インディー・ポップ・アーティストMemory Girlsによる”Our Freedom, Our Darkness”については、公開された２０１０年の６月に紹介させて頂きましたね。２年ほど経った今、なんとその曲がダブリンのThe Choir Invisibleとのスプリットとして、Dufflecoat Recordsからのリリースが決まったようです。なんで見つけるのにそんなに時間がかかったのかは分かりませんし、いつリリースされるのかも確かでないのですが、嬉しいニュースですよね。Dufflecoatのバージョンは確かに丁寧にプロデュースされているのですが、当時聴いた時と同じ気分にさせてくれます。「晴れた日にツリーハウスで聴くのに最適な、童心に戻らせてくれるインディー・ポップ」と紹介させて頂きましたね。
Sorta surprising that Tokyo producer mus.hiba ended up being one of the dudes from this metropolis to score a surprising amount of international collabs. It isn’t that his music is all that weird, just that it makes use of a technology you more or less never see pop up in Western songs – Vocaloid, specifically…
Whimsy might not actually be the right word for what Nohtenkigengo does. Sure, the bulk of the music this solo project creates involves the sort of instruments that make one’s twee radar go off like mad, including xylophone, accordion and all sorts of other cutesy sounds. This sonic choice…along with the voice singing all the…
Tofubeats doesn’t really bother introducing himself on Lost Decade, his first original album out on a major label. He’s been kicking around the Japanese music scene since 2006, grabbing attention for his indie-level beats and his work with mainstream J-Pop idol groups like Lyrical School (formerly sex-toy-sponsored Tengal6) and 9nine. Even though this will be…
I’m usually not drawn to the acoustic guitar. Too often, it’s the tool of choice for snobs and hucksters, the preferred instrument of people doing acoustic covers of rap songs (ya know, because it’s not real music in its original form) and dorm-room Lotharios. I’ve heard countless covers of “Wonderwall,” and every time I want…
First, too easy joke – Nagoya dream-crafters Lullatone released an album devoted to the arrival of Fall on a day that saw some of the highest recorded temperatures ever recorded in Japan. Isn’t it ironic, etc etc. Lullatone in 2013 is not that radically different from the Lullatone of a decade ago, at least when…
Getting older has resulted in a lot of changes in my behavior the 21-year-old me would recoil in terror at – I sometimes like wearing suits, for example, and love sushi (21-year-old me could barely eat pizza with vegetables on it, yet alone sushi). But he would be most distressed by how much I’ve come…
Indie-pop outfit Memory Girls originally posted “Our Freedom, Our Darkness” back in June 2010 – we wrote about it then (remember that design?). More than two years later, that lovely little song will be released on English imprint Dufflecoat Records, as a split with Dublin band The Choir Invisible. Not sure when the actual record comes out…or why it took so long for someone to notice the song…but exciting news nonetheless. The Dufflecoat version (listen below) sounds better produced than the song I remember from 2010, but still retains the elements that prompted me to write that the song was the “stuff of childhood naivety, skippy indie-pop perfect for soundtracking the construction of a treehouse on a clear day” a long time ago. Treehouses, really? Geez I hope I’m doing better at this now.
There’s something thrilling about an artist just being entranced by specific sounds, and then seeing what they construct with them. For the past three-so years, I’ve mostly been drawn to the experimental side of this fancy — Foodman, Wasabi Tapes, Taquwami, etc. Yet this feeling manifests itself frequently in the more traditional dance community too,…
One of the bigger embarrassments this blog has recorded so far in 2016 was completely missing out on Osaka producer Metome’s Feather. Released via LA cassette label Postgeography, it’s a study in texture, featuring the same sudden swerves defining releases such as 2013’s triumphant Objet, but with Metome deeply interested in how every detail sounds…
Osaka-based producer Erik Luebs moves into darker territory with “Red C,” the first song from forthcoming release Wasteland. It’s a constricting number, new layers emerging gradually as “Red C’ moves from minimal to something completely enclosing, every available space seemingly taken up as the song enters its final phase. The percussion is the best detail,…
Fukuoka’s premier melancholy rap-pop artist Izumi Makura has great choice in producers. In the past…and on her just released third album…she’s worked with artists such as Fragment, Olive Oil, Sugar’s Campaign and more. Her choosing to work with jittery juke producer Foodman…now that’s an inspired choice, and the scatterbrained track he comes up with for…
That collective attention spans have been drastically reduced thanks to social media is probably a net negative for society as a whole, but one small perk of this shift in how information comes and goes seems to be that musicians have to act a lot faster than before in putting music out. Pasocom Music Club…
Days after announcing a new album slated for release March 10, Osaka trio Wednesday have posted the first song from that album onto MySpace. “? Love” finds the band showing off their brand of throwback rock, with a sea of “doo doos” and a rhythm ripped straight out of an old-school prom fast dance. It’s…