Her Ghost Friend occupy one of the stranger niches in modern J-Pop music. They are, distinctively, pop…there are clear, catchy choruses supported by twinkly instrumentation and Shinobu Ono’s lovely sing-rapping. Yet they aren’t quite in that hallowed upper crust of mainstream music, rather caught somewhere between front-row-at-Tower-Records and indie. They’ve released two great albums…a solid self-titled and a year-end-crashing number in last year’s Looking For Wonder…but still exist under the radar. Third time’s the charm right? The world shall find out, as the duo prepare to drop a new full-length titled Cosmic Counterpart, out July 10. In advance of that, Her Ghost Friend have previewed four tracks on SoundCloud. They range from the clattering, colorful “Itsumono Fantasia” to the playful run-around that is “Ice Planet,” a simple but sweet number. Ono also flexes off her rapping skills on the third song…over a fragile piano line and some clapping, she either rhymes or just speaks fast, but it’s Her Ghost Friend at their most charming. We will write about the full-length later, but for now enjoy these previews. Listen below.