Join The Club: New Zombie-Chang, Yosa And Salu Songs

Or, Make Believe Melodies’ rap update part one for the end of March. What timing!

We have (basically) reached April which means we are a quarter of the way through 2016. Fast! That also means publications and honest-to-goodness people have started sharing favorite album lists for the first three months of the year, because the Internet never has enough rankings to cut through. I have no plans to do that, and maybe that’s partially motivated by the feeling that no really great albums have emerged out of Japan yet, just lots of very, very good ones. On this hypothetical list, Zombie-Chang’s Zombie-Change would be hovering near the top, and she recently shared a new video for the song “Goodbye My Love And Turn Around,” a skippy electro-pop highlight from that collection. Listen above.

Zombie-Chang also makes an appearance…in a much different style than the above number…on producer Yosa’s “Yoake Mae.” Here, she’s rapping and singing the hook in a way far more suitable for a song that seems focused on getting some hip-hop love…to the point pretty big name Salu gets called in for a verse. The star here, though, is Yosa’s woozy, late-night-city music, a blurry-eyed creation that feels like the last minutes of a night out, right before the train gates open for the morning. It even gets ramped up via a crime-drama-worthy guitar solo. It is off of Yosa’s upcoming album Orion, released via Omake Club (where Yosa has produced for Mcpero). Listen above.

AND THE CONNECTIONS DON’T END. Zombie-Chang features prominently in the video for Salu’s “Tomorrowland,” which you can see above. The musical hook, though, is that Tofubeats put the track together…and you can hear his digitally-obscured voice pop up at times throughout the bouncy number.

Similar Posts

  • Indeed: Yu-chi’s Escapism

    Niigata’s Yu-chi writes that he’s an “ordinary farmer” on his SoundCloud, and also adds that all of the music he shares (stretching back to 2012) is made simply as his hobby. His latest, Escapism is…well, just that, a collection featuring muted songs, moments of disorienting detail and like uhhhh MIDI-assisted jazz (“Black Cat Swing”). The…

  • Maltine Teams Up With Amagawa Uchu For New Songs, Browser-Destroying Site

    1. Overall, I love what Maltine Records has been doing/continues to does, but the only thing that makes me bite my lip is these special sites they make for big releases, such as this collaboration with Amagawa Uchu. Mainly because it destroys my computer every time…a large part of that is, despite being a (*air…

  • Gentler Hug: Aiobahn With Yunomi And Bonjour Suzuki’s “Magical Sweet Cake”

    Perhaps most people hear the word “kawaii” in relation with music, and they think of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. But the electronic community in Japan features plenty of artists where that word — “cute” in Japanese — can easily apply, though in 2016 what exactly that means has changed. The word “kawaii bass” has been thrown…

  • New OKLobby: Resort

    去年の末にOKLobbyが東京のベッドルーム・ミュージック・シーンに登場したとき、この若きアーティストが何をやっているのか、不思議に思っていました。でもプロジェクトの名前やデビューEPのタイトルResortworksからは、他のベッドルームアーティストと同じくVaporwaveの影響を受けて入れているんじゃないかというヒントが感じ取れます。取り入れた明確な影響は除き、音楽性からは隠れた皮肉などは感じられないのですが、むしろ同じ東京のアーティストTaquwamiに近い世界観です。でもOKLobbyが今年に入ってからリリースしたResortは、Resortworksで試んだ斬新なアイディアがより明確に伝わる作品に。Taquwamiと関西のSeihoからの影響がこの11曲のなかで多く見え隠れするのですが…OKLobbyは単純にインスパイアされただけのアーティストではありません。オープナーの“Brainwash”に使われているスローにされたボーカルサンプルは、限りなくフットワークに近い特有なビートに完璧にマッチしていて、それにシンセが上手く絡まっています。Resortworksに収録されていた3曲を除いては全てがとてもカラフルです。そんな中でもハイライトは”Animation”。アップテンポなトラックには他のアーティストもよくやるようにボーカルサンプルが散りばめられているのですが、そのポップさが魅力的。子供番組の音楽みたいになりがちですが、この”Animation”からは深みを感じる事が出来るので是非聴いてみて下さい。アルバムのダウンロードはこちらから。