I don’t know much about the dude named Donnis…the video for his song “Gone” opens with the Fool’s Gold logo, a nice little label which currently boasts The Suzan. Wikipedia tells me he used to be in the Air Force and was stationed in Tokyo, which you think would be a nice little hook for…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki658-gBB1k&hl=en_US&fs=1&] I’m not going to touch the humor aspect of this video. I believe comedy should be held up to the same scrutiny other arts are subjected to…we’ve got to weed out the Dane Cook’s of the world before they grab leading roles. Still, the moment you criticize a “gag,” seas of people emerge to…
In the same way Joaquin Phoenix stuck to his gimmick of being a crazy person for the entire filming of I’m Still Here, Kinoco Hotel cling to their femme-fatale “hotel staff” routine in the video for “Hijō Naru Yoake.” The group still wears their signature bell-hop outfits (in gold this time around) while performing said…
Tokyo’s Moscow Club has a new EP ready to be downloaded (for free) right over here and you should cop this now. The Daisy Miller EP collects the rollicking “Daisy Miller Pt. 2” and the super-chilled “Echo Beach,” both of which have already received heaps of praise around these parts. Now, you can get both…
For an artist thriving in the space between mainstream pop and dank experimentalism, Tentenko sure stays strong at making her pivots feel like surprises. All You Need Is Cat is a five-song collection about…cats, which is a cute enough exercise. But it’s also one of Tentenko’s more eclectic offerings to date, going from gentle piano-guided…
Shiga-based electronic producer Mecanika has a new EP due out for the end of the year, but the 18-year-old artist decided to share a track from it way earlier than most net-centric promotion tends to do nowadays (good for you!). “Couleur” does something in its own way that has made a lot of new electronic…
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.
Well, turns out this is a real indie-popping weekend after all: Osaka’s Post Modern Team, behind some of the absolute finest songs in Japan’s current indie-pop boom, have just released their self-titled debut album. Post Modern Team mostly collects all of the group’s previously released numbers – which means this comes loaded with “Never Let…
Late last year, the electronic-music-from-all-across-Japan compilation Fogpak #4 came out, and it was a fantastic collection of digital music from all over this fine country. At 21 tracks, though, it could feel a little daunting, regardless of how much great music the folks behind crammed into it. Welp, Fogpak #5 dropped over the weekend and…
Oh Ventla, busy busy Ventla. He just released his latest album, Somethingness, and it’s a good reminder of what makes Ventla so intriguing. Well, beyond his story – this bedroom-based music maker wants to release 100 digital albums (he’s currently on 24). Yet what makes him such a compelling artist to follow is how he…
Teen Runningsが何とカリフォルニアのインディーポップバンドのSea Lionsとスプリット作品”Home Recordings”をリリースするみたいです。彼等を”purveyors of indie and bedroom pop”（インディーとベッド・ルームポップの供給者）と紹介するNeotomic Records!がこの”Home Recordings”を限定版のカセットとしてリリースするとの事。Teen RunningsはMaroon 5の”Won’t Go Home Without You”のカバーや、ネットに出回ってたりする過去２年のデモ・トラック等を収録する模様。今は”We’ll Never Stay Together” が聴けるようになっていて、これはTeen Runningsの長所だけを強調した名曲です。さびれたボーカルをフィーチャーした爽やかなサーフ・ロックで、全てはフィードバックで崩されています。試聴はこちらから。
The first Music Alliance Pact of 2014 has arrived! To kick off the new year, over 30 blogs from around the world have selected a track to share with the rest of the globe. For Japan, Make Believe Melodies is highlighting the fidgety “Bishop’s Rising Sun” courtesy of Osaka’s Metome. Listen to it…and a lot…
1. Man, Especia better be breakout J-Pop stars in 2014 or I will be hyper sad. 2. LUVRAW is one half of LUVRAW & BTB, a goofy rap duo that coat their rhymes in copious amounts of talk box. They have, for me at least, always been too cheesy, the vocal manipulation coming off as…
