Wherein Satanicpornocultshop let their freak flag fly. The New Fuck EP finds the long-running outfit bringing their skittery style to some slightly sleazier material, highlighted by the title track, a sliced-up take on Disco D’s “Fuck Me On The Dancefloor.” The bulk of the EP finds the group trying out ghettotech, using ample amounts of…
Tucked away at the very end of Cornelius’ 2006 album Sensuous is “Sleep Warm.” It’s a welcome come-down after a typical Cornelius record of all-over-the-place music, a straightforward lullaby with only one wrinkle – slightly digitally modified vocals. It’s an excellent closer and also one of that album’s strongest moments, the usually manic Cornelius settling…
Been a bit since we checked in on Hiroki Yamamura and, happy to report, he’s still creating pulsing dance numbers moving at full speed. “Flying Disco Pusher” is a shifty one where a wordless voice stutters off in the back while the music — following juke principles — blasts forward while managing to skitter off…
It opens like so much that she has done before – some synths burbling off, Tokyo bedroom producer Metoronori sing-speaking, her voice overlapping with itself multiple times. A stray electronic wisp blows by, and a beat emerges. Eventually the song practically hisses, with even more sounds rising up in the background. This, the first track…
It takes gusto to include a cover of a Christmas song on your album that comes out in April. It takes even more gusto for said cover to be originally done by Alvin and The Chipmunks. Yet Azumi Nakajima, formerly of duo Puffyshoes, does just that on Two, her latest collection of stripped-down indie-pop under…
Time for the May edition of the Music Alliance Pact, featuring one of Make Believe Melodies’ favorite songs of 2015. That would be Half Mile Beach Group’s wind-swept “Twilight,” the lonely stroll-on-the-beach song we all deserve. Listen to it, and many more great songs, below. Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs,…
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.
このEPは日本インディー・ポップ界のとても強力なタッグから生まれています。”Heartbreak”や”Never Let You Down”等、2012年度最高峰ともいえる曲をリリースした大阪のPost Modern Teamと、元Candy EyesのDai OgasawaraによるTwangy Twangyが、Canata Records(BOYISH, Elfs In Bloom)からスプリット・EPをリリースしました。 Post Modern Teamの”She Does Something To Me”では、彼らの普段のスタイルから離れ、新しい手法を模索しているようです。Sloppy Joeに近いテイストを感じます。ザ・スミスやザ・キュアー等のインディー・ポップとも比較されそうですが、曲を通して細かいディテールが詰め込まれていますし、コーラスも決してアンセムのような物ではありません。 Twangy Twangyの曲は電子楽器とアコースティック・ギターで構築されています。つぶやくようなボーカルにもう少しヴォリュームが必要かな、とは感じますが、とても美しい曲で、暑い八月中旬にはもってこいでしょう。ダウンロードはこちらから。また、視聴は以下から。 Where The Action Is EP by Canata Records
Think Taquwami is starting to fall for blog-platform Tumblr? Can we expect a barrage of .GIF files and essays about Degrassi? Probably not, but the Tokyo producer did go and post two new tracks to his Tumblr page over the weekend, “Gossip 1” and “Gossip 2.” The prior opens in a haze before pivoting into…
Indie-pop outfit Fandaze have a new EP called Balloon Songs out on October 26, and here is a peek at what to expect. A quick, not particularly strong Google search indicates there are no other indie-pop songs to be named “Kinda Sad,” which is surprising since that (or, I guess, kinda happy) would be the…
Sapporo seems to be having a moment right now. Electronic artists from that northern city have been getting more and more exposure as of late, names like Ninja Drinks Wine and Jealousguy popping up on electronic-leaning comps regularly over the past year. Osaka’s INNIT held a special event in the city recently, and producer PARKGOLF…
I’m writing up this post on a day where the Internet…or at least major pockets of it…went wild over a couple of big pop-music releases that hit the web today. First was the video for Ciara’s “Body Party” (which we can’t even watch in Japan) and then a new single by Janelle Monáe. And even…
I recently had a chat with someone about music in Japan. One takeaway – and an observation I’ve heard many times before in bars up to Retromania – is that some fans in Japan get super into a niche sound, and become experts of it. And that’s true! And can lead to great music! But…
