Similar Posts
New Perfume: “Mirai No Museum”
It’s tempting to excuse the relatively lukewarm “Mirai No Museum” because of its commercial obligations. This, maximalist-pop-trio Perfume’s newest single, serves as the theme song for the upcoming Doraemon film which seems to involve some sort of “future museum” (which is what you get when you translate the title). After a string of songs in…
New Merpeoples: “Tinkle”
It has been awhile since we’ve heard anything new from Tokyo’s Merpeoples…last time was last June with the song “Silent Sleep,” a good tune albeit one that faded quickly. Looks the group are ready to give it another whirl, and they’ve got this blog’s full attention with the hopping “Tinkle.” Merpeople have always been good…
New Sakanaction: “Yoru No Odoriko”
昨年、当サイトのベストアルバムランキングで2位に選ばせて頂いたサカナクションが、夜の踊り子という新曲をリリースしました。ビデオも公開されていて、それはこの上からご覧になって下さい。ダンサブルなバースに極めてキャッチーなコーラス、という今までと同じスタイルを貫いているのですが、新たな試みとして、女性バックアップ・ボーカルが使われていて、新鮮さも感じられます。ビデオはローディングに時間がかかるのですが…簡単に説明すると、メンバーが日本の伝統衣装を着て富士山付近にいます。
New And Vice Versa: “Its Me”
大阪を拠点とするAnd Vice Versaのアルバム、”E. Tender”は4月に発表されていましたが、まだそれについて書けていませんでした。しかし聴き続ける事で、今では私の2012年度のベストアルバムの一つになりました。 And Vice Versaは単音を好むアーティストだと感じます。そして”E. Tender”で使われているノイズはまるで触る事のできるような質感を持っています。 And Vice Versaの新曲、”Its Me”は、E. Tenderには含まれていないものの、そのスタイルはとても似ています。アルバムでも使われていた素晴らしい音が多く使われていて、その特徴的なシンセや、エフェクトが加えられたボーカルは何重にも重ねられ、幻想的なレイヤーを生み出しています。更に、And Vice Versaは曲中に、見つけたら嬉しくなる、細かい工夫を多く盛り込んでいます。”Its Me”とアルバムの曲の違いと言えば長さでしょう。アルバムの曲は3分程なのに比べ、この曲は6分半近くあります。でも、この曲は一瞬たりとも興味を離さないよう、上手く工夫されています。
New CRUNCH: Futoshita Nichijyo No Koto
Note: We are, technically, still on vacation, but noteworthy happenings will earn small updates. Like this! The 2014 album race is already underway (Metome already sprinting out), and in January Nagoya’s CRUNCH will enter the race with Futoshita Nichijyo No Koto. Now, though, they’ve decided to share the whole album on BandCamp, and you can…
Magical Mistakes Remixes Metome’s “Paper Moon”
Kansai producers doing things. Metome has been having a busy January, having released the fantastic Objet album (this year’s early frontrunner for album of the year…note, it has been eight days into the year). Before that, though, he released a song called “Paper Moon” as part of an EP called Phreatic Surface released through Canadian…
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.
Similar Posts
Review: Canopies And Drapes’ And Putting Love Away
And Putting Love Away, the new EP from Tokyo’s Canopies And Drapes, takes its name from a line in Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Bustle In A House.” That work, a brief eight-line poem, deals with grieving following a death, ending with the lines “And putting Love away/We shall not want to use again/Until Eternity -.”…
New Ghostlight: “Week End”
A bit cruel for a song like this…one called “Week End” even…to pop up closer to Monday than Friday, but what are you going to do? Ghostlight craft a skippy electro-pop number here, one with male-female joint vocals that builds up to a woozy little finale. A few off-kilter percussive beats pop up here and…
√thumm (or, Root Thumm)
I’ve been thinking a lot about techpop/rock recently, mostly in regards to Perfume’s take on it and what that meant to the Japanese music scene in 2009. Now welcome another band to add to the discussion – √thumm (Root Thumm from here on out). Root Thumm play the same club-friendly electro Bang Bang Balloon produce….
Avex Horizon: Saue and Nakae’s “SO.RE.NA”
The sheer size of Avex — the Japanese music/entertainment label — guarantees a few interesting ideas tucked away. Even though the face of the label is anchored by heavyweights such as Ayumi Hamasaki (neve rmind her steadily sinking stock), various EXILE groups and a sack full of K-Pop acts, Avex has spent a lot of…
Drifting To Naivety: Acoustic Soft Parade
Japan values youth to a frightening level that would probably make America blush if a country could do such a thing. From a glut of TVs/movies focusing on “coming of age” to the schoolgirl fascination (does the panty vending machine exist? Does it matter? How does AKB48 fit into this?), its clear this country truly…
Golden Week Chill Beatz: Taquwami’s “ßlυe ;;” And “м(ο_ο)ηligh†”
Golden Week is a, uhhhh, week at the start of May when a bunch of Japanese national holidays happen all in a row. Many people flex their vacation days to get the whole deal off, while the rest of us make do with only having to go into work twice. Lots of folks travel around…
