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。
I’m usually not drawn to the acoustic guitar. Too often, it’s the tool of choice for snobs and hucksters, the preferred instrument of people doing acoustic covers of rap songs (ya know, because it’s not real music in its original form) and dorm-room Lotharios. I’ve heard countless covers of “Wonderwall,” and every time I want…
Dustin Wong – formerly of frantic Baltimore outfit Ponytail and also Ecstatic Sunshine, and currently operating as a solo artist signed to American label Thrill Jockey – recently moved to Tokyo. Which means…he’s fair game for us at Make Believe Melodies! His first bit of new material since relocating in Japan’s capital comes as part…
Video game noises are no longer just a novelty, a cheap sonic trick used to evoke a decade long gone. Despite several hard drives worth of shitty chiptune music floating across the Internet in 2013, the last few years has seen 8-bit bloops legitimized, to some degree. Crystal Castles cop moves from the Silent Hill…
Call And Response Recordsの新しいコンピレーションアルバム、”Dancing After 1 AM”は、我々の友達、イアン・マーティンのレーベルのものなので…探す手間が省けました。１８曲も収録されているこのアルバムには、日本屈指のロック・アーティスト達も参加しています。She Talks Silenceが陰のような美しいギターを奏でる一方で、The Morningsの”Fuji”は去年にリリースされた”Save The Mornings”に引き続き、彼ららしい作品。POP-OFFICE、New HouseやTacobondsなども参加していて、さすがだな、と言わざるを得ません。今まで紹介してこなかったExtrudersによる“Collapsing New Buildings”はミニマルで、呟くようなボーカルとギターの鋭いストロークが良い味を出しています。Puffyshoesも１分程参加しています。 “Dancing After 1 AM”が持つフックといえば、ニューウェーブ・デュオのMIRがこのアルバムでカムバックし、新曲を１曲提供しているという所。これからの活動も期待しているのですが、“Dance”は、このグループの過去のハイライトを５分でまとめたような曲になっています。シンセとビートが良いグルーブ感を出しているのですが、それだけで終わらないのがこのグループの強み。決してアップビートではない、ナイーブなボーカルが、この曲を独特にしています。このような悲しげな、かつアップテンポなダンスミュージックは中々探しても出てこないですし、巧みにひねりを加えた独特な楽曲が多いので、Dancing After 1 AM、オススメです。 List of where to buy the album here.
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,…
I do not profess to being a guy who knows much about Japanese hip-hop. I have about as basic an understanding of the scene one can get, but that’s it – I don’t know the intricacies or the regional differences or even, like, the fashions (I think Yankees’ caps are popular?). What I do know,…
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 weather — which dictates the sort of music I choose to listen to more than I’d like to admit — is pretty gloomy today. It stopped raining, but the sky is still grey in an smudged way that makes the idea of going outside seem ridiculous (also knowing it is probably stupid humid doesn’t…
Folksy indie-pop duo Villa!! create easy-going music that is easy to relax to, but features enough of a kick to keep it from turning into snoozin’ music. They recently shared the four-track Pout Goddess EP, and its bookended by some dusty numbers, the previously released “Nut” and “Doom,” a spritely cut, what with that name….
Well, it’s more like producer Tomodati blurring a new fidgety number into an ’80s Japanese gem…but when your base is BaBe’s “Give Me Up,” you are off to a good start. Dude basically just loops the chorus over and over again and builds something new from there, featuring his fast-paced singing and various party-ready interludes….
Rap duo Chelmico are back just in time for the summer, and to celebrate the start of the season they’ve shared the bouncy “Love Is Over.” This one finds the duo of MCs Rachel and Mamiko joining up with production team Mikeneko Homeless for a deceptively sparse number, one veering away from the sax-backed struts…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVtrnaYS3z8&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Despite being a total jabroni when it comes to the language, I still purchase Japanese music magazine Snoozer whenever I can. In this month’s issue…featuring MGMT on the cover in case you are curious…the folks behind the mag interview dance music producer Halfby. Though I have no idea what Mr. Halfby says, I’m positive…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEDKobNkkvA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] [Via Pitchfork]