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Eight Is Not Enough!: New Fogpak Featuring Foodman, Liquid Sunshine, PNDR PSLY And A Lot More
Look, it is far from perfect – no compilation with 41 tracks from 41 different producers can go perfect – but the eighth edition in the Fogpak series comes off as particularly strong, esepcially compared to the more hit-or-miss recent entries. This series, which gathers new music from electronic producers all over Japan (and, sometimes,…
New Towa Tei Featuring Shiina Ringo: “Apple”
The career arc of Shiina Ringo isn’t like your typical artist’s. Ringo started her career as a solo musician, crafting some of the early 2000’s most forward thinking and best albums (of anywhere in the world). Yet she then decided she wanted to be part of a band and formed Tokyo Jihen who, despite having…
Splice It Splice It Splice It: In The Blue Shirt
Talking City 1994 is a very talented Osaka-based band, but the individual members are insanely talented too. Soleil Soleil has been creating fidgety dance music of all sorts over the last few years and has probably been the most visible individual player in the group. Yet right up there is the band’s guitarist Ryo Arimura,…
Sapphire Slows Teams Up With Magic Touch For “Just Wanna Feel”
The video teaser for “Just Wanna Feel” – click the image above to watch it – spends most of its time focusing on Tokyo’s Sapphire Slows. She stares at the camera and is usually in the center of the frame, a departure from her more shadowy image from 2011 where she played with a mysterious…
Sailing The Seapunk: Umio’s “ゆのっちと$∑ÅφÜ燔 (“Yunoochi To Seapunk”)
Seapunkは本当に良い音楽を追求したジャンルなのか、一部のアーティストの集まりが楽しむ為のジャンルなのか。ツイッターのハッシュタグにおいてもそんなに目立っていなかったSeapunkですが、ジャンルの持つ個性的なサウンドに魅了されたアーティストも勿論います。ここ日本で活動しているUmioもそんなイルカ好きの一人で、新曲のタイトルも”Yunoochi to Seapunk”といいます。水の音など使われているものの、そこまでSeapunkというわけでは無いような気はするのですが、興味深い曲なのは確かです。アニメと思われるサンプルから始まり、若干こもりがちでゲームチックなシンセが入ってきます。曲が進行するにつれてドラムンベースから調のパーカッションや、ニューエイジ風の展開も。アヒルのオモチャを握りつぶして音を出したようなこの曲は、何と呼べば相応しいのかも難しいところですが、新しい発見のある貴重な5分間となる事でしょう。試聴は以下から。
Drink Drank Drunk: Cola Drunk’s Give Me A Coke!
I don’t have particularly high expectations when looking through Bandcamp. There is just so much, and so much not-all-that-good music. Seeing an album called Give Me A Coke! from an artist named Cola Drunk felt like a waste-of-time in the making…is this gonna be a beat tape, or some kid from Omaha’s vaporwave project? Surprise,…
New Elen Never Sleeps: “Slow (Neu)”
“Slow” originally appeared on Moscow Club’s C86 compilation back in the spring, but has now been touched up a bit (hence the “Neu” in the title) and sounds a lot crisper than Elen Never Sleeps’ original version. Well, it sounds as crisp as something so hazy can sound – the song title is almost an understatement, because “Slow” practically crawls, the guitars and drums sounding glacial. It’s all intentional, though, a decision meant to match up with Elen Never Sleeps repeated cries of “but you slow down/slow down/slow down,” delivered in a dejected-but-pretty voice that this project has gotten so good at utilizing. The original version was good, but this slightly fleshed-out version shows what can happen when an artist spends time perfecting their creations. Listen below.
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New Haruno: “Broadcast” And “Terminal Center”
Haruno steps towards the spotlight on these pair of recent releases. The artist has previously used Vocaloid singing as a base while in recent months has switched up to more beat-oriented instrumental chill outs. But now Haruno is making their vocals (presumably) go to the center on numbers that opt for mid-tempo pop. “Broadcast” came…
New PellyColo: Cover Man
Remember when the “city pop revival” was the premier wave of nostalgia running through Japanese music? For those who are a little exhausted by what came next — an intense rash of “oh man, the ’90s!” speared by SMAP, Hikaru Utada and the crushing march of time — we have a new three-song set from…
A Day In The Life: Dove’s “Femm”
The debut song from Dove finds a space between daily life happenings and dreamier escapes. It is the first release from Pure Voyage Records, and the number is written and composed by Le Makeup, a fact that comes through clearly in most elements of “Femm.” The music sounds suitable for Hyper Earthy or other releases…
Music Alliance Pact August 2011
Make Believe Melodies is happy to announce that we will be representing Japan as part of the Music Alliance Pact (MAP) starting…now! MAP is a collection of blogs from countries all over the world sharing artists from their respective nations once a month. Here’s an article about it. We’re excited to be part of this,…
Progressive Form Set To Release New Compilation, Listen To A Preview Now
Here’s a daring moving — in the heart of year-end season, electronic imprint Progressive Form is set to release a new compilation album called Moments next week. It’s a woozy, dreamy collection of pop featuring a lot of names who have grabbed attention in recent years, ranging from the shadow-plunged pop of LLLL to skittery…
New Jun Kamoda: Steel City Dance Discs Volume.5
A set I still think about frequently — despite almost turning one year old in a few weeks — is Jun Kamoda’s performance at Maltine Record’s showcase at WWW X back in 2017. The mix itself has now vanished from the internet, but the flash-bang blend of funk and dissected rock rumbles around in my…
