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She Went Out In Nature: Kindan No Tasuketsu’s “Gogo No Boukenshya”
Incorporating natural sounds into one’s work isn’t a new trick – artists have long been doing that, many of them recently and many of them in Japan. Magical Mistakes jumps immediately to mind with his bird and bug sounds sneaking into his songs. So Kindan No Tasuketsu shouldn’t be praised for her use of nature…
New Cosmosman: Ananga Ranga
This one announces itself really well…after a few seconds of pulsating electronics courtesy of Kobe’s Cosmosman, a woman’s voice cheerfully says “Welcome to the future!” And then “Radio Menthol,” the first song off of Ananga Ranga turns into a bouncy cartoon number that seems like it should be soundtracking videos of dancing fire hydrants or…
New It Happens: “Going Outside”
First off, apologies to It Happens, as I will take one paragraph to vent a little, distracting from this perfectly serviceable indie-pop song. It has only been one month into 2014, but already I’m wondering what has gone wrong with this year. I have gotten extremely cynical about music of all types, and even moreso…
New mus.hiba: “Slow Snow”
What got us excited about mus.hiba back when he uploaded “Magical Fizzy Drink” was the fact the young Tokyo producer used Vocaloid technology, the singing-synthesizer software often bundled with cute anime characters, to create music that was experimental. His use of Sekka Yufu (one character) is really important for showing the potential Vocaloid holds as…
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…
New And Vice Versa: “Underexposure”
The artists revolving around the INNIT community have certainly kept busy at the start of 2014 – Seiho is all over the place, Madegg is opening for The Field next weekend, Magical Mistakes is remixing other Osaka artists with great results and Avec Avec pops up on the Maltine Girls’ Wave album. Now comes a…
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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Oldie Goodie: Miniskirt
We try to stay current here on Make Believe Melodies, but I’m willing to buck the rules I barely enforce on myself in special situations. “Special situations” here really meaning “finding some bomb-ass twee music that could have been posted last month or five years ago.” Tokyo outfit (cue laughtrack) Miniskirt make pure, wimpy indie-pop…
New Puffyshoes: “Alright”
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Oj91JcB-o”] Ahhhh Puffyshoes, you know just what people need to hear right now. Glance at any current events site or turn on any terror-inducing 24-hour news channel and you’ll quickly get the sense that the world is undeniably doomed. It goes beyond the front page though – in Japan this time of year marks as…
New Toyohirakumin: Aurora Town
Vaporwave — or things that can easily be tagged as such — is a tricky thing. The bulk of it, especially in the last three years, is disposable, slowed down songs and jingles poorly imitating the artists who were the first to get the genre going. What they are lacking is emotional resonance — a…
New Cloudy Busey Video: “Overcame The Sun”
“Overcame The Sun” came out back in 2013, on a very solid collection called Wait In The Shade. And now, around two years later, the indie-pop number from Osaka’s Cloudy Busey has a video, which you can watch above. And it is a fantastic excuse to revisit both the song and the album it came…
New Amunoa: “REM”
Calling something “underrated” often feels like a silly distinction, but I do kind of think Amunoa gets slightly overlooked in the Japanese electronic crowd. They are just so good at creating shifty little numbers, and using cut-up samples in a way that makes them stand out rather than blend in. “REM,” their latest, further shows…
New Maidable: Chilly Dawn
Young producer Maidable has teamed up with New York label Rubik Records for a two-song set of skittery, energetic cuts. Maidable turns to drum ‘n’ bass on each number, surrounding drums breaks with synth notes and bits of singing on uptempo opener “Chilly Dawn,” while keeping things a bit more spacious — but still pretty…
