Osaka’s Post Modern Team are joining up with Miles Apart Records for a new collection called New Romances, due out on September 19. They’ve shared the first song from that album, “Boy,” and it’s particularly emotional coming from a group who have always excelled at drilling their emotions home. And as they do so well,…
In news that was inevitable, fuzzy beach-pop group Friends changed their name. From now on they will be known as Teen Runnings, which I like to imagine came about because the band watched Cool Runnings and thought “teen” was a synonym for “cool.” Anyway, this had to happen because Brooklyn group Friends, responsible for this…
Synergy! Today in The Japan Times, I reviewed Turbo Town, the new album from rock-dance duo 80Kidz. Read it here. The nitty gritty of it – Turbo Town is a very good album with occasional great moments, but it’s also an album where 80Kidz end up sabotaging themselves by not being confident enough to do…
Here’s a new video from Chabe (who records as Cubismo Grafico and fronts Cubismo Grafico Five), for a song from his album last year. “Rewind (Holiday 91)” was one of the laid-back highlights of Me., which was this blog’s choice for the 23rd best album of 2011. Watch above.
I’m just so tired recently…the latest release from Omoide Label serves as a real nice shot of sonic caffeine, an upbeat trio of dance songs from producer Toti that really just go for pure energy over any evolution of the “future bass” sound that has been kicking around for a while now. The title track…
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.
This month’s Music Alliance Pact has arrived! As always, MAP finds 30-plus blogs from all over the world sharing one song from a domestic act with the rest of the bunch. Make Believe Melodies represents Japan, and this month we are putting the spotlight on ultra-pop specialist Yoshino Yoshikawa and his “I Feel You, I…
Kobe-based producer Tofubeats says he’s working on a new album, which is very good news for us. While he’s finishing the final touches on that full-length, he’s given the world a preview from it in the form of “Time Thieves,” a fast-paced track from one of the best music makers going in Japan right now….
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…
Last year, a duo made up of two teenaged girls living in New York but originally from Osaka appeared online. They called themselves BenZel, and claimed they met one another over a message board thanks to a shared love of J. Dilla. This seemed like a stretch. Naturally, the first song they ever released featured…
I don’t have particularly high expectations when looking through Bandcamp. There is just so much, and so much not-all-that-good music. Seeing an album called Give Me A Coke! from an artist named Cola Drunk felt like a waste-of-time in the making…is this gonna be a beat tape, or some kid from Omaha’s vaporwave project? Surprise,…
