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。
Quick quiz – what album was Make Believe Melodies most excited about coming into 2013? Even though this year has seen new full-lengths from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Moscow Club, Sakanaction, Tofubeats and a bunch of other artists I adore, someone else had me giddier than any of them heading into January. That would be Eadonmm,…
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。
The “list a bunch of your favorite acts” trick is a classic approach to songwriting – some folks who have indulged in it include Daft Punk, The Tough Alliance, LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk again (sorta). Tokyo’s Alloapm pulls this card on the opening track to their new EP Wavepop. Over an upbeat assortment of synths,…
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…
Tokyo Jihen “Sa_i_ta” It might be hard to tell given the number of live DVDs and best-of releases that have packed store racks this year, but Tokyo Jihen called it quits back at the start of 2012. Assessing the group’s legacy ends up being a tricky task – lead singer Shiina Ringo’s solo albums remain…
One of the reasons Tokyo’s mysterious i-fls has become one of the most intriguing music makers of the year thus far is his ability to stick to a sound – in his case, Garageband-crafted melodies that usually last no longer than two minutes – and wring out a plethora of emotion from them. The various…
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.
The title and cover art of Keiji Community’s newest collection brings to mind something a bit…heavier (I had a …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead vibe)…than the smooth, synthpop that actually comes out when you hit play. But hey, the end result is solid. Wastelands is an easy-to-digest, catchy four-song set…
Here’s the final premier from the remix collection Paradice: Revisited By Friends & Lovers, an album featuring reworked numbers from Tokyo outfit LLLL’s debut album, out today via Zoom Lens. The finale comes from fellow Tokyo unit Jesse Ruins, who remixed “Because Of My Eyes” into a skittery number that would fit in just nicely…
Yeah, I see you glaring at that band name and song title, assumptions popping up in your head like oh-so-many Whack-A-Moles. Well sorry to stop the groans early but Super VHS’ “Midnight MTV” doesn’t sound much like what one would expect a band called Super VHS with a song called “Midnight MTV” to make. It…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20v19eA4bEM”] Break out the weed glasses for the new “2010” video by The Telephones. A lot of colors flash around and all sorts of animals pop up and then they dissolve into rainbow orbs (?) and it’s all pretty cool, way more so than my lame drug joke up there made it seem. The clip…
The moment where Osaka project The Neon City leaves an impression comes a bit later on “Wonder Of The Unknown” (above). Until that point, the song is a fine albeit relatively straightforward bit of indie-pop shrouded in darkness — it rattles forward, the vocals coming from a room away. This sort of thing has been…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKm4H3m0kMo”] I really don’t know why Friends adds (Demo) to the end of this and several other of his song titles because his whole sound centers on fuzzy recording quality. Regardless, here’s the dude’s latest blast of basement-based beach pop, “I Wonder What Your Mom’s Thinking.” Like a few of his older jams, “Thinking” sounds…