CUZ ME PAINは最近、あまりリリースをせず、ライブやレコーディングに力を入れている感じがします。それともニコラス・ケイジ出演の映画を勉強したりしてるのかな。CUZ ME PAINのプロジェクトMasculinの新曲、”Manhattan Suicide”は、ニコラス・ケイジ主演のデビッド・リンチ映画、ワイルド・アット・ハートの台詞から始まります。２分間シンプルに淡々と流れるグルーブは、リンチ・テイストが他の曲よりは抑えめかも。ワイルド・アット・ハートからの物かは確かじゃないですが、他の台詞とピアノの流れるようなフレーズがリピートされています。そのようなサウンドが楽しい雰囲気を出していて、ツイン・ピークス的か、と言えばそうではないのですが、このような遊び心のあるリリースを聴く事で、CUZ ME PAINから更なるリリースを期待してしまいます。
神戸のtofubeatsはトラックメイカーとして数々のリミックスやオリジナル作品を手がけてきました。今年2012年は今までとは少し違い、プロデューサーとして、数々の面白い挑戦をしています。ラッパーのオノマトペ大臣と共同で数々の強力なトラックを作り出したり、J-Popのシーンにも関わったりしていました。Yukiの曲のリミックスや、lyrical school(改名前はtengal6)への楽曲提供などがハイライトでしょう。でも、そのような活動をする中で、ついに傑作”Summer Dreams”をリリースしました。 今回リリースされた９曲は、一直線なビートとラップが印象的な、プロデューサー中心のトラックに、カット＆ペーストスタイルでボーカルのサンプルが使われています。今までの曲のように、ゆるい感じの物が多く、ホーンなどが使われている”poolside”のような、レイド・バックな曲が印象的です。In My Room” と”Synthesizer”も同じような雰囲気で、みんなで歌えるような曲なのに、決してそれだけでは終わらせないのが面白いところです。”In My Room”を例にあげるならば、ボーカルに一ひねり加えられていて、声が陰に隠れ、ダークな印象を生み出しています。”Synthesizer”ではボコーダーが使われ、ゆったりとした印象を強めています。 このようにtofubeatsはボーカルに多くの工夫を加えています。主に、ボーカルのサンプルを速めるという手法が使われています。”Killing Me Soft Cream” “Sweat N Dry” (AxeのCM曲） と “Work Shit”にもそのような手法が使われているのですが、Taquwamiの新しいEP、”Blurrywonder”と共通点があるように感じます。でも、tofubeatのほうがシンプルかつミニマルで、繰り返しが多いような印象です。(Work Shitを除く)。この３曲が新しいアルバムのなかでも特に傑作と言えるでしょう。購入はこちらから、視聴は以下から。 summer dreams by tofubeats
Slow Beach are a Japanese indie-pop supergroup of sorts – they feature Kai Takahashi and Twangy Twagny (a.k.a. Dai Ogasawara), but find both of them making surf-leaning music (see – the name). They’ve released their first album, called Lover Lover and you can get it for free here. Go do that! I’ll write more on…
Diane Halls is a new project out of Aichi that has released one really nice song, the dreamy “Stolen Kisses.” I wrote about it for New-York-based blog International Tapes, and you can read it over here. Highly recommend you get the song here.
We’ve reached the point where idol music – usually an area reserved for AKB48 and Momoiro Clover z – has become really sonically smart. Not always at the top (though sometimes for sure!) but the lower rungs of idol-dom have resulted in some really interesting music. One reason – a lot of young producers are…
The Music Alliance Pact brings together blogs from over 30 countries, with each one sharing one artist from their respective location. This month on MAP, we’ve chosen Kyoto’s Hotel Mexico, one of the finest bands going in Japan today. Listen to their “A.I. In Dreams”…and a bunch of other good tunes…below. Click the play button…
Osaka’s Outdoorminer (also known as Cloudy Busey) has proven over the last few years he’s great at creating unsettling, late-night moods. Between his two solo projects, he’s excelled at making music for downtrodden walks home, whether they be complete with vocals or, as is the case with the Outdoorminer alias, just music. “Badmood” follows up…
CUZ ME PAIN has been a little quiet as of late, the Tokyo imprint not putting out all that much new material lately. They’ve either been focused on playing live shows and recording new material…..or they’ve been brushing up on Nicolas Cage movies. CUZ ME PAIN project Masculin’s new track “Manhattan Suicide” opens with a snippet of dialogue from David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, but unlike most songs that get described as “Lynchian,” this one isn’t all that unsettling. Instead, it just grooves on for just over two minutes. It features another vocal sample that skips a little bit (don’t know if it’s also from Wild At Heart) and a piano line swoops in every once in awhile, but none of it sounds Twin Peaks worthy. A nice little track that hopefully means more CUZ ME PAIN tunes on the horizon.
Greeen Linez – Windswept from Diskotopia on Vimeo. Here’s another one for the ever-growing pile of “albums I really wish I had more time to write about” – dance duo Greeen Linez, whose 2012 Things That Fade was a stellar debut album taking cues from City Pop without ever feeling like a stuffy museum, are…
The lead single didn’t capture all the different directions this one would go. Pelican’s Nagatsuta opens with two slabs of crunch electro-rap — including the linked “From Japan” — but it doesn’t take long for Pelican to swing off into all sorts of different directions. “Myth Scat” introduces a 2-step beat for her to bob…
Mukuchi excels at jolly little pop songs, whether on her own or as part of Feather Shuttles Forever. She’s the prior for “Reizouko,” and it’s a funny bit of bedroom pop to start off the new week. The music itself relies on some jaunty piano notes alongside a few more toy-like details — I swear…
HNC has a new song out now, called “Don’t You Think You Come To Love Me.” It’s a nice hop-scotch pop number complete with kazoos that would have fit perfectly fine on Cult. Listen to a bit of it here, or buy the whole shebang on iTunes. ————————————————————————————————————– In related news, HNC’s side project Love…
excoriation (瘢痕) by Cemetery Producer Cemetery is keeping busy, as much as one constructing uneasy but at times peaceful electronic music can get. The project’s latest EP, Excoriation, comes via Spanish label angoisse, and highlights the lighter side of a project that can get dark (I mean, it’s called Cemetery). The producer gets downright spiritual…
Noah’s latest collaborative project finds the singer/songwriter/producer teaming with…well, the producer Teams and Repeat Pattern. A full-length album is on the way, and “Miminashi” offers a preview of what to expect. Drums and sudden splashes of 8-bit noise guide the track forward, replacing the more spacious backdrops Noah has used in the past. Yet what…