This year saw a first from techno-pop trio Perfume – a dud. “Mirai No Museum,” a song written for a Doraemon movie, was greeted with mostly shrugs and “ehhhhh, hope the next one is better” from the group’s usually rabid fanbase. It did alright sales wise, but failed to ignite even real hate from anyone…
日本でもネットレーベルが定着しつつありますね。今年の五月に創立したエレクトロ系レーベルのTrekkie Traxはご存知でしょうか?素晴らしいコンピをリリースしているので、是非お聴きあれ。八曲収録されたこのXYZというアルバムには日本中からアーティストが集められています。東京からはMiiiが参加していて、”Far Away (About Three Kilometers)”を提供しているのですが、これが非常に良い。Hudson-Mohawkeぽいシンセからモッシュが可能なダブステップまで広く影響を感じさせる曲は、単調になる事無く、聴く耳を離しません。XYZには他にもSeimei And Taimeiの”Drub The Floor” 、Carpainterの”Kick Back”とIsagenの”+o”がオススメです。ダウンロードはこちらから.
My image of Tokyo long ago became demystified, even before I got a room in a sleepy corner of the city and decided to call Japan’s capital my current home. It’s just a sprawling place to me, one mixing glassy skyscrapers with drab apartment complexes disrupted by the occasional park or shrine. It is nothing…
One of my grand theories…the sort you start scribbling notes on in Tumblr before being like “nah, gotta develop this a bit more” before hitting the big ol’ “X” in the corner…is that Yasutaka Nakata is secretly one of the major influences of contemporary EDM. One day, I’ll actually write that, but for now we…
All the trademark sounds are right there on De De Mouse’s latest song “Milkyway Planet.” The keyboards sparkle, and his thinly sliced vocals are as fast as they’ve ever been in his career. Yet “Milkyway Planet” never explodes into technicolor, never turns into a drum ‘n’ bass workout or zippy pop number. It is De…
The defining moment on Tokyo-based producer Ryuuta Takaki’s Stillness EP comes near the end, on the track “Phantasm.” The track opens in a relaxed and minimal matter, bordering on sounding like an electronic imitation of a peaceful meadow. Takaki’s sounds resemble the chirping of birds, and only a skittering beat really seems out of place….
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.
Lovely Summer Chan makes her major label debut today, with the song “Fly Fly Fly.” Moving to a bigger company comes with some tricky baggage — check the video above, which transforms into a commercial midway through, straight from the Hoshino Gen playbook — but her music sounds unchanged, built on driving guitars and her…
It’s gone from sorta neat to kinda annoying to pretty impressive that the 80’s remain such an artistic inspiration to so many musicians. Remember, this is a decade most people want to forget, or at the very least lampoon – VH1 greenlit a 10-part series about making fun of the ’80s. Yet just like how…
Couldn’t we all take things a bit slower? Maybe that’s just the first week back working talking, but that was one of the initial draws of listening to producer Takeda Soshi’s SlowFusion, a two-song set inspired by “80’s late fusion that I listened to at the end of last year was good, so I made…
So this is some twisty Internet magic ahead, so let’s take it one step at a time. – This week, Kobe’s tofubeats release First Album, via major-label Unborde (of Warner Brothers Japan). I reviewed that one over at Wondering Sound – it’s great, and one of the better albums capturing the allure of the Internet…
I mean…why shouldn’t this exist? Why not!? So Ryuichi Sakamoto has teamed up with two rappers and a guy who mostly plays Indian instruments to create a new song. Given the current clout Sakamoto has in all musical circles, this is kind of a surprising choice. But then again…it is Sakamoto, so it also feels…
For me, a lot of Japanese rap ends up the missing mark not because artists are taking heavy cues from American artists, but because they forget to build from that base and find their own voice (which, funny enough, is a trapping of artists around the world, and in America too). It doesn’t take long…