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Cool Down: Osamu Ansai’s “Woman”
It sometimes feels stupid to describe a song as being “perfect for Summer” (or any specific time), like it’s a cop out in regards to poking deeper into a piece of music. Even when the artist advertises it as so! Yet here I am, confronted with Osamu Ansai’s “Woman,” a Maltine-backed track, that really begs…
Music Alliance Pact January 2013
New year, same great feature. Here’s the first Music Alliance Pact post of 2013, and representing Japan this month is Tokyo’s OKLobby and their mesmerizing track “Fireworks.” Listen to it…and a whole bunch of other great songs from around the globe (Dragon Inn 3, nice!) below. Click the play button icon to listen to individual…
Memory No. 36 Recordings Prep First Compilation, Featuring New Stuff From The Paellas And Wallflower
Canadian cassette label Memory No. 36 Recordings is no stranger to showcasing great Japanese music flying under the radar. They released Elen Never Sleeps dreamy Silver EP earlier this year, and are working with Boyish on a new tape due sometime in the near future. They are releasing their first compilation this Friday (April 19…
Make Believe Melodies’ Best Albums Of The Year: 20-11
Photoshop scares me, so I’m mailing it in with my favorite character of the year holding a guitar. Back in 2011 when I published this list (remember when I skipped doing this last year? Best album was from MiChi, best song was from…AKB48), a question that writer James Hadfield posed to me was…how many of…
New Sakanaction: “Music”
Sakanaction’s latest single “Music,” due out January 23, finds the group touching on some of their older material. The way lead singer Ichiro Yamaguchi stretches out syllables in the verses brings to mind the single “Endless,” while the late-song surge in emotion resembles another cut from DocumentaLy, “Monochrome Tokyo.” Yet this isn’t the sound of…
Beat Tapes: Outdoorminer’s “TRB,” Visko’s “GJ部,” Miii’s “Flow From Frame (Demo)”
Sometimes a bunch of good electronic music comes out all at once in Japan, and it ends up being easiest to feature it all in one nice post. Today is one of those days. Osaka’s Cloudy Busey is no stranger to making heavy-feelings dance music – his Only Devotion mixtape under the moniker Bobcat showcases…
New Seiho: “Underwater”
Here’s your Japanese future-pop summer jam of 2012. Seiho’s “Underwater” is another fine swirl of digitally manipulated vocals and wonky electronics, this one with a few clever seasonal touches (watery sounds!). “Underwater” also highlights two of the reasons Seiho has become one of the best young music makers in Japan today. First, his songs are never just excuses to show off what his cool equipment can do. These songs go places and have structures – “Underwater” features this great build towards a bubble-powered release, Seiho adding a dash of tenseness to his music. The other detail is the bass. It sounds so precise but also so funky…so fun…that it could have come from a Zazen Boys’ song. A friend compared it to Seinfeld, but I don’t think it’s quite slap-happy enough, but he’s write about it being laid back. Listen below.
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Live Must: Ningen OK
Ningen OKは是非ライブを観てほしいバンド。彼らについてあまり詳しく知らなかったものの、先週末のライブセットは最近観たライブの中でも特に印象に残っています。手作りの白いピラミッドのようなオブジェに囲まれて彼等は演奏を開始。ギターTakurou Yamashitaは大量のペダルの前で演奏し、ドラムのKen-ichi Sakaguchiは時折ボコーダーを使用し、怪しい機械的なボーカルを披露。言葉が無いインストでもこのデュオには高度な一体感があり、ロックなグルーブ感を出しています。 ライブハウスだけで輝くのではなく、録音された作品も同様に素晴らしいです。”体温の行方”は静けさを打ち砕くカオスみたいなものが上手く表現されていて、Ningen OKの核となるスタイルを知るにはもってこいな曲(フィードバックを是非体感してほしいです)。試聴は以下から。最近リリースされた同タイトルのファーストアルバムからの曲なので、もし気に入ったら通して聴く事をオススメします。要するに、Ningen OKの音源にはライブから感じる事の出来る素晴らしさが詰まっています。是非ブックマークを。
New Teen Runnings: “New Work Silly”
Shota Kaneko goofs around and visits a wax museum in the video for “New Work Silly,” a bouncy song from this year’s Now album. As it goes, “New Work Silly” finds Teen Runnings sounding extremely sunny and surf-ready, but the lyrics hint at something a touch less blissful.
New AAPS: “Wearing Light Space”
Oh AAPS, you impatient guys. They’ve previously dabbled in noise and dubstep, and their latest streaming song finds them…imitating Tortoise circa TNT. That is to say, “Wearing Light Space” sounds vaguely tropical and drifty. AAPS manage to work in a bit of creepiness via some muffled singing late in the track, but for the most…
We Can All Win: Ryuei Kotoge
Over the past decade, Detroit producer J. Dilla has become one of the most influential musicians to those who create all over the world. Dilla, who passed away in early 2006, made beats that have been rapped over by the like of The Pharcyde and Common amongst many others, and many contemporary beat producers cite…
Electronic Catch-Up: Mirrorball Inferno, Waver Friends And Ryuei Kotoge Remixes Free The Robots
So much electronic music has slithered out over the past few days, let’s spend some time catching up with three of the better tracks to pop up online from the Japanese scene. – Maltine Records at this point serves as a seal of quality as much as a label, as they tend to do a…
Phuey’s Triumphant Gets Remixed By Seimei & Taimei, Machete And More
One of the better releases out of Japan in the last month and a half was Fukuoka-based artist Phuey’s high-energy stomper Triumphant, a diverse collection out of the Yesterday Once More crew. Well, when you have a good thing, better savor it as long as you can…that imprint has now called up some other producers…
