Acoustic drum EP by i-fls My life has become much more mundane since i-fls released his last collection, December 2014’s Inverted Waves. “Mundane” sounds bad, but really it has been a net boom for me — life is less chaotic, I get to stay home more and I get to enjoy the small details of…
“City Girl” first came out in April as part of I Saw You Yesterday’s “Topia” single. But it is such a nice rush of indie-pop — and now complete with video of a recent stop in Thailand — that it’s worth posting on this gloomy rainy day. The band’s strongest quality remains their ability to…
California’s Meishi Smile – Maltine artist and one of the co-founders of Zoom Lens, which has released music from the likes of i-fls, Yoshino Yoshikawa and other Japanese artists – recently released a new single called “Star,” the original version of which you can hear here and which can be downloaded here. It’s great, but…
LSTNGT will take part in a new compilation coming out via Eco Futurism Corporation later this week, and their “Hydropolis” serves as a preview of what to expect. It’s one to bathe in, at least for a little bit — the first stretch of the song features sampled chanting played behind the sort of synths…
30. Salyu “新しいYES” A lot has changed since I first wrote about this song back on April 1st…I don’t know what chemicals I got slizzered on when I compared Salyu to Erykah Badu and Cosmogramma ran away with my “album of 2010” honors…but this track’s selling point stays the same. I can assure you no…
Critical to Yoshino Yoshikawa’s music has always been the depth he brings to his music. His songs feature depth and a lot of clever details that push them out from an internet-centered scene that sometimes does the immediate, overwhelming vibe too much. “Mirage,” the first number to emerge from his forthcoming album Event Horizon via…
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.
In a Japan Times’ story about her label Flau, the head of Flau reveals that Cuushe’s last EP was intended to get the artist pegged as “dream pop” rather than “electronic pop.” Mission accomplished I believe – who knows how many times I’ve referred to her songs as “dreamy.” Yet newest cut “Twilight,” in advance…
To some extent, Shibuya-based music maker Metoronori’s Mawari reminds me of fellow Japanese artist i-fls. Both are painfully DIY, recording simple electronic tracks on their own, both artists defined by chintzy keyboard and synth sounds. Their music also evokes youth gone by, mostly via the simplistic sound they lean on. Yet one thing separates the…
Drop-loving producer Miii has been teasing new tracks online for the last few weeks, and now they all come together on Maltine Record’s 128th release, Everything Happens To You. His aggressive sound is intact, but he’s pushing his songs to new lengths…the first two tracks here clock in at over seven minutes. Yet they all…
There is no shortage of home-based producers in Japan today…and here are two more. It’s tough to really put a name to what Waver Friends does, mostly because I STILL am not sure what the ultimate definition of “vaporwave” is. I am leaning towards calling this at least “vapor inspired,” as it is a faded-sounding…
Shunsuke Kojima doesn’t seem like he’s in any rush to get anywhere on Lost Spectacle. Despite starting the album with a clear-cut destination (“Airplane To Tokyo”), he spends the whole time creating instrumental tracks that bounce along, sure, but come off as more interested in exploring bright textures and beats. He really starts hitting his…
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…
