to convince you the web has allowed countless artists seemingly doomed to nothingness to transcend and…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApgUY2qwt3E&hl=en_US&fs=1&] This is so, so…. different! I have never heard AKG like this, at first I didn’t even recognize them. I’ve heard every AKG song, and they have never made a song like this. I’m not sure how I feel. I like it, but it doesn’t really sound AKG, I mean it does have its…
Soleil Soleil is closing out August nicely with two new dance tracks apt for pre-sunset evenings and pleasant temperatures. The Osaka producer has long created great house from pop samples, and “Medicine” excels at delivering energy. It’s simple, but Soleil Soleil knows how to use basic ingredients to create something rollicking, and in the case…
The music Fuji Chao has been making over the last couple of years has always been visceral. Samples sourced from cartoons featured screams and crying, while the artist herself dropped in spoken-word lyrics that played out like confessions of complicated emotions. Part of this reaction comes from a distance between listener and artist, but it…