In the Trekkie Trax song catalog, Cola Splash’s “Curry Drinker” stands as a fan favorite…at least based on seeing people react to it at various DJ events and other live gatherings. It is a pretty good snapshot of what the label is all about — it manages to be both hard-hitting and fluttery, pacing itself…
Not to downplay the coolness of new Shugo Tokumaru music videos, but the most exciting news out of the twee-whirlwind’s universe recently is that his excellent new LP Port Entropy will be released in North America and Europe on October 18. Coincidentally, that’s about the same time the current number one movie in America The…
Consider this the opposite of the last post featured on the blog…that number went super short, while the songs on producer Amps’ new EP keep twisting and turning like one of those rides with sharp turns and cardboard cutouts that move out of the way. Tomboy’s title track sums it up — it’s a rollicking…
If “If You’re Here” found Cornelius reflecting and letting his music wander, “Sometime / Someplace” pivots back…at least partially…to the synchronization of Sensuous. Here, every sound is locked in, and even the syllables coming out of Cornelius’ mouth work in a sort of lock-step. He’s still leaning towards something more melancholy than on his previous…
No stranger to remixing for J-pop acts, England’s bo en remixed Niigata trio Negicco’s song “Let’s Meet At The Festival.” The original version is a solid bit of pop — better than the leak-backing group’s newest songs, but not touching the material on this year’s Rice & Snow, one of the favorites for 2015’s finest…
What’s always made the music of Magical Mistakes such a treat has been the textural quality of it all. Erik Luebs, the mind behind the project, knows how to put together out of a song the listener can practically feel, his arrangements of traditional percussion, electronic dollops and, sometimes, nature recordings to create something that…
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.
Initially, it looked like netlabel Ano(t)raks was going to define itself as a destination for indie-pop music. Which it still very much does – the bulk of the artists appearing on their compilation albums over the past few months certainly skew towards the twee. Yet with latest various-artists collection World Awake, the fledgling label has…
Miila “Santa Baby” Well, this is definitely putting your own personal stamp on a Christmas classic. Miila, stepping away from the Geeks for this bit of yuletide joy, covers “Santa Baby” by playing a version built around molasses-slow guitar and some simple-but-ominous drum. Miila herself sings it pretty straightforward, but her voice sounds slightly muffled…
Soft As Snow But Warm Inside continues to avoid falling for the predictable trap laid out in their name – on new EP Asymmetry, they continue to not sound anything like My Bloody Valentine. Unless you count the fact the duo keep their vocals relatively low in the mix (and even that is a stretch),…
There are an abundance of hip-hop beatmakers in Japan right now. Lidly belongs in the upper echelon of these types, creating instrumental music that is not just the result of somebody listening to a few J. Dilla CDs and calling it enough of an education. His stuff is far more abstract, far stranger than the…
Producer Dubb Parade was, just one month ago, a lot sunnier. He billed his Your Emotion collection as “chillwave” and, even if it wasn’t totally locked to that Internet-genre, it carried a hazy, disco-influenced vibe that sounded more suitable for a blissed-out (remember that one?) summer spent indoors. Whether intentionally pushing himself to release music…
Azusa Suga, who already released one of the year’s best albums with his solo project Shortcake Collage Tape’s Spirited Summer, returns in time for the spring with a new EP titled Satellite Lovers from his indie-pop band For Tracy Hyde. In advance, he’s posted a new video for the song “Another Sunny Daze,” which appears…
