Taquwami arrived at our virtual doorstep with the fuzzy hug that was “Dawnz,” that embraced a super simple formula en route to an enveloping tune that felt safe and calm. Yet Taquwami conceals an unchained side too, a part of him that counts down until Friday night so he can drink too much Coors Light…
Young producer Maidable has teamed up with New York label Rubik Records for a two-song set of skittery, energetic cuts. Maidable turns to drum ‘n’ bass on each number, surrounding drums breaks with synth notes and bits of singing on uptempo opener “Chilly Dawn,” while keeping things a bit more spacious — but still pretty…
Pavilion Xool always works better with others, and this collaboration with Atlanta (but based in Tokyo, if SoundCloud is to be believed) rapper Levi Watson introduces a new path for the producer to go. Coming from imprint Yaoya in their continued effort to introduce younger artists to the world at large. Pavilion Xool’s beat is…
The title track already had us geeked up, but now the full Make Me Feel EP from Lolica Tonica has arrived, and its even more of a rush than expected. This set — featuring four original songs, and four remixes from the likes of Carpainter and Zekk — is pure energy, a self-contained argument that…
(Obligatory “oh hey I interviewed Tricot for The Fader last week, check it out” sentence) What Tricot have always pulled off so well — but what they’ve especially gotten good at doing over their last two releases — is making such carefully planned out music sound like its seconds away from breaking apart. New song…
The end of the year is creeping up on us, which means it is time to start thinking about the memorable albums of the past 12 months. One of the bigger surprises came courtesy of Tokyo rock outfit Passepied, who have been a perpetually pushed “next big thing” for the last few years, though none…
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.
I’m melting over here. Let’s put biases out front shall we…Perfume are my favorite musical entity ever, and I’ll always find some light even in their worst moments (I see you “Mirai No Museum,” what’s up “Toki No Hari”) because I’m fully entranced by what Yasutaka Nakata does. OK, we clear on that? “1mm” is,…
The duo Soft As Snow But Warm Inside called it quits over the weekend. The pair, who have been around since July 2012, announced it on a Tumblr blog post. They didn’t release much music during their existence – two EPs and a track via Ano(t)raks – but what they did put out was very…
In his relatively brief career, Tokyo’s Taquwami has explored a lot of sonic ground. He’s made maximal sounds, fragile songs, sample-heavy dance numbers and heady tunes that sound like holding a particularly trippy seashell up to your ear. And that’s not even counting the directions he’s splintered off with his Occult You project. His latest…
Cubismo Grafico has gotten reflective plenty of times in the past, but this new cut is especially rich in ennui. It’s a slow stroll of a song featuring some looped samples (lending this some “Shibuya-kei in the twilight” vibe) and sung in…French, at times. Perfect for an end-of-the-day beer. Listen below.
I mean, not quite yet…we still got a few weeks to go. But whatever, willing to overlook that because this is a new song from excellent Nagoya outfit POP-OFFICE, who I haven’t heard much from in quite a while. “End Of The Summer” opens with something this outfit has been known for since they debuted…
