All artists have the subjects they keep coming back to, the thing that pulls out some of their best work every time. For producer Yoshino Yoshikawa, that might be cats. The latest in his feline–leaning collection of songs, “Dancing Cats” switches things up ever slightly by not being as outright chime-rich as other songs he’s…
This narrative writes itself, practically. Le Makeup’s voice had long been buried in his music, then in 2018 it started creeping closer and closer, and now comes End Roll wherein it is the most important element of each song. The three songs here are some of the most straightforward ones Le Makeup has created, with…
A lot has changed since I saw Lady Flash play a tiny live house decorated in balloons out in Osaka — primarily, the band who were writing manic indie-pop about Earthbound have transformed into a half male, half female quartet prepping their first album for Dead Funny Records. “Tora Ba Yu” is the advance single…
Boys Age get a lot of inspiration from video games. Last year’s fantastic Calm Time drew inspiration from a psychological horror game, while their latest The Red draws inspiration from Rule Of Rose. The music itself…what has been posted so far…exists mainly in the laid-back zone they’ve been exploring for some time, though on a…
This year is already feeling like a particularly strong one for Japan’s juke community, with plenty more to come. Yet Osaka outfit Satanicpornocultshop just went and dropped the first great front-to-back album of 2018. The Rise And Fall Of… doesn’t mark any massive departure from their usual sound, nor does it find them even pushing…
This should be a scene from UHF. It’s not. It actually happened. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXDgTo9Nsio&hl=en_US&fs=1&] The terror on his face when the lobster comes out…whoa. (via Japanator)
Tokyo’s Ningen OK are a group that demand to be seen live. I lucked my way into seeing them this past weekend, knowing nothing about them, but leaving thinking this duo put on one of the better live sets I’ve seen recently. They play surrounded by what appear to be homemade white pyramids. Guitarist Takurou Yamashita stands in front of a board littered with effects pedals, while Ken-ichi Sakaguchi looms over a drum kit which he soon hammers away at. They play very precise, wordless rock that always seems an inch away from tumbling into chaos, but always manages to hold together. Between songs, Sakaguchi leans towards a Vocoder and creates trippy segues featuring his robo-tized voice. Then they launch off again. It’s captivating stuff.
Their music manages to still sound good away from a live house – “Taion No Yukue” highlights Ningen OK’s precision-centric nature while also introducing elements of chaos (listen to that radio feedback). Listen to that below. It comes off their recently released first album of the same name, which is also probably full of good moments. Still, Ningen OK seem like a live band first, one that you should certainly make time for. Bookmark this page.
Last year, a duo made up of two teenaged girls living in New York but originally from Osaka appeared online. They called themselves BenZel, and claimed they met one another over a message board thanks to a shared love of J. Dilla. This seemed like a stretch. Naturally, the first song they ever released featured…
Two years ago, when I lived not in the hyper-speed metropolis of Tokyo but rather in the semi-rural mountains of Mie prefecture, I brought a friend from America who was on vacation to my then home. We spent a lot of time in my quaint city, population 80,000. We had spent nearly a week in…
The first Music Alliance Pact of 2014 has arrived! To kick off the new year, over 30 blogs from around the world have selected a track to share with the rest of the globe. For Japan, Make Believe Melodies is highlighting the fidgety “Bishop’s Rising Sun” courtesy of Osaka’s Metome. Listen to it…and a lot…
I’m not going to make any sort of “best of 2013…so far!” list because let’s just wait until December comes along and we can see what really stuck (plus, I took part in this). Kobe-born producer tofubeats’ Lost Decade, though, will probably appear somewhere on that list, because it’s a heck of an album, a…
What an absolutely cruel tease, Coffee And TV. Besides that terribly misleading title…today was actually the first day I had to wear a parka to work, you jerks…the music of “Guess What? Summer’s Arrived” is made for lounging out on a picnic blanket in a park on a sunny day (or maybe taking an early…
Some jittery goodness coming your way from Sapporo’s PARKGOLF, who has been having a very nice 2013. “Kiss Me” is his latest display of herky-jerky electronic music, a hyperactive blast that opens with handclaps before zipping off into the main part, a disorienting passage anchored by some manipulated vocals singing the titular phrase. The best…
