Seiho、MFPやAnd Vice Versa等を2012年にリリースし注目を集めている大阪のレーベル、Day Tripper Recordsから新しいフル・レングスアルバムがリリースされました。東京のLeggysaladというアーティストのVerde Planedetoというアルバムで、現在その中から2曲、”Reunion”と”Sleeping Beauty”が、Soundcloudから視聴可能です。”Reunion”では飛び跳ねるピアノにアコギのパーカッシブなストローク、そして後半にはチャイムが使われていて、Day Tripperからリリースされた今までの作品よりもかなり穏やかなので驚きです。”Sleeping Beauty”はチョップされた女性ボーカルが随所で聴けるものの、こちらもかなり物静かな印象です。しかし、２曲ともドラムが曲全体に力強さを与えていて、レーベルのカラーもひそかに持っています。視聴は以下から。
関西のロックバンド、NOKIES!がデビューフルアルバム、”Between The Blinks”をFlake Recordsとタワーレコードからリリースしました。Los Campesinos!のようなインディーポップが特徴的な彼等でしたが、今作品では良い意味で幅広い層から好かれそうな雰囲気。タワーレコードからのリリースも違和感なく、これからバンドはどんどんメインストリームなロックバンドとして成長していきそうですが、ボーカルのクメユウスケはそのような方向性とは違ったものをYouth Genius(Youth LagoonとPerfume Geniusの融合みたいな感じかな？）として表現しています。 Soundcloudには、”All of the songs is inspired by peculiar atomosphere created by the streets and youth of Kyoto city,”(京都の若者やストリートが持つ独特な空気感が楽曲に影響を与えている。)と書かれているのですが、その通り京都の若者達は個性的なスタイルを表現していて、Youth Lagoonは少しばかりのエレクトロ要素を持つインディーポップと、跳ねるようなファンクを融合していて、哀愁とワイルドさのバランスを上手く保っています。”Explains”は直球勝負なインディーポップで、センターに配置されたキーボードがとても良い存在感。”Behind You”と”Stay Above The Clouds”は多くの打ち込みが使われていて、今年に国内でリリースされたインディーポップの中でも特に目立っています。そして”We Keep Kissing”はクラブ的アノラックサウンドが、The Brixton Academyが本気を出してダンサブルな楽曲を作ったかのような印象。Youth Geniusみたいなプロジェクトがあることで、NOKIES!の方向性もどんどん進化していきそうですね。
J-Rock, ugggggggggh. Save for the brain-and-feet-pleasing Sakanaction…miles ahead of everyone else in Japan tagged “rock” it’s almost ridiculous…rock music in Japan seems to be trending towards some pretty shit places. One OK Rock’s boneheaded menace has proven to be a chart-topper, so brace for them to be a permanent fixture. Sekai No Owari have a…
This song isn’t introducing anything novel to the Japanese independent music landscape – producers pitch-shifting a vocal sample or two and building a song around it were all over the place in 2012, highlighted by the likes of Taquwami and Seiho. Yet Winona Hyper’s “Promise” does a solid job of this style, taking only a…
Tokyo-based guitarist Dustin Wong already had a strong first half of 2013, teaming up with Shibuya-kei staple Takako Minekawa to produce an album that took both artist out of their comfort zones. Now he’s primed for the rest of the year too, as he has a solo album (Mediation Of Ecstatic Energy) due out on…
Looks like it isn’t truffle season, but sad season. Whirilng producer Taquwami gets a bit melancholy with his new tracks, packaged together as “Japanese Sad.” All this despite first song “Wow” opening up with a Jay-Z sample. That first new song is actually a bit more upbeat than it leads on, as the vocals pop…
I can’t really elaborate on how this exactly relates to Albert Camus, though for all I know this is a meditation on the fleeting nature of happiness and life and how we should embrace that idea as a means to live our lives to the fullest. This just sounds really good. Einsteins aren’t an out-of-nowhere…
The latest full-length release from Osaka label Day Tripper Records is a fragile affair. The imprint, responsible for releasing 2012 highlights by the likes of Seiho, MFP and And Vice Versa, now offers up an album by Tokyo producer Leggysalad, Verde Planedeto. Two tracks, “Reunion” and “Sleeping Beauty,” can be heard now at Day Tripper’s SoundCloud. The prior starts with channel-hopping piano before being joined by some acoustic guitar strums and, a little later, some bell chimes. This combination sounds surprisingly delicate for something released on Day Tripper, though the serenity doesn’t last long as Leggysalad conjures up a drum beat that smashes through the glassiness. From there, “Reunion” turns into a nice cut-and-slice vocal workout. “Sleeping Beauty” similarly opens softly, though the most prominent addition to this Leggysalad track is a female vocal that has been chopped into syllables, like he has taken a J-Pop drama and gone surgeon on it. Just like “Reunion,” drums eventually kick in and add some force. Listen to both tracks below.
One of the more interesting trends in Japanese indie music this year as been the influence of anime in various songs. We’ve already talked about a pair of artists who create Ghibli-like wonderlands, but other musicians have been literally summoning old Japanese cartoons in their tracks. From the submerged beauty of Shortcake Collage Tape to…
Remember that new Madegg track we wrote about during this Madegg-intensive week? Turns out it’s part of a release called Teach, a release you can actually download for free right now. Get it here. It’s ten tracks long and features a tune called “Penguin.” I like penguins. Expect a review sometime in the near future.
Of course you are going to end up with a drastic reworking when you hand off your song to someone like Parkgolf…he falls into the category of producer whose original music sounds like neon lights held together by various strings twisted into weird shapes. His approach to remixes of artists who don’t fall into the…
Ahhhhh, feel that crispness in the air? It’s an indie-pop autumn, alright. And one of Tokyo’s finest twee-leaning outfits around, Boyish, have a new album out on Dead Funny Records next month. “Sketchbook,” above, is the first taste of Sketch For 8000 Days Of Moratorium (!!!!) and it is a longer-than-usual look at how they…
Every few months, an internet-centric electronic artist in Japan releases a song that makes me stop and go “….wait, is this like a return to Shibuya-kei mindsets?” It’s a feeling YUC’e conjures up frequently, and Puni Puni Denki’s new song “Life Is Super Dope” goes even further by pivoting into bossa nova that would make…
I’m always ready uncork the same adjectives with high-energy producers such as Hiroki Yamamura — like “high-energy” — that something like “Frosty Cake” is a total curveball that makes my go-to vocabulary worthless. It still rumbles ahead on a juke-inspired beat, which has been Yamamura’s base for so many lightspeed numbers. But here, everything feels…