North American label Rain Dragon Records put out a new sampler, full of lots of retro-tinged electronic numbers. That includes Japan’s Boogie Idol, the reason we are writing about it and…well, honestly, a song I’d just like to sink in to this week (rough times! work wise!). It sounds so shimmery and happy, a sonic time machine to (a perceived) better place. Get it here, or listen below.
Continuing on the theme of “Tokyo…weird place to live,” Osaka’s Cloudy Busey sounds afraid to live in Tokyo on “I’m Afraid To Live In Tokyo.” The song nails an anxiousness about moving to…well, it could apply to any massive city, between the cost of everything and fear of natural disasters. The milestone here? This is…
Despite the heavy leaning on goth imagery, PLASTICZOOMS music has always been distinctively dreamy. Regardless of how much noise they piled onto their music or how much eyeliner they dabbed on…which, hey, I see ya below video…they always, at their core, have sounded like The Cure and not the sonic equivalent of Robert Smith’s hair….
I knew pop-bending genius Shugo Tokumaru would release a new album in 2010. It says so on his MySpace page, right near the top. But WHEN in 2010, and little details like the name of the album and the tracklising remained shrouded in mystery. Well, surprise surprise, I buy the newest issue of Snoozer magazine…
Despite all the tags swirling around them — psych-rock, Burger Records, Saitama — Boys Age really excel at writing laid-back rock numbers designed for staring at clouds and maybe loafing about your living room. This is the mode where they can always fall back on and come up with something solid, always made a bit…
Let’s not let little details like “the event this EP exists to promote happened several days ago” stop us from listening to a new set of minimalist juke tunes from Foodman. The 813 EP features some of his most bare-bones material in a few months, the producer making the most out of as little as…
“Winter Valentine”を説明するにはいくつかのアプローチ方法があります。ボーカロイド好きのアーティストmus.hibaとBrightonを拠点とするゲーム音楽プロデューサーCalum Bowenのコラボレーション作品なのですが、国内外でのコラボでは最先端と言えるのでは（例えばi-flsとmus.hibaとZoom LensだったりCokiyuとBathsだったり)。この曲ではmus.hibaによる雪歌ユフの声と、(おそらく)人間の歌声がデュエットしています。こういう事もボーカロイドの持つポテンシャルと言えるでしょう。が、そんなうんちくを抜きにしても”Winter Valentine”は素晴らしい。9-Bit Blizzardというコンピに収録されているのですが、mus.hibaの “Magical Fizzy Drink”と同様に、ゲームぽさを匂わせつつも、それはほんのディテールであって全てではない。始まりは愛らしい子供時代のような雰囲気で２人のボーカルが交互に歌います。まるで星のカービィのような世界観なのですが、ここからは素晴らしい展開が。mus.hibaとBowenの両者が多くのアイディアを出したというのが聴いていてわかる程アイディアに満ちていて、１つのネタに留まらず、様々な方向に移行していくメロディが圧巻です。コラボレーションとはこういう事でしょう？試聴は以下から。