Eric LuebsによるMagical Mistakesが、最近リリースしたフルレングス作品、”Everything Uncertain”で、ダンスとサイケデリックの境界線をぶち破ってくれました。ビートミュージックからの影響だけではあり得ない奇妙で個性的なサウンドは、不思議な魅力で聴き手を誘惑します。最近早くも新曲、”Always At The Best Part”をSoundCloudで公開しているのですが、先程紹介した作品とは全く違う印象。彼のFacebookによると、結構前から手掛けていたみたいなのですが。ボサノバ調なこの曲はふわっとした空気感をバックに持ちつつも、ギターやビブラフォンのソロが暖かさを加えています。”A groovy one for swaying with drinks in hand”とは彼の解説で、その通り、飲みながらゆったり聴きたい曲に仕上がっています。試聴は以下から。
大阪のThe PaellasがEP Followingをリリース。素晴らしいタイトルトラックFollowingは今週のはじめにアップロードされ今回２曲を追加、EPの全貌が明らかになりました。Spiderはテンポ感の早いインディーポップの楽曲、もう一曲はThe Cleaners From Venus のカバー曲になっています。こちらはオリジナルよりも音質をこもらせスピード感を出した楽曲になっています。EP Following は日本のインディーポップをリリースするオンラインレーベルano(t)raksの第一弾リリースにも、EPは無料ダウンロードが可能なのでこちらからダウンロードもしくは以下から視聴を。 Following EP by The Paellas
Indie-pop outfit Traffic Light have a new two-song set out, highlighted by the Sunday-morning-church-session-turned-pop-hop-a-long “Clocks.” It is a solid bit of indie-pop, though the most interesting element are the lyrics, which mention Jesus and actually seem to be commenting on the Holy Trinity one a little bit. There seems to be more going on…but that’s…
Sakanaction’s latest single “Music,” due out January 23, finds the group touching on some of their older material. The way lead singer Ichiro Yamaguchi stretches out syllables in the verses brings to mind the single “Endless,” while the late-song surge in emotion resembles another cut from DocumentaLy, “Monochrome Tokyo.” Yet this isn’t the sound of…
Boys Age are a duo who force you to not make snap judgements. The first few seconds of “I Wish For God’s Sake’…like the first few second of a lot of the songs they’ve released…challenge thanks to the lead vocals. They are far from polished, sounding like a Muppet gurgling water. But give it a…
(Editor’s Note: I’m moving to a new apartment in two days, so posts might be on the briefer side. Gotta pack!) Footwork producer FOODMAN already released one great off-the-wall album of music recently…and now he’s back with another on Hiroshima’s Dubliminal Bounce. Are Kore opens on the harsher end of the spectrum and along the…
Ahhh Picnic Women, that jokester. The title to his latest collection of juke cuts comes off like the punchline to what he pulls off the title track, “II Women.” On that song, Picnic Women takes Mariah Carey’s and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” specifically the vocals from Boyz II Men, and pitches them both…
Erik Luebs’ recent full-length album as Magical Mistakes, Everything Uncertain, blurred the line between dance music and psychedelic sounds, resulting in an absorbing album blending beat music with something more swirly. He’s posted a new song to SoundCloud, though, different from anything on that full-length though…appropriate seeing as he wrote on Facebook that the track, “Always At The Best Part,” happened some time ago. The bossa-tinged number retains a few elements of Magical Mistakes’ latest – see the bits of wordless voice floating in the background of the song – but also boasts a sunnier atmosphere, guitar and, as Luebs notes, a vibraphone solo. He pretty much sums it up best with this description of the song – “a groovy one for swaying with drinks in hand.” Listen below.
Duo Frasco’s music has always been relatively laid back, avoiding easy city-pop-revival trappings in favor of something a bit more out there (but still limber). So this group — which describe themselves as a “meta pop project?” I don’t remember that from last year, is this a commentary on…something? — creating a smoothed-out beat for…
First off, let’s acknowledge how strange it is to see Paellas prepping for an album on Universal Music. Perhaps I’m just getting weepy with this blog’s tenth anniversary coming in the near future, but seeing them go from playing 4 a.m. at a tiny Shibuya venue to this is pretty cool! Paellas have locked on…
Gauging the political intentions of music in Japan can be tricky, especially when you rely on Google Translate and Firefox extensions to figure out what’s going on. Plenty of artists can be direct about their stances, and in the wake of this year’s nuclear situation a handful of anti-nuclear-power songs appeared albeit far from the…
The title, as beautiful as it sounds, is not totally honest — it is more like “singing-synthesizer juke,” as the voices popping up across this collaborative album between Omoide Label and Massatsu Records come from a variety of sources (one example — the sixth song here uses a computer-speak program, one that helpfully lays out…
Man, kids today, I tell you. Tokyo-based producer Miii was born in 1992, which is one of those mind-numbing realizations someone like me (80’s baby represent) that makes me do an existential double take, like noticing a nose hair or laughing at a Mike And Molly joke. Yet once one gets over the youth behind…
The PEGASUSS’ latest bit of remix gold comes on a reworking of The Very Best’s “Julia.” Compared to the sparse original cut, The PEGASUSS loads his version up with more prominent drums, piano and other warm flourishes. Check the track out at his MySpace.