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。
Kansai outfit Post Modern Team’s first song made available to the world’s ears was a little ditty called “Never Let You Down.” It was one of 2012’s finest tracks, a breezy song featuring one of the sweetest hooks to come out of Japan’s indie-pop scene – “never let you down,” they sang, like whispering into…
シティ・ポップスは、日本経済がピークを迎えたバブルの頃に盛り上がったジャンルですが、数年前から復活の兆しを見せています。ジャパンタイムズでこの流行について取り上げられています。Things That Fadeをリリースしたデュオ、Greeen Linezを中心として書かれてるのですが、彼等の音はまるで銀座のホテルでくつろいでいるような気分にさせてくれます。最近注目している他のシティ・ポップスアーティストといえば海老名のYYSHIDDです。SoundCloudのプロフィールには、“Japanese composer/student” (日本の作曲家／学生)と紹介されています。彼の“Naomi’s Love Affair”という曲では、シティ・ポップスの醍醐味が全て取り入れられています。シンセやベース、そしてトロピカルな雰囲気を持つパーカッションが、仕事の後のリラックスタイムのような空気感を表現しています。夏の暑さを和らげてくれるようなスムーズなボーカルも印象的です。 だからといってYYSHIDDはシティ・ポップスに留まろうとしている訳ではありません。Greeen Linezのように、他のジャンルからの影響も積極的に取り入れられています。例えば、“Potato”では涼しく心地良い楽曲の上にラップがサンプルされています。視聴は以下から。
Due to shifting work priorities and a general time crunch (plus, still gotta burn through the new Arrested Development guys), albums tend to get lost in the shuffle around here. We make time for stuff like May.e and (as you’ll see soon enough) Moscow Club…but lots fall through the crack. Like Tokyo indie-pop darlings Boyish,…
Over the past week, prominent Tokyo netlabel Maltine Records has released two excellent (and free!) releases worth more than the 30-some seconds they take to download. First came the imprint’s 117th release – Carpainter’s hyper-colorful Double Rainbow EP. Maltine describe this one as sounding “future,” and they are certainly onto something – the four songs…
Tokyo’s Licaxxx covers a lot of ground on the inconveniently titled “□ ▷▷.” She speeds up and slows down the beat over the course of this just-under-four-minutes-long song, occasionally weaving in little vocal details like a shout of “hey!” or a split-second moan. It’s a track that manages to evoke elements of British dubstep along…
The overlap between Internet-centric producers and idol pop continues shrinking. Maltine Girls’ Wave was the year’s biggest breakthrough, but it won’t be an isolated case. Sakura Yura is a rising idol…not a nobody but a far cry from, say, Tokyo Girls’ Style…and she’s teamed up with two producers repping two different netlabels. The first is…
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.
Fall is here, and here’s the first Music Alliance Pact of the season. MAP, if you are stumbling across this for the first time, is a monthly feature wherein 30-plus blogs from around the world share one song from their representative country. Make Believe Melodies covers Japan, and this month we put the spotlight on…
The music Nagoya artist Figure makes has always been claustrophobic – the albums and songs he’s trickled onto the Internet over the last few years have been guitar-centered numbers where the vocals get muffled out enough as if to sound like they are being sung from the next room over…through a concrete wall. New collection…
HoneyComeBear’s calling card has been the ability to take familiar EDM stompings and find a way to turn them into something closer to a J-pop ballad without sacrificing the banger qualities. “Calling” offers the latest example of the duo’s balancing act, featuring skittering drum beats and bright keyboard melodies wrapped around tender verses just really…
You can find plenty of Japanese electronic music full of chimes and other cuddlier musical elements, and a lot of it is very good, but something about the wave of “kawaii bass” that leaves me wanting a bit more is in terms of ambition. Very few of these songs push themselves to go further out…
Acting surprised that a label describing itself as “a platform for free expression” released a skittery pop song seems silly, considering they can do whatever they want. Free expression! But still, up until Midnight Cult has primarily leaned towards darker juke collections, including a set from Traxman and a 2017 highlight via Weezy. “Lonly You”…
The partnership between Takako Minekawa and Dusting Wong keeps getting stronger. “She He See Feel” retains the playful squirminess that was all over last year’s very-good Toropical Circle, yet here they’ve gotten better at taking that joy and building it towards something. Which…well, the final passage of this song is great release, a very Wong-solo-album-worthy…