Bit of a deceiving title, seeing as “Inner Ambient” certainly isn’t ambient music. Rather, the Gorilla Vs. Bear approved Jesse Ruins’ track imagines M83 shrunk down to bedroom size. All the woozy 80s synths and ghostly vocals are their, but whereas that French group went with bombast Jesse Ruins embraces something a bit more personal,…
Osaka-based producer Hiroki Yamamura has been one of the region’s most hyperactive footwork creators over the last few years, releasing tracks on the more frantic side of the tempo scale. The Butterfly Hour EP, released via London’s Moveltraxx, offers as concise a gateway into his sound as possible given how quick Yamamura can get. The…
Noah has long collaborated with artists around the world via email — whether they be beatmakers or vapor-rappers — and despite physical distances, the end result tends to impress. Her latest digital correspondence comes with Montreal’s Johnny_Ripper on the Jona album, half the songs done by him and the other by her (though they feature…
Right away…that’s a great name for a band. The good ideas don’t just stop at the moniker, though, as Does It Float’s latest “5miles To Your Home” ends up being an energetic dose of punk-pop full of shout-alongs and unbound energy. Leading off with a slow intro, the band quickly neck-snaps into a straight-ahead punk…
Here’s how you make the most of everyone’s skill and create some balanced songs. ONJUICY’s latest release for Trekkie Trax finds him getting some assists from producers and one guest vocalist, all of whom help bring out the best in his songs while highlighting his strong points. The opening number bounces ahead courtesy of a…
Tokyo’s Tidy Boy reminds us isolation and depression still exist at even the most tropical of locales. Despite the general beach-side feel fueled by copious amounts of cow bell, Tidy Boy blankets the party in fog via rough guitars and his coming-from-a-dark-corner-of-a-room vocals. “Muddy Tree” might feature a beat just dieing to be covered in…
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.
Cool journalistic work on display: I googled “Talking City 1994 SoundCloud” and this song came up! Boom, hire me New York Times. The Osaka outfit (probably, or at least someone associated with them) is responsible for “We Can Ride The Boogie,” which dips into one of the pop music’s finest tracks…Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You”…to…
Vocaloid-user mus.hiba has been teaming up with a lot of folks recently – first, Bo En and him came together for the cut “Winter Valentine” on the English music maker’s Pale Machine release. And now he’s bringing the syllabic sounds of Sekka Yufu to the late-night sounds of Irish producer Harmful Logic’s chilly “Whispery Voice.”…
I have never seen the film Isabelle, and am not even sure if this is the film Nobuyuki Sakuma is referring to with his Isabelle X project. Here’s a trailer…seems like it could be! Sakuma has gone and created an “imaginary soundtrack” to the film, and even at 22 minutes it is a disorienting listen….
The artists associated with Osaka’s INNIT party have spent the last few years spreading their sounds across Japan, building up from a once-in-awhie party held in basement venues to being able to hold down their own stage at Tokyo’s edition of Sonarsound and tour with all sorts of international names. Not to mention to branch…
When The Brixton Academy announced that they would no longer be recording under that moniker but instead as Nile Long, one had to wonder if it would also mean a change in sonic identity. The EP the group released last year seemed to signal that, yes, this wasn’t going to be the same collection of…
Note: We are, technically, still on vacation, but noteworthy happenings will earn small updates. Like this! The 2014 album race is already underway (Metome already sprinting out), and in January Nagoya’s CRUNCH will enter the race with Futoshita Nichijyo No Koto. Now, though, they’ve decided to share the whole album on BandCamp, and you can…
