Producer Rigly Chang is launching a new house-focused project called RGL, and will put out his first release at the start of February via Breaker Breaker Recordings. “S.U.G.A” is the first taste of it, and as advertised, it finds the producer really embracing the style, complete with understated piano line and vocal snippet. It slowly morphs throughout, RGL always maintaining a groove even as the kick punches through. Listen at Mixmag, who premiered it.
Producer MPEG-7 has previously caught our attention for more emotionally wrenching electronic numbers. Typically built around synthesizer swirls and samples, it’s a formula that can result in emotionally rich music…but also sometimes drift a bit too much towards lifeless beat making. “Nama-Mono” buzzsaws away from both sides to show off a different side of MPEG-7….
It’s one of the most uninspiring names Ive ever heard while doing this blog – Sound Image, a title that seems so matter-of-fact it seems only a few pegs up from naming your project “Music Project.” Coupled with a near-complete lack of information, Sound Image is the sort of musical entity you see on your…
Perhaps in an effort to counter Uniqlo’s line of doofy music t-shirts, the GAP has recruited a handful of younger, vaguely “in” Japanese artists for a new campaign. Up until this week, they had gotten Awesome City Club,* Happy and Never Young Beach to model clothes and play music, an alright line-up but not one…
文化の中心は東京だと思われがちですが、関西も同様に栄えています。それでも大阪や京都の印象が強いですよね。ここ２年くらいその２つの場所ではダンス・ミュージックが盛り上がっていましたし。かつての首都であり、大仏や鹿が有名な奈良はどうでしょうか？良いアーティストを多数輩出しているものの、あまりダンス・ミュージックのイメージはありませんね。でもそんな奈良からも最近Sakasaというアーティストが出てきて、Coin Bender EPでは前向きなビートやノイズを奏でています。”Let your body dance, and let your brain dance more,” と説明されるこの三曲入りEPからは、名古屋のHouse Of Tapesとも共通点を感じます。どちらもメンタルとフィジカル両方に響くので。一曲目のタイトル・トラックなんかは特にそうで、歯医者のドリルみたいな身震いしそうな激しいノイズでビートが構築されています。”Pond”では逆に柔らかな印象。華やかなシンセのレイヤーが乗っているビートがこちらも徐々に重なっていきます。体を動かすにも世界観にも浸るにも適した美しい曲です。
(Guess today’s theme is juke artists in Japan) Oh, those moments when something sounds so familiar yet you can’t place just what it is. The last song on Japanese (well, Japan stretching to San Francisco) juke group Paisley Parks newest collection Payzulee Packs centers around a saxophone sample I know I’ve heard multiple times before….
There’s always bands like this, probably in every country – an outfit (or individual) in love with the synth-tastic sounds of the 1980s, enamored by the sleekness but also the heartstring-tugging abilities of those bright-ass noises. Japan has no shortage of these groups – Nile Long (formerly The Brixton Academy), Orland, Give Me Wallets (now…