A minute and 30 seconds might not seem like a lot of time to leave an impression, but Magical Ponika makes that run count on “Nemuru.” It falls somewhere between her more joyful cuts and something like “We Are Anyway Die.” It uses a bell-centric beat to create something apt for the nursery, but with…
After listening to the few snippets of songs posted on their MySpace, I wasn’t asking “if” Tokyo Pinsalock’s new album Kurukuru To Guruguru would be one of the best Japanese albums of the year but rather just how high it would end up on my personal list. Even with just a tiny preview of what…
A new yearly tradition for me has become looking into the Comiket event (Japan’s largest market for independent comics) and realizing how much music gets released. How much good music. I’ve been having this revelation for four years now, so I probably should just go to Comiket someday, just to see how rich it really…
Remember when the “city pop revival” was the premier wave of nostalgia running through Japanese music? For those who are a little exhausted by what came next — an intense rash of “oh man, the ’90s!” speared by SMAP, Hikaru Utada and the crushing march of time — we have a new three-song set from…
Turns out the 2-Step push in Japan goes a lot further than just Goth-Trad. Quarta 330, out of Tokyo, creates a similar kind of dance music, though his version works in more fractured 8-bit noises. He’s landed a coveted spot on the Hyperdub label, and if luck should have it he should get a little…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYfB2cXdJGg”] For a preview clocking in at under two-minutes, Schloder sure manage to wring a whole lot out of “Electro Words” in an extremely short amount of time. This jumps from Queen-aping stadium-rock (the vocals) to U2 life affirming guitar workouts to an overly giddy chorus you’d expect from any number of young Japanese-based indie…
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 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,…
Privacy-loving outfit Sotaisei Riron released a new album last week, Town Age, which I have a feeling will be landing on our top albums of 2013 list when that time comes. More on that later…but here is the new video for Town Age highlight “You & Idol.” Watch above.
On the surface level, Canata Records seems like a pretty rigid netlabel sonically. “We believe that freedom is pop,” goes one of the slogans on their Bandcamp page, and a cursory look at the artist names, album and song titles indicate the label deals mostly in twee. Yet what has made them one of the…
When talking about anything White Wear…or, honestly, anything that has emerged from the CUZ ME PAIN label over the past few years, from Jesse Ruins to The Beauty…does, I tend to include the word “unsettling.” That’s a trait he’s really good at conveying in his music, and has made the two EPs released under the…
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregsは９月１日、バンドのホームページにて解散を発表しました。リードシンガーの宮本菜津子によって発表され、彼女のこれからのソロ活動についても言及されています。本文にはMass Of The Fermenting Dregsの未発表曲、“たんたんたん”がプレゼントとして貼り付けてあり、こちらからダウンロード可能です。 “たんたんたん”は、ここ数年のバンドのなかでも良質な音楽を生み出してきたFermenting Dregsらしい結論になっているな、と感じます。あまり勢いのある曲ではないものの、ゆったりとしたメローなテンポは、バンドの今までの曲を思い出させてくれます。色々脳裏に浮かびますが、特に2010年の作品、ゼロコンマ、色とりどりの世界は、その名の通り色あせない名盤です。最後の曲で宮本は声を絞り出すように歌い、攻撃的なギターと絡み合うのですが、決してやりすぎのないように、今までの通り上手く調節されています。
This just slithers, all icy synths and vocals. Miu Mau are a new-wave trio, and on “Monochrome” they have created a prickly number that’s both catchy and a touch mysterious. It is a relatively sparse song – some leading guitar and synth bouncing, which gives way to just drum and woozy synth notes. This backdrop…
