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Japanese Christmas Round-Up 2012: Miila, Her Ghost Friend,
Miila “Santa Baby” Well, this is definitely putting your own personal stamp on a Christmas classic. Miila, stepping away from the Geeks for this bit of yuletide joy, covers “Santa Baby” by playing a version built around molasses-slow guitar and some simple-but-ominous drum. Miila herself sings it pretty straightforward, but her voice sounds slightly muffled…
Blooming: Ykiki Beat’s “Garden”
Ykiki Beat includes members of Timothy Work and DYGL, two Tokyo projects who have produced some solid works in the past year. Yet I gotta know, how did Ykiki Beat end up with the best track any of the lot have presented so far? “Garden” is the sort of song that gets a band a…
New House Of Tapes: Trip Science
That Nagoya’s House Of Tapes’ debut album Trip Science is an enjoyable experience at all is a small miracle. That sounds harsh, the darkest shade one could throw, but I don’t mean that in a dismissive or ironically surprised way. House Of Tapes’ music has always sounded like a sonic endurance test, the dance-music equivalent…
New Tofubeats: “Time Thieves”
Kobe-based producer Tofubeats says he’s working on a new album, which is very good news for us. While he’s finishing the final touches on that full-length, he’s given the world a preview from it in the form of “Time Thieves,” a fast-paced track from one of the best music makers going in Japan right now….
BOYISH Releases New Split EP With For Tracy Hyde, Check The Flower Pool EP Out Now
東京のインディ・ポップ・アーティストBOYISHは、とても忙しく充実した2012年を送っていますね。数々のシングルにスプリット・アルバムやカセット・アルバム、それに加えて多くのライブをこなしています。今週もCanata Recordsから新作EP、Flower Pool EPをFor Tracy Hydeとタッグしてリリースしていて、こちらから購入可能です。収録されている”Shadow Of You”はBOYISHの新曲で、レーベルのホームページでは、”ニュー・ウェーブの流れを汲んだ陰影のある”曲と表現されています。陰影というのは少しオーバーかもしれませんが、確かにSarah Recordsリスペクトだった今までの作品に比べてマイナー調で、囁くようなシンセの使い方はHotel Mexicoとも似ています。今までと変わらないのは呟くようなボーカルなのですが、その独特な距離感も、今回のような雰囲気にはとてもマッチしています。 比べてFor Tracy Hydeはもっと単刀直入です。”Her Sarah Records Collection”という曲なのですが、その名からとても想像しやすい曲になっています。日本語歌詞なのですが、今年はBOYISHを含め英語歌詞のバンドがインディ・ポップには多かったので、珍しいですよね。こんな感じに別の言語での挑戦はとても新鮮で、いつ聴いてもわくわくさせてくれます。視聴は以下から。 Flower Pool EP by Boyish and For Tracy Hyde
If They Are To Bloom: A Canata Records Compilation Featuring Atlanta Girl, Little Ripple, Lake Michigan And More
On the surface level, Canata Records seems like a pretty rigid netlabel sonically. “We believe that freedom is pop,” goes one of the slogans on their Bandcamp page, and a cursory look at the artist names, album and song titles indicate the label deals mostly in twee. Yet what has made them one of the…
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 Madegg: “Float Ring”
When you read this, I will probably be in an airplane heading back to Japan. Thus, posts are still gonna’ be a little sporadic. Anyway, here is a new one from Madegg called “Float Ring.” Listen below! [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/40078813″ iframe=”true” /]
New Broken Haze: “RX-7”
I’m not one for air punching, but when “RX-7” opens up and the beat just starts pulverizing away…well, my arms just get going, and I just hope I’m far enough from my computer screen. This is what Broken Haze does so well in his music, and “RX-7” (from a forthcoming release, premiered today at Insert)…
New Tomoyu: “All Hope Is Gone”
Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s Osaka producer Tomoyu with “All Hope Is Gone,” a rattling number sure to give you plenty of good vibes on Turkey Day. “Unsettling” is a word I love to roll out, and “All Hope Is Gone” delivers that feeling plenty, fueled by icy drum machine patterns and (especially) the way the voices…
New Eccy: “Sixty Acid Nine”
Remember the scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory where the crazy candy creator teleports matter across a creepy white room by breaking it down into tiny bite-size molecules via something called “Wonkavision”? And then that boy who isn’t Charlie gets broken down by this technology and floats across the room? I picture the…
New Dustin Wong And Takako Minekawa: “Elastic Astral Peel”
Usually, Japan gets new movies or TV shows way later than the rest of the world. But sometimes it works the other way too — I figured Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa’s latest album Are Euphoria was out everywhere, since you can find it at music stores here in Tokyo. But nope! It comes out…
New Karen Felixx: Colorless Girl
Loud and crushing can be just as good as anything else. Producer Karen Felixx’s Colorless Girl runs with this hypothesis, and comes out with a solid album of heavy — but still making way for moments of melodic escape — tracks. Numbers such as “Dark Love” and “So Sorry” pile up on distorted elements —…
