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Kyoto’s Hotel Mexico Break Up
Kyoto band Hotel Mexico announced on their website tonight that they have officially split up. It means one of Japan’s finest indie bands of the last few years – and one of the first to receive attention from Western blogs and music websites – is calling it a day. Hotel Mexico began in late 2008,…
Holy Holy: Berserker Children Club’s Someday EP
Shoegaze has turned into one of those genres of music that I always treat harshly. Part of this might be how in love with dreamy, guitar-centric music I was when I was younger, how it filled me with ~feelings~ of vague hope and sadness. Whether I’ve just hardened or time or been able to not…
New Miii: “Sunset Dance”
It’s tough to keep tabs on Tokyo’s Miii. As of late, he’s been leaning toward the more hyped-up sound, with a great collection of long-playing EDM on Maltine and his contributions to the often blitzkrieging The Wedding Mistakes. Yet “Sunset Dance” is a reminder he can slow things down too. It is a waltz by…
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
New For Tracy Hyde: Juniper And Lamplight EP
For Tracy Hydeについて初めて知ったのは、BOYISHと共にスプリットEPを出した時。その軽快なギター・ポップは、もし今が80年代ならば、Sarah Recordsが大きく取り上げていた事でしょう。For Tracy Hydeの今までの作品は、他の日本インディーポップアーティストと似た音楽性を持ちつつも、日本語で歌う事で、WallflowerともBOYISHとも異なる響きを鳴らしていました。彼等のデビューEP、”Juniper And Lamplight“は、”A Clockwork Lemon”で聴けるような、陽気で明るい雰囲気に満ちています。”First Regrets”ではシューゲイザーからの影響も。 今回の作品では更に他と差をつけるべく、インディー・ポップらしかぬ曲も。”Shady Lane Sherbert”なんかでは大胆不敵にもギターが取り除かれていて、代わりにシンセが鳴り響いています。チルウェイブの影響を取り入れ、上手く再構築されています。ふわふわしたボーカルとゆったりとしたテンポから繰り出される独特な空気感は、”Juniper And Lamplight”以外からは聴けないでしょう。最後の曲、”₀oOℑ ∪╹ω╹∪ℜ (Delikate Dawgz)”では、うねる電子音の上にボーカル・サンプルが浮いているかのごとく配置されていて、更に衝撃的。奇妙なエンディングですが、For Tracy Hydeが次にどんな挑戦をするのか、とても興味をそそられます。ダウンロードはこちらから、視聴は以下から。 Juniper And Lamplight by For Tracy Hyde
Cop This Now: FOGPAK #6 Featuring OKLobby, Licaxxx, PNDR PSLY, Calum Bowen And 29 Other Artists
Do not approach FOGPAK #6 as an album. To sit down and listen through this 33-track collection in one go is far from an unpleasant experience – it’s great! – but did you see the part about 33 songs? Expect to devote at least two hours of your day to FOGPAK #6…which is a lot…
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 Erik Luebs: “Cycle 2.6 / June”
Erik Luebs (formerly Magical Mistakes) has kept up with his Cycle project, and the results have been solid — I’m a particular fan of Cycle 2.4 / April — but have also kind of just slipped by the ol’ blogging schedule. Let’s change that with this installment, focused on the song “Wavering.” Luebs finds a…
New CVN: “Trash Eye (Second Cry)”
Jesse Ruins called it a day earlier this year, but Nobuyuki Sakuma carries on with the harsher CVN project, which will release a new album called Frost on August 24. “Trash Eye (Second Cry)” is the first taste of it, and it is a harsh one, full of babies crying and shouting, sliced up and…
New Elen Never Sleeps: “My Aquamarine/Spinning Wheel”
Up to now, Tokyo’s Elen Never Sleeps (sometimes written in all-caps) been making music almost too easily described as “dreamy,” intimate pop covered in a haze that makes the whole track sound like it could vanish into the air any second. Yet he’s accomplished an unlikely feet with his new pair of songs – Elen…
Summer Festival Update: Summer Sonic Gets Pavement, Fuji Rock Nabs Thom Yorke
The months just keep passing and the summer draws even closer. Let’s check in with Japan’s premier summer festivals to see what’s up. – The big new update on the Summer Sonic front would be reunited indie-gods Pavement getting a slot. They already dazzled Tokyo and (especially) Osaka once before, so if you missed out…
New The Paellas: “Following”
Ahhh, rejoice, for here is yet another slice of Japanese indie-pop from a year choking on the indie-pop to the point where I’m probably writing “here is yet another slice of Japanese indie-pop” at an annoying rate, desperately trying to think of some new way to present jangly guitar music that’s dominated my SoundCloud front…
Pa’s Lam System Remixes HyperJuice: “City Lights”
There is no shortage of dance album featuring a bevvy of remixes tagged on to appeal to more listeners — see what we posted earlier today — but HyperJuice’s debut collection Lights is a case where the reworks feel every bit as urgent as the originals. Contributions from Broken Haze and Buddhahouse shine, but the…
