First off, apologies to It Happens, as I will take one paragraph to vent a little, distracting from this perfectly serviceable indie-pop song. It has only been one month into 2014, but already I’m wondering what has gone wrong with this year. I have gotten extremely cynical about music of all types, and even moreso…
Talking City 1994 are one of those outfits that is constantly releasing new music, uploading new songs to SoundCloud at a very fast clip and forcing anyone interested in them to always be on their toes. It can oftentimes feel like they are just spitting songs out into the online void, without much cohesion. Plenty…
Indie-pop outfit Traffic Light have a new two-song set out, highlighted by the Sunday-morning-church-session-turned-pop-hop-a-long “Clocks.” It is a solid bit of indie-pop, though the most interesting element are the lyrics, which mention Jesus and actually seem to be commenting on the Holy Trinity one a little bit. There seems to be more going on…but that’s…
For Tracy Hyde has expanded a bit – they’ve grown in number of members, which I saw at a live show they played recently. Despite a rise in the number of folks in the band, new song “Small Town, Summer Rain” still sounds like For Tracy Hyde. It’s a peppy indie-pop song…crucially, sang in Japanese…accented…
Honestly, I’m still not sure how this grabbed my attention. Was it the name of the band and song, neither of which really make any sense? Was it their minimalist Bandcamp, featuring just this one song and with a header that’s nothing more than an e-mail address? The track at the center of all this,…
“Patrick, I thought you had nothing new to say about Japanese indie-pop?” “I probably don’t, but that’s not going to stop me from highlighting this new song from Homecomings.” “Huh? I don’t follow.” “Well, Homecomings don’t do anything particularly new, especially in the ever-crowded field of Japanese indie-pop. It has been, what, three years since…
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.
One should always be hesitant of almost anything appearing on April 1…that is, after all, the day when everyone website around decides to have some lolz and wheel out some gags. Despite one song here being titled “April Fool Lover,” looks like i-fls has no goofy intent with the Betrayed Devotion EP. His music always…
New year, new Music Alliance Pact post! Why not continue adjusting to 2012 with the help of the following songs, selected by music blogs based all around the world. For MAP this go around, Make Believe Melodies chose ferocious Tokyo rockers Praha Depart and their song “Portrait Man” (which placed #36 in our top songs…
Nothing on Migration clicks completely, but everything clicks just right. The duo of Mondo Algorithm dabble in a kind of music where the distance between every element is clear, but it snaps together all the same. See “Dive,” a woozy number moving at half speed that features locked-in bass, synth washes and out-of-time vocals. Yet…
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…
The right amount of cute can be tricky to pull off in music. The “kawaii bass” wave of the last few years has mostly receded, but twinkly dance-pop numbers still appear frequently, and they can just be too much, relying on high-pitched singing and an abundance of playroom-ready sounds instead of a good idea. Wotoha…
Electronic artist Miii continues exploring just what someone can do with the bass-rattling properties of dance music on the short Mythology release. Following a bit of string-centric fanfare to open the album, Miii dives right into the experimentation with “Arachne,” built on bass freakouts and discombobulated voices. It’s a drop locked into eternity, with Miii…