Slowは元々MOSCOW CLUBのC８６コンピレーションに収録されていた楽曲でしたが＜＞今回の再編集を経て（なのでタイトルに新しいを表すNUEとついています）オリジナルよりもクリアーになっています。氷山を彷彿とさせる様な壮大な冷たい空気感のギターとドラムスは彼の歌う歌詞”but you slow down/slow down/slow down,” と重なってゆっくりと流れていきます。オリジナルバージョンも良曲でしたがこのバージョンによってさらに洗練されたと言えると思います。
Call And Response Recordsの新しいコンピレーションアルバム、”Dancing After 1 AM”は、我々の友達、イアン・マーティンのレーベルのものなので…探す手間が省けました。１８曲も収録されているこのアルバムには、日本屈指のロック・アーティスト達も参加しています。She Talks Silenceが陰のような美しいギターを奏でる一方で、The Morningsの”Fuji”は去年にリリースされた”Save The Mornings”に引き続き、彼ららしい作品。POP-OFFICE、New HouseやTacobondsなども参加していて、さすがだな、と言わざるを得ません。今まで紹介してこなかったExtrudersによる“Collapsing New Buildings”はミニマルで、呟くようなボーカルとギターの鋭いストロークが良い味を出しています。Puffyshoesも１分程参加しています。 “Dancing After 1 AM”が持つフックといえば、ニューウェーブ・デュオのMIRがこのアルバムでカムバックし、新曲を１曲提供しているという所。これからの活動も期待しているのですが、“Dance”は、このグループの過去のハイライトを５分でまとめたような曲になっています。シンセとビートが良いグルーブ感を出しているのですが、それだけで終わらないのがこのグループの強み。決してアップビートではない、ナイーブなボーカルが、この曲を独特にしています。このような悲しげな、かつアップテンポなダンスミュージックは中々探しても出てこないですし、巧みにひねりを加えた独特な楽曲が多いので、Dancing After 1 AM、オススメです。 List of where to buy the album here.
Diane Halls is a new project out of Aichi that has released one really nice song, the dreamy “Stolen Kisses.” I wrote about it for New-York-based blog International Tapes, and you can read it over here. Highly recommend you get the song here.
Magical MistakesのEverything Uncertainが今週発売されました。Day Tripper Recordsからリリースされたフル・アルバムとしては最新作です。もし家から出たくないのであれば…Day Tripperのサイトからも購入可能です。新曲”Later On”のビデオも上から見れます。Magical MistakesはDay Tripperのアーティストの中でも突出した個性があり、本作ではそこがさらに強調されています。”Later On”は、パキパキした質感のアコースティック・ギターやトライバルな楽器が、エレクトロ要素と共鳴し、オリエンタルな雰囲気の強い楽曲になっています。これから関西のシーンをリードしていく存在になり得る独自性が見られます。でもビデオは…昆虫が苦手な人は【閲覧注意】です。
“This album is the 2nd of a series of compilation albums introducing young Japanese artists, this time with a focus on noise pop. However, this focus does not mean confinement to a single style.” Canata Records isn’t kidding. The What About Tokyo? comp finds five bands with five very different styles…some more noisy than others…and…
At last, the latest installment in what has been the most intriguing body of work in Japanese music this year. It’s tough pinpointing what exactly bedroom producer i-fls does that has made the various free albums and EPs he’s released this year resonate so much. Part of it is how he’s able to use the…
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…
“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.
The past year saw plenty of worthwhile releases from Japanese artists, from the sort of stuff highlighted at major music stores in Japan to free albums posted on Bandcamp with little fanfare. Yet all 30 albums on this list were special to us here at Make Believe Melodies in some way or another – whether…
During this blog’s slight vacation from…existence…Seiho shared a new song that found him working with rapper 5lack. It’s solid, and a nice reminder that Seiho really does play well with others, but it also felt a bit more straightforward, especially in the wake of his “Star Guitar” but for Millenial Burnout masterstroke from earlier this…
By releasing two stellar albums of easy-breezy but emotionally twisty electronic music in 2018, AOTQ reminds that you can come up with some really interesting ideas if you just keep exploring an approach that has worked before. The parts making up Alone aren’t all that different from what appeared earlier this year on E-muzak. It’s…
Indie-pop label Sailyard has become one of the stronger destinations in Japan for all things melancholy and summery in the last few years. Just in time for their marquee season, they have two big releases on the horizon. The first comes from their central act Pictured Resort, a Kansai band that deserves to be slotted…
At its core, Tomisaki’s City 166 is a great house album, delivering three high-energy tracks full of warm piano lines and vocal samples. It’s a good time, fun release! But the reason to put it under the spotlight a bit more is because of the moments when the songs on City 166 get blurry. See…
The only chillwavers in Japan will release a new album soon, maybe this Friday (the 16th). That’s when they hold a release party for His Jewelled Letter Box in Kyoto so…gotta come out around then. For now, listen to the sample video below. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRhOY6uv3Hw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=ja_JP&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] Doesn’t “G.I.R.L.” sound like a lost Ariel Pink track? And why…