Not much commentary on this one – Toss And Volley make schizophrenic electro music that’s both kind of danceable but also really strange. Imagine Black Dice reducing the volume about 60 percent and trying to play a dance club. Just listen to the songs on their MySpace page. The tracks range from the skipping madness…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hkMaDkjDpU”] Few tracks try so hard to sabotage themselves. “Love Train” features so many potential landmines…chief among them that style of “pop rap” that gets under my skin like no other and an over-sugared chorus…that it’s a miracle it doesn’t collapse into one big pile of J-Lo pop trash. Yet the production on “Love Train”…
Recently, I watched a debate unfold over Twitter about the quality of Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s work, the majority of those jumping into the fray tearing into his style, in particular his reliance on “magical realism.” I get why some would be turned off to this, but that ability to make the everyday seem special,…
The lurching, fuzzed-out start of Zibanchinka’s “Watashi no Nakami wa Almond” last a surprisingly long time. Coming in at nearly a minute might not sound impressive, but keep in mind the entire track lasts only two minutes and seven seconds so that’s virtually half of the whole shebang. Yet, oh, how important those 60 seconds…
Remember chillwave? Sure you do. Well, it’s dead, if you ask various kinda-forced articles about the topic. On to…what’s cool now, maybe Pitch Perfect 2 will make a capella cool again. One of the elements of the Japanese indie-music scene that I find very admirable is how things that eventually get tossed out in the…
It’s a match made in peppy pop heaven. Brinq and Antenna Girl have both made springy, at-times busy dance-pop over the last couple of years, so seeing the two collaborate on an EP together isn’t too surprising, though it’s also plenty welcome. “Lonely Lonely Blue” offers the first taste of the forthcoming Sayonara EP, and…
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.
Indie-poppish outfit The Insect Kids realize that one song just isn’t enough in this buys, music-stuffed world of ours. So here they are dropping two new tracks – in the form of one big night-cruising video – for your listening pleasure. It has been a wild since Make Believe Melodies checked in with The Insect…
Bits and pieces from this, CUZ ME PAIN project White Wear’s debut album, have been popping up over the last few months. Yet the final product, Black Strings, has been only available in stores in Japan since its release. Now, though, White Wear has uploaded the whole thing to SoundCloud so everyone can enjoy the…
THE CHALLENGE: Can Lullatone make the author of this blog feel good thoughts about winter, his least favorite season? THE PARTICIPANTS: Nagoya duo responsible for sweet, nostalgia-glazed music that sometimes leans towards the whimsical. On the other side, some blogger who hates winter. THE MUSIC: Lullatone have been celebrating the seasons over the past six…
I’m still getting over my SXSW-induced hangover (both mentally and physically), so I’m happy Osaka’s Magical Mistakes released a new song that’s perfect for someone who involuntarily woke up at 4:30 this morning because of jet lag. Like a lot of Erik Luebs’ previous songs, “Fashionable Thumb Pianos” leans closer to the meditative rather than…
Ahhhhhh, hip-hop beats that would actually be expert-level setting to rap over. Tokyo producers Lidly and Canooooopy aren’t strangers to the type of heady music that would leave even Lil’ B scratching his head about what to do with it. The two have teamed up for a new EP of heady stuff titled Geomysteric Psyborg,…
Well, thanks, more is better! Young Juvenile Youth popped up in the second half of 2013, and with second EP More For Me, More For You, I’m ready to call them one of the most interesting new acts going into 2014 in Japan. The collaboration, between singer Yuki and producer Jemapur, creates relatively sparse tracks…
