先週東京のデュオ、She talks Silenceが新曲”Walk Away”をSoundCloudで発表しました。Minami Yamaguchiは短いイントロの中で”walk away now”の持つ意味を明確にし、そこから速いテンポで短い３分間程度ギターをかき鳴らしていきます。”I know you’ll hate me”という印象的なフレーズが象徴するように、後ろを振り向かずに前へ前へと進みたい気持ちと共に疾走する美しい曲です。試聴は以下から。
I wouldn’t describe the music Elen Never Sleeps makes as being “dramatic,” at least in the sonic sense. That said, his songs often contain emotional push-pull, evidenced all over this year’s fantastic Silver EP. That collection of songs sounds dreamy and ennui-rich, Elen Never Sleeps always facing some sort of emotional obstacle even when his…
“Goodbye to the hackneyed ‘beats’!!!!!” So goes the last sentence of Canooooopy’s description of his newest album, Polymorphism Vs. Valleystayers. Confrontational statements are not a common sight in the Japanese music scene…at least not ones broadcast publicly…yet here we have a producer who has been gaining steam online over the past few months throwing at…
Few sounds get me more ramped up than that skittery “PICNIC WOMEN” sample that pops up in every song the Japanese footwork creator makes. Doesn’t matter what comes before or after (though that also tends to be good) – when I hear those four syllables, I get excited. Seiho played a Picnic Women song at…
No nonsense here – here’s a Japanese outfit out of Sapporo that provides info but not too much information about themselves. They put on a party every once in awhile, and have a few songs online that came out prior to “Queen Anne.” But man oh man, “Queen Anne.” This is direct, bouncy pop, no…
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
The guiding principal behind Make Believe Melodies, ever since I founded it all the way back in 2009, was to focus exclusively on music from Japan. Truth is, though, I have certainly broken that guiding principal every once in awhile – I’ve written about Japanese artists who currently reside in other countries, and have even…
Last week, Tokyo duo She Talks Silence posted a new song called “Walk Away” to their SoundCloud. It’s more like a gallop – after a minimal intro where Minami Yamaguchi sets the scene and makes her intention to “walk away now” clear, STS launches into a fast-paced guitar passage that lasts for the majority of the song’s just-over-three-minute playtime. “I know you’ll hate me,” Yamaguchi sings at one point, and from there “Walk Away” sounds like a dash forward, one that refuses to look back towards whatever it is it wants to avoid. Listen below.
Broken Haze’s chop-shop bass continues to reveal new layers to itself. The producer’s newest release, the VTEC EP, explores similar right-off-the-production-line sounds as previous releases via the BetaPack collective — opener “NSX” features drill sounds among other garage details, rounded out by tight bass notes and party-starting percussion. Despite the sleek, chrome exterior, Broken Haze…
Today in “catching up on releases from the summer,” Tokyo duo ELLEH shared Anthems Part 2 in late August, building on the sad boy disco of the first installment in the series. If Anthems Part 1 dwelled mainly on the downtrodden side of their dance-pop, Part 2 adds a little hope to the mix via…
I don’t remember Kiwi being this wonderfully goofy when they released the Promise EP via Zoom Lens this past March. That one — a two-song set that really introduced the pairing of producer AZUpubschool and Osaka singer Coris — certainly had some upbeat instances (“GreedGreed”) but ultimately was a pretty dramatic and shifty affair. “Kiwi…
Cubismo Grafico and Matias Tellez must have hit it off at the Flake Records show earlier this month. Grafico remixed Tellez’s “Convicted,” giving the Norwegian artist’s poppy tune a dancefloor punch. Tracks up at Flake Records MySpace, check it out.
Misato Kinoshita seems to roam in the same territory a lot of people who could be pretty good straight-ahead singers in Japan sometime wander into – instead of settling for safe sonic terrain, they instead mingle with experimental electronics, letting their voice loose over exciting new scapes. Kinoshita dabbles mostly with minimalism, various electric burbles…
Off of their just-released full-length Strings, Boyish’s “Hikoukigumo Sora Ni Hitosuji” presents a way to incorporate saxophone into an indie-pop song without crashing into full blown city pop. Which is becoming more of a problem in 2016 — look, I’ll go to bat for ’80s city pop any day, but the current “city pop revival”…