One of the reasons Dotama has stood out from the pack of ascendant Japanese rappers that have been gaining buzz over the last few years is his selection in beats. His latest, “Y☆kai Watch,” features production from Imai of (very ahead of their times!) group_inou, and the slippery feel and simple-but-emotional approach that make that…
Here’s a new one from Molice, called “Fatima.” It’s some solid follow-the-bouncing-ball rock, improved drastically by the lead vocals, which remind me of (oddly enough) the matter-of-fact delivery of Vanilla Beans. Well, only during the verses…the chorus bursts open as Molice tend to do. The above video also finds the band falling in love with…
Okinawa producer and Toro-Y-Moi-devotee Stillsound has a new EP online, a four-song collection simply titled Her. It finds the young producer getting a little more lost in the chillwave-ish sound he been submerged in since he first emerged, with a few neat twists. Opener “Chlorine,” for example, jumps out as being an instrumental featuring rubbery…
The fine folks over at SparkPlugged posted this track the other day, and I’ve been slowly drawn to it since. I realize the video for “Universe Universe” features an astronaut (and, uh, named for the universe), so avengers in sci-fi clearly wanted this track to be “spaced out.” As obvious as that is, those B-movie…
Uami is one of those artists who post and share so much online that keeping track of what is what can be tough. “Yakedo,” though, is definitely a new one from the artist, and a great glimpse into the sonic realm they’ve started creating. Flashes of Metoronori-style world building pop up over the course of…
“Before This Loneliness” finds Osaka’s Cloudy Busey stretching out after the concise dance-pop of “Who Says They Love You,” from earlier this year. His latest goes on for just over six-and-a-half minutes, and resembles the house-leaning styles of “Up To You (If You Love Me),” albeit this new one sounds much more upbeat than the…
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.
Kobe-based producer Tofubeats says he’s working on a new album, which is very good news for us. While he’s finishing the final touches on that full-length, he’s given the world a preview from it in the form of “Time Thieves,” a fast-paced track from one of the best music makers going in Japan right now….
I’m not going to make any sort of “best of 2013…so far!” list because let’s just wait until December comes along and we can see what really stuck (plus, I took part in this). Kobe-born producer tofubeats’ Lost Decade, though, will probably appear somewhere on that list, because it’s a heck of an album, a…
You’d think after releasing ten albums/EPs in 2013, bedroom producer i-fls would take a break heading into 2014. Nope…he’s compiled two new albums to close out the year, both acting as sort of milestones for getting this far in his artistic life. Genealogy Of Regret/Falsify Tracks finds i-fls sharing reconfigured versions of songs he’s already…
Late last week, we wrote about how Osaka’s Talking City 1994 had a new song called “Shine” available on their SoundCloud page. Turns out “Shine” was a preview of a new EP the off-kilter released over the weekend, called Roll Dance She Take. It’s only three songs long, but the tracks here do show the…
Vocaloid-user mus.hiba has been teaming up with a lot of folks recently – first, Bo En and him came together for the cut “Winter Valentine” on the English music maker’s Pale Machine release. And now he’s bringing the syllabic sounds of Sekka Yufu to the late-night sounds of Irish producer Harmful Logic’s chilly “Whispery Voice.”…
