Idoling Along: Parkgolf And Nyolfen Team Up With Sakura Yura

The overlap between Internet-centric producers and idol pop continues shrinking. Maltine Girls’ Wave was the year’s biggest breakthrough, but it won’t be an isolated case. Sakura Yura is a rising idol…not a nobody but a far cry from, say, Tokyo Girls’ Style…and she’s teamed up with two producers repping two different netlabels. The first is Maltine’s Parkgolf, the fidgety Hokkaido trackmaker, who crafts her appropriately off-kilter “Shyankan Saidai Fuusoku.” Everything about it seems just a little drunk – the synth splashes seem like they could topple over at any moment, Sakura’s voice is coated in a blurry sheen, and even the usually sharp bass slaps seem a bit sloppy. Critically, the track never blacks out, everything coming together just right. Listen below.

On the other side if Bunkai-Kei’s Nyolfen, with a Jersey Club inspired thumper called “City Light Reflection.” It isn’t a straight-up floor killer, but a more subtle affair, the track hopping up to a subdued drop that adds a crucial amount of menace to an otherwise poppy cut.