宅録ミュージシャンのトクマルシューゴが、2010年の作品”Port Entropy”に続くシングル、”Decorate”をリリースしました。今までの楽しいおもちゃ箱のような曲以上を望んでいる人にとっては期待はずれかもしれませんね。今回も、遊び心に満ちた曲に仕上がっています。ベル、木管楽器とアコースティックギターが曲の多くを占め、目覚まし時計のような茶目っ気のある音も面白いです。彼のスタイルは全く損なわれていないです。視聴は上から。シングルを購入すれば、トクマルシューゴによる、かつてMTVで大ヒットしたバグルスの、”ラジオ・スターの悲劇”のカバーも聴けます。シングルカットがどうなっているかは知りませんが、ライブバージョンは以下から視聴できます。
Shortcake Collage TapeのVHSに直接録音したようなサウンドがとても好みです。新曲”✈Empire≈Beach☼” は、過去の名曲”Polaroid Full Of Kisses“にファズのようなフィルターをかけて潰したような作品です。”Empire Beach”は南国風のヴァイブを持っていて、ビーチリゾートのプロモーションで使われていそう。特に印象的な瞬間は、１分４０秒くらいの時にスムーズなジャズ・サックスが流れる時で、その穏やかな瞬間にいつまでも留まりたくなります。その後、アニメか映画のサンプルが呟き始め、曲の終わりとともに消えていき、最後に沖縄と囁きます。視聴は以下から。 あと違った意味で注目すべきは、一ヶ月くらい前にリリースされた”Meet Me In Your Dreams”で、これはとても笑わせてくれます。何が面白いかというと、この夏、YouTubeで動画を再生する際に頻繁に流れた、元SDN48の芹那ちゃんが出演していたコマーシャル、芹那 ザ ジレット ジェルジニーがサンプルネタになっているからです。何はともあれ、SCTが彼女の喋りを使って面白くユニークな作品を作ったのは素晴らしい事だと思います。
Bits and pieces from this, CUZ ME PAIN project White Wear’s debut album, have been popping up over the last few months. Yet the final product, Black Strings, has been only available in stores in Japan since its release. Now, though, White Wear has uploaded the whole thing to SoundCloud so everyone can enjoy the…
Slow Beach are a Japanese indie-pop supergroup of sorts – they feature Kai Takahashi and Twangy Twagny (a.k.a. Dai Ogasawara), but find both of them making surf-leaning music (see – the name). They’ve released their first album, called Lover Lover and you can get it for free here. Go do that! I’ll write more on…
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…
Man, sometimes all you can do is say “no busy stuff today.” It’s really easy to forget the importance of just blowing the outside world off and taking it easy for a lazy Sunday or sleepy afternoon. I would like to think Osaka duo Spider Cloud agree with me – at least, I’m willing to…
Note: This will be the final regular update around these parts for a bit…starting tomorrow (hopefully!) we will share MBM’s top 20 Japanese albums of the year. And then we will go on a vacation where posts will be more infrequent. Fittingly, we end with Especia. Osaka idol outfit Especia – who take cues from…
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.
Frasco really moves on “Reality.” The duo have spent most of their existence at a more mid-tempo speed, creating synth-pop adjacent to the chill sounds gaining popularity in the greater mainstream while working in wonkier electronic details to give their songs a color all their own. But “Reality” moves at a swift pace, the usual…
1. In a moment of pure honest — I kind of hate streaming services. Well, at least as someone maintaining a blog (ha!) in 2016 (ha ha!), as lots of great albums appear on, like, Apple Music, but I feel like I can’t really write about them here, since they seem so inaccessible to most…
Halloween is creeping up on us, with festivities in Japan probably starting (and quite possibly being at their peak) this weekend. KiWi’s love of all things spooky and Adam’s Family values makes them apt to share a new song for the season, and “Obake Nante Kowakunai” is a free download until Oct. 31. It’s more…
“We are not band!” So declare whoever makes up A.B. Perspectives, a relatively minimalist electro group out of Tokyo. Whether that declaration means only one person operates under this moniker or whether this group doesn’t see themselves as a traditional band is never made clear…whichever way, A.B. Perspectives craft some lovely electronic blankets. Their music…
Sometimes you just need to give yourself over to noise. Sappy have operated in a variety of modes over the last couple of years, but with “Pathos” they choose to stare straight down and embrace shoegaze. They’ve waded into this territory before, but “Pathos” finds them almost going to stereotypical with the sound, with ample…
A lot of words get mushed together on Hoshina Anniversary’s new track “Everybody Plays The Music.” Yet it’s the titular phrase that manages to escape unscathed and take center spotlight, emerging from the throbbing electronics to serve as the song’s (intelligible) chorus. The rest of “Everybody Plays The Music” features sliced-up vocals (or French???) that…