Misato Kinoshita seems to roam in the same territory a lot of people who could be pretty good straight-ahead singers in Japan sometime wander into – instead of settling for safe sonic terrain, they instead mingle with experimental electronics, letting their voice loose over exciting new scapes. Kinoshita dabbles mostly with minimalism, various electric burbles…
A few years ago, producer YYSHIDD released an excellent bit of squiggly electronic music called “Naomi’s Love Affair.” It channeled the glitzy vibe of ’80s City Pop while also not going overboard with it, sharing more in common with Greeen Linez than anyone else (and all of these artists beat a bunch of people to…
The recently released Lollipop Syndrome mini-album (EP? I don’t even know anymore) is the second album-ish collection put out in 2015 by Bonjour Suzuki, an artist blurring sonic styles and languages together into a hazy mix. “Lollipop Syndrome” the song works as strong an introduction to her sound as anything else in her burgeoning catalog,…
Tentenko presents a dilemma. She’s one of the most prolific artists of this decade, releasing CD-R after CD-R of songs skipping across all kinds of genres — she experimented with juke recently, what the hell! But also, hell yeah! — and genuinely going off in whatever direction she wants to. She has one perfect song…
Here’s one way to say goodbye to adolescent education — producer Toyu’s new four-song set features woozy electronic numbers anchored by chipmunked-up singing. They practically gloop down the wall on opener “I’ve Had Enough,” but Bye-Bye High School is at it’s most fun when Toyu embraces a rap flow for his warped singing. It is…
If one were to plot the sonic trajectory of Kai Takahashi on a big chart, he would be forever moving towards turning into pure Weather Channel soundtrack. He hasn’t reached that point yet, though, but he’s been getting smoother and smoother with each release…even his remixes of Parisian pop bands were smooth as heck. After…
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 have never seen the film Isabelle, and am not even sure if this is the film Nobuyuki Sakuma is referring to with his Isabelle X project. Here’s a trailer…seems like it could be! Sakuma has gone and created an “imaginary soundtrack” to the film, and even at 22 minutes it is a disorienting listen….
Indie-rock outfit Lake Michigan have a new album out at the very start of 2014…whoa, that’s right around the corner geez…and you can here a track from it now. “Kore Ga Adventure” is a skippy number that shines primarily thanks to the vocals, which rise above the indie-pop nature of the music and give “Kore…
One of the tougher parts of putting together a year-end feature – like our “favorite songs of 2012 lists” – is cutting it down. This means some really great stuff gets left outside…and last year, one of the toughest omissions to make was Tokyo murmur-pop dude Elen Never Sleeps, whose “My Aquamarine/Spinning Wheel” single featured…
２０１２年に入って既に二枚のEPをリリースしているフットワークのプロデューサー、Picnicwomenが、続いて今年度三枚目を発表しました。”Super Freak”では新しい挑戦が聴ける訳ではないのですが、スピード感やスリリングなボーカルサンプルは健在です。”Again”はよりメローな方向性を模索しているのですが…結局は打ち込みのドタバタ地獄に突入し、彼の持つユニークなスタイルを主張しています。”Milk Man_s Wife”はエイフェックス・ツインの”Milkman“のカバーで、”I would like some milk from the milk man’s wife’s tits.” というフレーズが繰り返されます。試聴は以下から、購入はこちらから。 Super Freak EP by PICNIC WOMEN
