２０１２年に入って既に二枚のEPをリリースしているフットワークのプロデューサー、Picnicwomenが、続いて今年度三枚目を発表しました。”Super Freak”では新しい挑戦が聴ける訳ではないのですが、スピード感やスリリングなボーカルサンプルは健在です。”Again”はよりメローな方向性を模索しているのですが…結局は打ち込みのドタバタ地獄に突入し、彼の持つユニークなスタイルを主張しています。”Milk Man_s Wife”はエイフェックス・ツインの”Milkman“のカバーで、”I would like some milk from the milk man’s wife’s tits.” というフレーズが繰り返されます。試聴は以下から、購入はこちらから。
Everyone seems to be in a summer mood as of late…yesterday, POP-OFFICE were brooding about the end of summer, and now Yucca are getting all melancholy thinking about the season. “Summer Emotion” is a sparse tune that sorta just hangs in the air – I’m surprised this lasts only three minutes and 45 seconds. The…
The blockbuster comes later, but let’s start from the beginning. What hooked our ears to meeshiieee was actually a song the self-described “slovenely” songwriter labelled as a discarded track. “Umi E” is an incredibly simple song – a strummed acoustic guitar, singing, a few backup vocals – yet the delivery of this song is absolutely…
Seiho just put out a (fantastic) full-length album…but here he is, already releasing new material into the wilds of the Internet. Dude is prolific. Anyway, ignore me and just dive right into “Chang Before You Have To,” which you can download for free by clicking the photo above. Otherwise, listen to the minimal, pitch-shifted wonder…
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…
For Tracy Hydeについて初めて知ったのは、BOYISHと共にスプリットEPを出した時。その軽快なギター・ポップは、もし今が８０年代ならば、Sarah Recordsが大きく取り上げていた事でしょう。For Tracy Hydeの今までの作品は、他の日本インディーポップアーティストと似た音楽性を持ちつつも、日本語で歌う事で、WallflowerともBOYISHとも異なる響きを鳴らしていました。彼等のデビューEP、”Juniper And Lamplight“は、”A Clockwork Lemon”で聴けるような、陽気で明るい雰囲気に満ちています。”First Regrets”ではシューゲイザーからの影響も。 今回の作品では更に他と差をつけるべく、インディー・ポップらしかぬ曲も。”Shady Lane Sherbert”なんかでは大胆不敵にもギターが取り除かれていて、代わりにシンセが鳴り響いています。チルウェイブの影響を取り入れ、上手く再構築されています。ふわふわしたボーカルとゆったりとしたテンポから繰り出される独特な空気感は、”Juniper And Lamplight”以外からは聴けないでしょう。最後の曲、”₀oOℑ ∪╹ω╹∪ℜ (Delikate Dawgz)”では、うねる電子音の上にボーカル・サンプルが浮いているかのごとく配置されていて、更に衝撃的。奇妙なエンディングですが、For Tracy Hydeが次にどんな挑戦をするのか、とても興味をそそられます。ダウンロードはこちらから、視聴は以下から。 Juniper And Lamplight by For Tracy Hyde
Dude releases tons of new material all the time but…I don’t remember Osaka’s Soleil Soleil sounding this crisp before. “Sun” sounds clearer than most of songs this producer has made before, the synths shimmering and the percussion clanking clearly, to the point that this actually sounds a lot like neighbor-to-the-north Madegg. It’s a bit more…
Footwork producer Picnicwomen has released two of the better EPs of 2012 this year, and now the fast-paced-music maker dropped a third that’s every bit as good. Super Freak doesn’t really enter into any new territory, but it’s another jittery collection of cut-up samples played over music that just darts forward. “Again” shoots for more mellow terrain…though it still ends up being carried by rapid-fire beat programming…while closer “Milk Man_s Wife” offers a ghettotech-like remix of Aphex Twin’s “Milkman,” emphasis on the line “I would like some milk from the milk man’s wife’s tits.” Listen below, or get it here.
Maybe it is just small sample size, but all of the music from Le Makeup I’ve heard thus far has been on the more hectic side. So “Friends” is a nice switch up, a slower-tempo song more intent on reflection than movement. The criss-crossing synths end up comforting, and even the slightly pitched-up voices behind…
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are calling it a day! Whatever SoundCloud rapper playing around with J-pop ideas or weirdo electronic texture lover captures my attention, indie-pop is always going to be foundational for me (can’t shake those teenage years!) and this was a group hitting on that feeling even as adolescence zoomed…
Been about five days since I last logged in here, and it has been busy to say the least. I went to Seattle to give a presentation, watched many smart music writers also give papers and worked in karaoke somehow. Then I visited family in Los Angeles during a day-long layover…and we managed to be…
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…
Vancouver-based blog Hearing Gold put together a special compilation titled Vacation Spirit in advance of the summer months. They write that these are “15 exclusive songs documenting the sounds of a blissful summer as personally expressed by their respective artists.” One of the contributors is Japan’s Teen Runnings, a trio that seems pretty well-suited to…
Some of the earliest groups I listened to when I moved to Japan were techno-pop outfits. I mean, yeah, but also a lot of smaller outfits primarily hailing from Kansai, highlighted early on by Root Thumm and BangBangBalloon (eventually rechristened Nuxx). A lot of what drew me to those outfits also pops up when listening…