Moscow Clubは本当に素晴らしい。最初に我々が注目した”Daisy Miller Pt. 1″ は、ヘンリー・ジェームスの物語からの引用で、作品同様の感情的な雰囲気を醸し出しています。今回SoundCloudにアップされた曲は、”火星年代記”や、”華氏451″等を執筆したSF作家、レイ・ブラッドベリ（レイ、 数々の素晴らしい作品をありがとう。安らかに眠れ。）へのトリビュート精神が。Moscow Clubの新曲は”華氏451″の英語タイトル、”Fahrenheit 451″で、”Daisy Miller”の曲のように文学的に攻めるのではなく、あくまでレイドバック。悲しい過去の物語を語るのではなく、ちゃんとダンスフロアにそぐうように作曲されています。シンセが良い味を出しているこの曲はMoscow Clubの今までの曲よりも打ち込みがメインになっていて、この３分程の遊び心溢れる作品は、Toro Y MoiやKissesを連想させます。コーラスが実に美しい。試聴は以下から。
Seiho has let people rap over his music before…but it would be best if we didn’t talk about the last time that happened (don’t call on cheeseball rappers). This, a song from the Osaka producer’s forthcoming album Abstraktsex, which takes an old Seiho instrumental (“Evening,” which is peak Seiho in all its nervous twitches and…
Drop-loving producer Miii has been teasing new tracks online for the last few weeks, and now they all come together on Maltine Record’s 128th release, Everything Happens To You. His aggressive sound is intact, but he’s pushing his songs to new lengths…the first two tracks here clock in at over seven minutes. Yet they all…
Timothy Work covers a lot of ground in just four songs on their self-titled debut EP that dropped back in the summer. Which actually makes it surprisingly easy to overlook – 2012 saw all sorts of acts treating genre cornerstones as something meant to be thrown around, acts like Moscow Club touching on fragile indie-pop…
Here’s a nice little inter-continent collaboration – Tokyo’s Earthquake Island teamed up with Hong Kong’s Kavemura’s for this woozy little number titled “Black Eyes.” It’s a pretty vapory song – a minimal but effective beat, a whirlpool of synths and some super-distorted vocals. There is also what sounds like a cash register at one point,…
Kansai producer Hideo Nakasako is off to a fast-paced 2014. Last month he released a great EP of music…and now he’s back with another three-song-set called Observation that continues to highlight him as an artist to keep an eye on in the always-busy Kansai electronic scene. It opens with the off-kilter “Star Lily,” a tipsy…
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
Tokyo’s Moscow Club are literary buffs. They originally caught our attention with a song called “Daisy Miller Pt. 1,” (followed up with a “Pt. 2,” both on this lovely album) named after the Henry James’ story of the same name and nailing a similar emotional vibe as the novella. Now they’ve released what their SoundCloud implies is a tribute to science-fiction author Ray Bradbury (“Ray, may your soul rest in peace”), who wrote books like The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451. The latter also serves as the title to Moscow Club’s newest cut, and unlike the “Daisy Miller” songs, this one doesn’t conjure up images of books being incinerated or giant television walls. It’s really lose, a synth-powered throwback jam that’s made for the dancefloor rather than a dystopian future. It’s also the best electronic-focused song Moscow Club have released yet, one finding just the right groove to ride out for its almost-three-minute-long playtime, my snap-judgement bringing to mind Toro Y Moi or Kisses. Plus, THAT CHORUS. Listen below.
Singer/songwriter Mukuchi excels at making bouncy bedroom pop, featuring a wide variety of sounds ranging from synthesizer notes to toy instruments. Her playful voice ties it all together, and she’s even gone as far as to create a new (at least to my knowledge) genre called “seagaze” to describe it. Don’t let shiny tags on…
Videos that basically pause in the middle to air a commercial or other kind of brand-building content are, almost always, obnoxious. But damn, is the middle stretch of this upload essential. This isn’t the first time Oomori Seiko has crossed paths with the world of Morning Musume, and she’s collaborated with former leader of said…
Let’s just jump right into the imagery — listening to N-qia’s “Glitter” made me think of a fantastical parade marching through some forest glen located in a far away land. Her use of a vaguely march-appropriate beat…picking up intensely in the song’s final stretch..and some flute certainly adds to it, while the whole thing carries…
This year has seen a lot of really good Japanese indie-pop music spring up, but this scene has also been a bit male-centric. Some bands to pop up in 2012 feature women playing in the band, but they are rarely at the forefront of the group and, save for Osaka’s Twinkle Twinkles and (if you…
We’ve been on a bit of an indie-pop kick this week, so let’s keep it up with Kanazawa outfit GeGeGe, who will be releasing an EP via Dead Funny Records early in February. They’ve shared two tracks from it, and they are a nice mix of jogging, Wild-Nothing-inspired rock and a sparser electronic mumbler that…
I’ve been thinking a lot about techpop/rock recently, mostly in regards to Perfume’s take on it and what that meant to the Japanese music scene in 2009. Now welcome another band to add to the discussion – √thumm (Root Thumm from here on out). Root Thumm play the same club-friendly electro Bang Bang Balloon produce….