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…
Bobcat – the presumably new (?) alias of Osaka’s Cloudy Busey, a.k.a Bob from Ice Cream Shout – recently uploaded his first new song of 2013, on the heels of a 2012 that saw him put out a lot of great material, capped off by an excellent mixtape. “I Was Fallin” is a straightforward slice…
The artists revolving around the INNIT community have certainly kept busy at the start of 2014 – Seiho is all over the place, Madegg is opening for The Field next weekend, Magical Mistakes is remixing other Osaka artists with great results and Avec Avec pops up on the Maltine Girls’ Wave album. Now comes a…
Not sure what Fancy Books has been up to since they captured our attention (and hearts) last year, highlighted by one of 2012’s best songs in the dizzying “Sister Carry Stars.” We do know, though, what male half of the group Mitsuomi has been cooking up. He recently unveiled his new solo project Para Omi,…
Sweet, another opportunity to tell you to go get your hands on spazzkid’s Desire, which might very well be my favorite non-Japanese album of 2013 so far. OK, got that out of the way…one of Tokyo’s most intriguing home-based producers i-fls has gone and made an unofficial remix of spazzkid’s “Getting To Know You,” transporting…
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.
Moving at an appropriately frosted-over speed, Killing Boy’s “Frozen Music” lingers around so long it’s easy to slap one of the bigger critical cop-outs on it and just call it “boring.” This isn’t fair for two reasons – first off, it’s their song “Call 4 U” which really deserves that label, a meandering number where…
Good week for indie-pop darlings in Tokyo jumping up to bigger labels. For Tracy Hyde — who used to count Lovely Summer Chan as a member, just to tie that last link back to this — will be releasing their first full-length album in early December, and ahead of it they’ve shared “Favourite Blue.” True…
Mondo Grosso appears to be here to stay, rather than just be a one-off comeback responsible for a solid album and a song-of-the-year contender. “Itsuwari No Sympathy” — out on streaming services for at least a month now, but finally blessed with a video today — finds Shinichi Osawa continuing to explore the electronic wisps…
Whereas Perfume has always served as his gateway to the radio stations and Pino commercials of Japan, Yasutaka Nakata’s Capsule project seems to work as his in to the cooler circles of the country. With Capsule he could edge away from the pure-pop chewing gum of his highest-profile gig to make songs ready for the…
Kyoto’s Toxxies get a touch slower on newest song “Satellite,” a drifting number highlighting the duo at a different tempo than usual. Similar to their hometown’s Emerald Four, “Satellite” floats along and isn’t afraid to let some space surround the song, with the verses featuring the slightest synth and beat, which allows the digi-dusted vocals…
Mad & Sad is a brief wrangling with emotions, and of getting out the bad ones. “In 2016,i was lost in sadness and i called the feeling ‘mad sad.’ I need to create something for my brighter future,” YTAMO writes alongside this three-song therapy session. And it is at its best when really wrestling with…