[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RxYmYsa3T4&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] The still-bizarrely-named Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs have a new album out and, surprise surprise, also have a new video out. “Zero Comma, Irotoridori No Sekai” seems like one of the more bubbly songs the band have done, and it comes with an equally bouncy video full of bright colors and cloned band members….
Duo ELLEH have been on a good roll recently ahead of their first EP — capped off with a very nice, very fun live show in Tokyo this past weekend. “New To This” adds to the streak, moving at the fastest pace of any of the songs they’ve put out as to date, and featuring…
Like I’ve said before, sometimes simple charms are all you need during your day. Dronjo Kept By 4 have been chugging along since 2007, creating rock hop-scotching between feedback-dipped fare inspired by The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. to more indie-pop fare (while, still on the fuzzier side). The Exhibition EP isn’t re-inventing anything and maybe…
Time just keeps on slipping. Not many years ago, there was this moment in the Kansai region where electronic music coalesced into something special. It was a moment where a musical community starts hitting a stride at the same time — you had INNIT, you had Day Tripper, you had parties scattered across the rest…
Boys Age’s music, whether laid back or melancholy or even peppy, sounds agoraphobic. It’s mostly because of Kaznary Mutow’s voice, a little garbled and always reserved, even on chipper numbers. Yet there’s also something warm about it all, and it comes through on new song “Blue Water.” It’s a song about loneliness and wondering, but…
Boredoms’ guitarist Shinji Masuko’s solo song “Woven Music For Silver Ocean” doesn’t sound particularly similar to the noise rattled up by his main gig, but both end up doing the same thing to me. Masuko multi-tracks guitars over one another on “Woven,” the loud noises created by his instrument blurring together into one hypnotic horizon…
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.
Memories are imperfect things. That’s something home-recording artist i-fls understands so well, especially on his latest collection Diary Of Spectre. We like to treat nostalgia as something warm, something that gets stirred up in us and reminds us of simpler times. Yet that’s just the stuff of movies – nostalgia, once treated as a disease,…
I’m not sure whether Diorama Books are a bookstore or an independent book publisher (or…both!), but they have somehow made a collaboration between Kansai producer Okadada and the lead singer of the band Skirt a reality. It’s a nice bit of 80s-indebted pop, Okadada giving the song a warped electronic feel courtesy of his keyboards,…
Kyoto band Hotel Mexico announced on their website tonight that they have officially split up. It means one of Japan’s finest indie bands of the last few years – and one of the first to receive attention from Western blogs and music websites – is calling it a day. Hotel Mexico began in late 2008,…
At long, long last, Nagoya’s POP-OFFICE have released a full-length album…just in time for list-making season. I’ve yet to actually get a copy of Portraits In Sea – curse you long work day! oh, how I rue you monthly bills! – but this outfit has released so much stellar music over the last few years…
I’d like to think this a case where a music scene’s very existence proves itself to be vital, to be responsible for fostering a young artist and helping them improve over time. Gloomy popped up on our radar late last year, when they (I believe they are a duo) appeared on the bill for one…
Cloudy Busey “Who Says They Love You” Osaka’s Cloudy Busey started the year with the long, lonely walk home anthem “Up To You (If You Love Me)” and later released “Have U Ever,” which he said would be perfect for Justin Bieber. Between those two, the Ice Cream Shout frontman who also records under the…
