Sapphire Slows will release a new EP, The Role Of Purity, out at the end of March via Nous. Ahead of that, she’s shared “Speculation,” a skeletal bit of electronic music getting a lot of mileage out of space. She strings together “Speculation,” adding small parts as the song twinkles forward, a lot of the most intriguing details happening in the background, such as her voice rippling off and adding a haunting effect to the whole song. Listen above.
This blog is currently so young (and I’m still so new to life in Japan) that trying to carve out an identity proves to be tougher than originally imagined. Should I strictly write about contemporary artists, or should I take a broader look at Japanese music, including older acts? And how does mainstream Japanese music…
Ambition is a hell of a thing, but certain artists just really need to chase it. Daoko built her reputation on mystery — she was a wise-beyond-her-years high school rapper who never showed her face and took Sotaisei Riron’s tone of a teenager scribbling personal poetry during a boring math class and applied it to…
This two-song collaboration, between EYE of Boredoms and manic noise duo Gagakirise, came out in August via Thrill Jockey, but (I’m pretty sure) for the first time you can hear Gagakiriseye in its entirety on Bandcamp. The news hook here (errrr, when it came out) is that this is the first time EYE has appeared…
Rapper Kid Fresino and Seiho teamed up last year for the latter’s “Cherry Pie,” a number that found the prior navigating a track that sounded like a swarm of electronic bees. It was an effective pairing — I’ll go as far as to say that, personally, it is the best Kid Fresino has sounded —…
Despite being their most zonked out number lyrically to date, Yurufuwa Gang’s “Fresh All Day” manages to avoid falling into the ether. That’s not a bad spot for the pair — last year’s “Palm Tree” being a strong argument for just letting the void devour you entirely — but this one works because Ryan Hemsworth’s…
The international connections struck up by footwork producers are among the best aspects of this genre, beyond the music itself. Here’s one case of producers leaping over borders to create something great. Japanese artist KΣITO’s new Cape EP comes courtesy of Polish Juke, a label offering just that and worth investigating for all with an…