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Spectors: meeshiieee
The blockbuster comes later, but let’s start from the beginning. What hooked our ears to meeshiieee was actually a song the self-described “slovenely” songwriter labelled as a discarded track. “Umi E” is an incredibly simple song – a strummed acoustic guitar, singing, a few backup vocals – yet the delivery of this song is absolutely…
New Cold Name (Nobuyuki Sakuma Of Jesse Ruins): “She’s Filled With Secrets”
The music Jesse Ruins – and, to some extent, every act associated with Tokyo’s CUZ ME PAIN label – has always been vaguely unsettling, but that trio’s songs also always added a glimpse of light to the shadowy sounds, whether it just be a dance beat or a particularly pretty vocal. Jesse Ruins’ head Nobuyuki…
New Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: “Yume no Hajima Ring Ring”
If every artist has to have a “sakura song” – a single (usually) that comes out around the time the cherry blossoms bloom and EVERYTHING CHANGES (school graduation, company reshuffling) – might as well not make it suck. Most J-pop artists stick to tepid ballads for this season, so thank goodness we have Kyary Pamyu…
Okadada Teams Up With Skirt For Special Song: “Kaisou”
I’m not sure whether Diorama Books are a bookstore or an independent book publisher (or…both!), but they have somehow made a collaboration between Kansai producer Okadada and the lead singer of the band Skirt a reality. It’s a nice bit of 80s-indebted pop, Okadada giving the song a warped electronic feel courtesy of his keyboards,…
Virtual Idols: Maltine And Tokyo Girls’ Style Team Up For Original Material, Featuring Avec Avec, Fazerock, Gigandect And More
Idol-pop and the Internet are made for one another. The former deals in fantasy and blurred lines, of selling people a very lifelike dream. The web, meanwhile, is the perfect place for an artist to drop into and create a new…well, anything. The two have been slowly merging over the last few years, and that…
Music Alliance Pact July 2013
New month, new MAP! Go on to see who we chose this month, and to hear a bunch of other great tunes from all over the globe. Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 29-track…
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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Pop-Office Cover Galaxie 500: “Strange”
This might be face-palm obvious, but the music media moves in cycles. Genre A might be popular this month, but give it some time and Genre B will be the one suddenly being upped by Diplo and written about by the New York Times. Funny thing is, the same applies to the contemporary music media…
Far East Sweet: OMEGABOY
Osaka’s OMEGABOY shows an affinity for Asian imagery all over his official Bandcamp page, ranging from pictures of Hindu deities including Ganesha to Chinese images. Save for the above picture which, in my infinite wisdom, chose to represent this post, OMEGABOY plays up this continental angle to the point he tags several of his songs…

Ready For The Spotlight: Lucky Kilimanjaro’s “SuperStar”
Six-piece Lucky Kilimanjaro seem like a group poised to breakthrough to a weird level of mainstream notability, where an outfit can get decent placement at Tower Records and have concerts promoted above a convenience store ticket machine, but still be virtually unknown. Spurred by Japan’s massive gulf between top-level acts and legit indie artists, a…
New Lulu: “Young Young Adult.”
In recent months, Lulu’s music has been a bit more on the introspective side, with moments of release only coming after a hearty bit of inward gazing. Yet she’s been picking up the pace in recent weeks, embracing more upbeat melodies and floor-centric sounds. Latest creation “Young Young Adult. features one of her stickiest productions…

New Teenagers In Love: “We Were Young”
Sorta bouncing off of the shore-side indie-pop featured yesterday, Teenagers In Love’s newest number “We Were Young” makes for a great follow-up number for those seeking out guitar-based songs apt for sad drives next to the ocean. This is a group called Teenagers In Love for god’s sakes, you should be able to get the…

New Yun*Chi: “Jelly”
For the most part, Yun*Chi’s singles and advance songs have been relatively upbeat affairs, produced by the likes of kz and Taku Takahashi and an assortment of netlabel types. They’ve been overall good showcases for her voice, and have done a good job of separating Yun*Chi from AsobiSystem’s ranks. “Jelly” adds some welcome pre-release intrigue…