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。
Pure neon sounds here. Tokyo’s Alloapm has labeled this a “summer version,” but really this is a song designed for the night, preferably while cruising through the city, potentially while holding onto some ~feels~. It is, sonically, a relatively simple number – a flurry of synths, a beat, bass and some Vocder-ized singing propelling the…
“Glow” features one of those musical moments that catch you so off guard it practically makes you do a double look at your computer screen. The first half of Tokyo bedroom-producer Mari Pass Filter’s song is a good but straightforward affair – a beat, droplets of synthesizer, skittery vocals that sound vaguely Vocaloid and which…
Santa Ana isn’t the first place you think of in California as being “unsettling,” though it is definitely far from being a boring place. Still, Kyoto outfit Jesus Weekend’s chugging instrumental “Santa Ana” is an extremely shadowy number, one that makes one of the biggest cities in Orange County seem like it would be a…
There are several angles one could approach “Winter Valentine” from. It finds Vocaloid-favoring producer mus.hiba teaming up with Brighton-based musician and video-game-music composer Calum Bowen, and is just the latest in a wave of Japanese artists hooking up with overseas artists for various enterprises (see i-fls and, uh, mus.hiba working with Zoom Lens, or Cokiyu…
It’s a side of me that doesn’t always come through on this blog – try the Tumblr too – but I love pop music, even beyond the J-Pop that appears here sometimes. One of my favorite songs of the year has been Ariana Grande’s “The Way,” an absurdly upbeat number that slays despite featuring an…
Figureというアーティストはご存知でしょうか？この日本アーティストのBandcampのページを見てみて下さい。情報量の多いサイトですよね。どうやらアメリカツアーをするみたい！…ってそれは違うFigureでしたね。同じ名前を使ったインディアナ拠点のビートメーカーがいるみたいです。でも日本のFigureも新EP、”Come Down”でもっと注目を集める事でしょう。 このEP以前のFigureはどんな感じだったかというと、Teen Runnings登場後からすでに数年間も日本のインターネットを埋め尽くしている、やかましくファズの掛かったベッドルームサウンドを奏でていました。その過去の作品達は、厳しく言えば録音のクオリティが低かったり、ノイズの実験のような作品ばかり。でも今回の”Come Down”では、そんな遊び心とフックのあるメロディーが上手く調和しています。嵐のような轟音もバランスよく効果的に感じられ、”Soft Path”なんかがその「グッドバランス」を象徴してるんじゃないかな。今まで同様、いかつい生楽器の音が大半を占めているものの、やわらかいキーボードや、ノイズをくぐって出てくるボーカルが見事（洋楽で例えるならDIIVでしょうか）。”Place”は幻想的な曲で、ギターやベースもその雰囲気を崩しません。一方で”Come Down”は逆に歪んだドラムが印象的で、キラキラしたキーボード（木琴みたいな音）が上手く混ざっています。Come Downは凄くスローな”My Side”で終わるわけなんですが、この曲はギターストローク、キーボードと淡いボーカルのみのシンプルな構成。驚くほどの成長を遂げたFigureの自信作を締めくくるにはもってこいの美しい曲です。試聴はこちらから。
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.
The other day, Shiina Ringo unveiled a new song for Japan’s Wolrd Cup team (well, for NHK’s coverage of Japan’s World Cup team) and…it is pretty straightforward, which is to be expected for a song soundtracking a music video of dramatic penalty kicks. Much better is just-released “Seishyun No Mabataki,” a prickly ballad featuring a…
After giving “future bass x J-Pop” a whirl, Tokyo Girls’ Style slow things down a touch with “Predawn,” a “HIPHOP X EDM” number. Which might be code for “tropical house” meets R&B, as the verses on this song unfold at a pace similar to Bieber or Fifth Harmony. The hook, though, earns that EDM tag,…
Canopies And Drapesの音楽には隠れたとげがあったりします。夢のような雰囲気の”Sleeping Under The Bed”にも、もっとミニマルな”The Door Into Summer”にも、ダークな雰囲気がどこかに潜んでいます。（歌詞の内容であったり、ボーカルの処理の仕方だったり）。Drapesの４枚目のカセット、”Stray Sheep’s Delight”にも何かしらそんな遊びがあるのかな？と思い聴いてみると、収録曲はグループの今までの曲の中でもずば抜けて単純明快。ビート、ギター、ベース、そしてTalk Talkの”I Believe In You”を彷彿とさせるシンセ。全てが上手く混ざり合いポップさが最大限に活かされています。聴けば聴く程難しいテーマが思い浮かびますよ。ボーカルは少し聴こえづらいものの、”my fate is in his hands”という歌詞は確認でき、楽しい曲はよりドラマチックに響きに。より時間を費やせば更なる発見もあるかもしれませんが、単純に一回聴くだけでも楽しむ事のできる良い曲だと思います。
This week has started off sluggishly (well, for me anyway), so an injection of energy is more than welcome. Thankfully, this past weekend saw the Spring 2018 edition of the M3 event happen, which means a lot of internet-centric artists created new albums and compilations for the gathering…most of which are on the up-tempo side…
ELLEH is the new project from Bob (of Ice Cream Shout, Cloudy Busey and many more) and Satoru Teshima (fellow Japan-based blogger over at Lights And Music), and the unifying concept here is “sad boy disco.” The thrust of this thematic glue is the duo make music apt for those early morning hours (or late…
Post-Cuz-Me-Pain band Wooman has a new album out next week, and “Sun” hints that they are just a touch more focused this time around. Early releases from this fuzz-accented project embraced a garage-centered playfulness balanced out by some of the shadowy tension of their younger days, with songs feeling seconds away from zipping into chaos….