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。
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
Osaka’s Hideo Nakasako has let some time pass since last year’s great Time Passes album, but he’s posted a three-song EP to SoundCloud that makes all the months that came before it worth it. The highlight is the opening track “Groove Me,” which opens with sea-sick synths reminiscent of what Tokyo’s mus.hiba deals with on…
Nagoya’s Figure pretty much exists outside of any current Japanese music scene going today. His music easily could be classified as DIY indie-pop, but dude’s work is both too dark and too gravely to match up with the rest of Japan’s sunny twee charms. Figure also isn’t particularly arty or wild, discounting him from the…
CUZ ME PAIN projects Faron Square and :visited are no loner around making woozy dance music, but pivotal-member-in-the-prior-and-uhhh-the-whole-project-of-the-latter Yyoke has a new project under the Tokyo label’s umbrella. White Wear has been kicking around, mostly making remixes, since last year, but now he’s got his first EP out. Called A Black From White Space, the…
I’m not sure whether Diorama Books are a bookstore or an independent book publisher (or…both!), but they have somehow made a collaboration between Kansai producer Okadada and the lead singer of the band Skirt a reality. It’s a nice bit of 80s-indebted pop, Okadada giving the song a warped electronic feel courtesy of his keyboards,…
Long time since we heard from Tokyo’s Puffyshoes, and going forward who knows when (….if?) we will hear from them again. So let’s all devote a decent chunk of time to enjoying “Heatwave,” their latest feedback-touched quickie. The highlight here are the vocals, which might be hard to hear, but are so damn catchy it…
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.
Heavenstamp aren’t good because they represent some sudden break from the Japanese rock mainstream, but rather because they take everything the J-Rock bigwigs have made stereotype and give it emotional CPR. Ignore the press courtesy of indie-leaning mags like Snoozer and blogs (cough), Heavenstamp are J-Rock at their core, doing all the things other things…
Thanks to good timing, 2015 thus far has featured a lot of exiting returns in the Japanese music scene. Some of the dudes from Ghost will be debuting a new project soon, Tokyo duo Puffyshoes emerged from retirement and now Kobe-based imprint Million Pavilions Records is back with a new compilation album. The label emerged…
Aya Gloomy’s initial foray into music after joining up with Tokyo’s Big Love Records was to create a buzzing, unsettling number that gave just enough room for her singing to come through clearly, even if the whole song felt like it was being sucked into a whirlpool. Now she has her proper debut album out…
We’ve been on a bit of a textural kick recently, tickled by music that aims for a sense of feel. Producer Ojaco has long been doing this sort of sound well, and his recently released Head In The Clouds album is one of his strongest collections yet. The trick lies in Ojaco’s ability to mix…
Lullatone Spinning Mobile from lullatone on Vimeo. Lullatone continue their minimalist march to becoming the new Babies ‘R’ Us with their latest offering, the Lullatone spinning mobile kit. As the video above reveals, you can arrange the shapes however you’d like and your kid will love it! Adorable stuff, which you can buy here.
CLAT is a part and collective based out of Tokyo, focusing mainly on techno and dance music, but also making a bit of space for more laid-back, sophisticated pop sounds. The latter is how I stumbled across the recently released When I Was Holden Gaulfield EP, a sampler of sorts of the crew, as Half…