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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。
Homemade Escape: i-fls
最近ツイッターで村上春樹についての会話をよく目にします。激しい議論の中、支持する人は彼の表現する「美しい日常」を絶賛しているようですね。確かに村上春樹特有の、ありふれた日常をいかに美しいものにするか、という表現は素晴らしいと思います。私もそのような感性は好きですし、日本のアーティストのi-flsも普通だったら忘れ去られるようなテーマを音楽を通して表現しています。物やサービスがテーマだったり(“Twitter,” “Vocaloid,” “Family Restaurant”)自然がテーマだったり(“Summer Breeze,” “I Saw Raindrops”) 女性の名前が含まれていたり(“Satomi,” “Chiaki Gazed You,” “Yui”)。Garagebandで作られたボーカルレスな楽曲達は、驚く程少ない数の楽器から構成されていて、短くもノスタルジック。まるで気持ちをスケッチしたかのような。i-flsはここ数ヶ月だけでも数多くのリリースをしているのですが、Enhanced GardenというEPに収録されている、飛び跳ねるような”No Adventure”、幻想的な”Stardust”、そしてまるで好きな女性が自分を見つめているような気持ちにさせてくれる”Chiaki Gazed You”がオススメです。”Chiaki Gazed You”は嬉しくも不安なあの気持ちを上手く表現できているのではないでしょうか。i-flsの楽曲はまるで日記のようにシンプルで、日常を美しいものとして表現しています。
JAM The MOD: “Since Tomorrow”
Indie-pop label Ano(t)raks plans on releasing a new compilation album in February, and have already revealed a list of artists who will be contributing to the sequel to the excellent Soon comp. The forthcoming release features a lot of familiar names – Post Modern Team, Boyish, The Paellas and many more…but also features a few…
New Mitsume: “Sasayaki”
Tokyo indie-rock quartet Mitsume’s third album Sasayaki comes out today, and all signs point to it being a bit of a breakthrough. It’s getting a decent push in stores…I saw the display at the Tower Records in Shinjuku this afternoon, and it is right in the front, and big! And it’s probably going to be…
Valentine’s Day Specials: Neon Cloud, HNC, The Eglle, A Bunch Of People Covering Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”
Lots and lots to love today…so lets dive into all of it. Way better than chocolate, yeah? The biggest news of the day comes courtesy of Flau, who’ve released the follow up to mysterious outfit Neon Cloud’s stunning debut Knit. Scar finds the group…and it is becoming more and more clear Cuushe is involved somehow…
Music Alliance Pact May 2013
The May edition of MAP is here, and Make Believe Melodies decided to highlight one of the more intriguing artists operating out of Tokyo to surface in 2013. Yep, Shibuya’s Metoronori, who has released two great albums of heady, bedroom-assembled pop music. Also, welcome Drowned In Sound to the MAP team! Click the play button…
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 Toyomu: “The Palace”
In a little over a week’s time, Toyomu (mandatory “it is actually all caps, TOYOMU, if you want to know”) shares his debut EP, Zekkei, featuring all original material. This is kind of misleading — more like his first without using any samples, or at least samples he made himself — but the end result…
New Ghostlight: “Wendy”
Our first brush with Ghostlight came via an album of remixes…so it’s nice to spend some time with an original work courtesy of the Tokyo project. “Wendy” is a “rain song” that actually came out in a slightly more skeletal version late last year on European label Seashell Records Pluviose comp, but in 2014 now…
New tofubeats: “River”
tofubeats’ has a knack for building songs up, though it isn’t always the musical mode pushed to the forefront. Most of his major-label singles opt for pure pop pleasure with little wait. Yet he’s also skilled at the slow burn, hinted at by numbers such as “What You Got” and “Don’t Stop The Music.” But…
New Secret Space Featuring Chao Fujimoto: “Last New World”
Sitting in my “drafts” column for…what…the past month now has been a post about Chao Fujimoto, probably the most interesting Japanese artist I’ve stumbled across this fall. She’s a 19-year-old woman who makes something between poemcore (the semi-genre where people speak over music) and deep-dream pop, as she uses synthesizers and samples to create her…
New 99 Letters: “Reminder” And “9n9i9n9e”
99 Letters seems like a really busy guy – dude releases new tracks at a pretty fast pace, and MySpace indicates he plays a lot of shows including some upcoming ones in England this summer. So for him to have time to pump out “Reminder” and “9n9i9n9e” AND make them slight departures from his usual…
Jaunty Dishes: Melody Kitchen
Spend time hanging out in message boards devoted to Western foreigners living in Japan…something I don’t really recommend by the way…and you’re bound to stumble across a few souls who declare how all music in Japan sucks. I mean…sure, we are all entitled to our opinions etc. etc…but that sort of attitude seem really ignorant,…
