昨年、当サイトのベストアルバムランキングで２位に選ばせて頂いたサカナクションが、夜の踊り子という新曲をリリースしました。ビデオも公開されていて、それはこの上からご覧になって下さい。ダンサブルなバースに極めてキャッチーなコーラス、という今までと同じスタイルを貫いているのですが、新たな試みとして、女性バックアップ・ボーカルが使われていて、新鮮さも感じられます。ビデオはローディングに時間がかかるのですが…簡単に説明すると、メンバーが日本の伝統衣装を着て富士山付近にいます。
“Pppppppp-picnicwomen-women-women-women”という強烈なタグの曲。Picnicwomenがジュークにチャレンジし、今年のお気に入りの一つになりました。このプロジェクトの最新EP、Stylusには、 “Ripstick Girl”という曲意外に、同じKool Switch Worksのアーティスト、Ahmad Jackson Jr.の曲も含まれています。”Ripstick Girl”はゆったりとしたギターで始まり、攻撃的なマシンガンのようなビートに、ググっても探すのが不可能に近いマニアックなサンプルが乗っています。その後、曲はテンポが速まり、他の要素が入ってきたりして、複雑になっていきます。Ahmad Jackson Jr.の”Done For You”も面白く、ホーンがや、泡がはじけるような音がふんだんに使われ、ミックスの奥には、J. Dillaがやっていた事で有名なサイレン・サウンドが聴こえます。購入はこちらから。 stylus ep by KOOL SWITCH WORKS
Too much good music has popped up online over the last few days…better round it all up, fast. – The ever-productive i-fls has a new album out soon, but for now enjoy a song that won’t be on his latest full-length, the “Tanabata greeting track” “You Made A Constellation.” It shimmers and whirs, i-fls capturing…
If you happen to be in Tokyo Monday night (maybe some of you are, I don’t know!) and have no plans for Tuesday, which is a national holiday, you should go to this event at Unit. It features a lot of artists Make Believe Melodies, and should be lots of fun. Say hi to me!…
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…
Bobcat – the presumably new (?) alias of Osaka’s Cloudy Busey, a.k.a Bob from Ice Cream Shout – recently uploaded his first new song of 2013, on the heels of a 2012 that saw him put out a lot of great material, capped off by an excellent mixtape. “I Was Fallin” is a straightforward slice…
Probably should do a “stuff we missed post” in the near future, because Osaka producer Metome deserves a little more shine. He’s released one of the year’s better electronic album, OPUS Cloud, and is just all around doing a lot of good work as of late. Here’s the latest song he’s made worth gushing about,…
Sakanaction, who made this site’s second favorite album of 2011, have a new single and video (above) out now called “Yoru No Odoriko.” The song finds the group continuing to play around with the dance-friendly-verse-explosive-chorus structure they’ve been exploring for a while now, although the addition of female backing vocals is a great sounding touch. The video…which takes forever to load…finds the band clad in traditional Japanese clothes standing near Mt. Fuji.
So much good music this week we’ve been doing three-a-days, damn. Fukuoka indie-pop outfit The Hearsays have a new release on the horizon, and here’s our first taste of it. “The Blind” features hazy-day guitar work that brings to mind Real Estate – the sort of music content to crack open a Budweiser and walk…
Gotta do this quick because I HAVE WORK but a few of the highlights of the Fuji Rock lineup: – Arctic Monkeys – Deerhoof (!) – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (!) – Warpaint (!!!!) – Atari Teenage Riot – Wilco – Yellow Magic Orchestra – Mogwai Full list here.
A blog focused on discovering the music landscape of Japan wouldn’t be complete without at least a mention of SMAP. I’ve had the chance to listen to a decent amount of SMAP tracks (and have even more to sort through, though I’m in no rush…) and for the most part they aren’t very good. Since…
Osaka’s Mountain has been creating some of Japan’s best drum ‘n’ bass over the last few years, and their most recent release through Soulvent Records marks a particular energetic high for the project. “Overheat” starts things off nicely, featuring a zippy pace joined by some vocal stutters of varying pitches. It’s a nice setter, but…
After a few years kicking around on independent labels, duo Chelmico have arrived on a major label. It’s a logical step up for a group who have done as good a job merging pop with rap over the last few years, and new album Power out August 8 comes at a time when a lot…
Oh PellyColo, you flatter us too much: “He always dreamed to be a better man/but no one tells him what is good or bad/avoiding critics is the easy way out/the ones who judge you are a clever man.” Beyond this nice little shout out to all the music critics out there, producer/player PellyColo’s newest song…