Elen Never SleepsとSuper VHSがスプリットEPを発表しました。White Surrender/Stuck On Youに収録された曲は、どちらも彼らの今までのスタイルとは異なった方向性となり、新しい可能性を追求した良作と言えるでしょう。Elen Never Sleepsによる”White Surrender”は、今までのドリーミーなサウンドより、少しくっきりとした曲です。きちんと輪郭のあるボーカルに時折囁くようなコーラスが混ざり、ギターとミニマルなビートの上に重ねられています。ボーカルはハイトーンではやや不安定なものの、ミニマルな曲に上手くマッチしています。Super VHSの”Stuck On You”は、彼の楽曲の中でもダントツにガレージ・ロック寄りと言えるでしょう。短いものの、バックグラウンドに面白いノイズが使われていて興味深いです。 EPには東京のトラックメーカー、Taquwamiによるリミックスも含まれています。不思議なことにWhite Surrenderのリミックスは、すごくドリーミーに作られているため、本人達の物より、過去のElen Never Sleepsスタイルに近く感じられます。遅くされたボーカルを除けばElenのオリジナルのようになるでしょう。Taquwamiのサイドプロジェクト、Occult YouとしてリミックスされたStuck On Youは、ガレージからガラリと変わり、Toro-Y-Moiのようなダンスチューンになっています。視聴、ダウンロード(無料)は以下より。 White Surrender / Stuck On You by Gay Vegan Vinyl Cassette
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…
Call And Response Recordsの新しいコンピレーションアルバム、”Dancing After 1 AM”は、我々の友達、イアン・マーティンのレーベルのものなので…探す手間が省けました。18曲も収録されているこのアルバムには、日本屈指のロック・アーティスト達も参加しています。She Talks Silenceが陰のような美しいギターを奏でる一方で、The Morningsの”Fuji”は去年にリリースされた”Save The Mornings”に引き続き、彼ららしい作品。POP-OFFICE、New HouseやTacobondsなども参加していて、さすがだな、と言わざるを得ません。今まで紹介してこなかったExtrudersによる“Collapsing New Buildings”はミニマルで、呟くようなボーカルとギターの鋭いストロークが良い味を出しています。Puffyshoesも1分程参加しています。 “Dancing After 1 AM”が持つフックといえば、ニューウェーブ・デュオのMIRがこのアルバムでカムバックし、新曲を1曲提供しているという所。これからの活動も期待しているのですが、“Dance”は、このグループの過去のハイライトを5分でまとめたような曲になっています。シンセとビートが良いグルーブ感を出しているのですが、それだけで終わらないのがこのグループの強み。決してアップビートではない、ナイーブなボーカルが、この曲を独特にしています。このような悲しげな、かつアップテンポなダンスミュージックは中々探しても出てこないですし、巧みにひねりを加えた独特な楽曲が多いので、Dancing After 1 AM、オススメです。 List of where to buy the album here.
Not quite time to break out the year-end accolade around these parts yet…getting closer…and that’s good, because producer Tomggg just released a new three-song album via Maltine Records. Despite only boasting a trio of new material, Tomggg overloads almost every second of these numbers with sounds. Each song is named after a Japanese fashion magazine…
After a triumphant year that saw her release one of the year’s absolute stunners, May.e has decided to end the year by releasing a second full-length album called Shiseikatsu for free online. It, seemingly, is built in very much the same style as her debut Mattiola. She plays an acoustic guitar and sings. Her voice…
Late last year, the electronic-music-from-all-across-Japan compilation Fogpak #4 came out, and it was a fantastic collection of digital music from all over this fine country. At 21 tracks, though, it could feel a little daunting, regardless of how much great music the folks behind crammed into it. Welp, Fogpak #5 dropped over the weekend and…
Bedroom-whizz Shugo Tokumaru has released his first glimpse of the follow-up to 2010’s Port Entropy in the form of new single “Decorate.” For those expecting his whimsical, toy-instrument heavy music to morph into something new by now, prepare to be let down because “Decorate” is another solid example of his playroom pop. Tokumaru’s usual assortment of bells, woodwinds and acoustic guitar dominates this song, and at one point he even works in the sound of an alarm clock ringing off. Also intact – the same sense of wonder the majority of Tokumaru’s tracks possess. Listen above. You can buy the single in stores now, and if you do, you also will get the chance to hear Tokumaru’s take on The Buggles’ MTV-launching “Video Killed The Radio Star.” I don’t know what the single version sounds like, but watch Shugo deliver a cutesy live cover below.
Sampling Sea Compilation gathers ten house tracks from producers across Japan, all featuring a slight faded feel but ultimately forceful dance numbers on their own. While there’s a slight nautical theme running throughout, it never really comes to the surface, which is fine — delicate numbers like AFAMoo’s “Submarine” and Asazuke’s “Midnight Victoria Line” Things…
Not to dwell on 2014 too much…the new calendar is out, we are all trying to forget the past 12 months happened…but Osaka producer Soleil Soleil’s Sense collection came pretty close to bum rushing our personal top-20 album list, probably existing at like, 23 or 24 for those who love specific rankings. He’s off to…
In all honesty, I probably could just listen to i-fls’ entire catalog and nothing else for the rest of my life and feel OK. It took awhile for Artificial Outsider to arrive — well, in i-fls time, as his last release came out in May, but over six months is a serious drought — so…
Kyoto’s Homecomings have found their corner of the music world, and they fit snuggly into it. “Songbirds” is their latest song, and it is a further Sharpie-underlining of what they do so well. No band in Japan captures suburban ennui —- a very Kyoto-born longing, a place that allows for the space and time to…
Few groups in Japan…or anywhere else, really, at a time when pop music is suffocatingly serious (save for hip-hop)…balance humor with longing as well as Kindan No Tasuketsu. “Goodbye My Cinderella (Kindan Ver.)” isn’t the song to use as a jumping off point into a deeper discussion of this, because last year’s “Chasing The Eurobeat”…
Add to the “late to it, but still great” file I’m filling up quite nicely — producer Secret Space released the album Believe one month ago, though it sounds every bit as enchanting now as it probably did then. As has long been Secret Space’s style, these songs are dreamy and nostalgic — “Past” literally…