Look, I’m watching the second half of this Japan-Colombia World Cup game and it is stupid stressful, here is a new song from Osaka’s Soleil Soleil, it’s good. Back to sitting all scrunched up like seeing if Japan can score two goals….
Changeling Life highlights producer Carpainter’s versatility better than any of his other recent releases. The middle two tracks zero in on his more aggressive side — “Dump Truck” rumbles along, only interrupted by distorted voices, while “Linkage” moves swifter but still leans towards the harder hitting. Yet its the songs bookending this EP that demand…
“Last Romance” marks a bit of a throwback for idol unit Tokyo Girls’ Style…even if the marketing materials accompanying it try to tap into current trends. The description coming alongside the above clip busts out everyone’s favorite two words — city pop — in talking about “Last Romance,” trying to continue the group’s slow-burning evolution…
Based out of Fukuoka, Ruby Lemon is the new solo project of Kumiko, formerly of the band Amorphous. Under her new alias, she’s moving towards something more reflective and more sun-bathed, vaguely tropical but ultimately more on the dreamy side. “The Ship Of Imagery” unfolds slowly, synthesizer notes drifting across all blurred and the beat…
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr_ADm9r9v8″] The Cigavettes try oh so hard to push you away, but manage to somehow always do just enough to keep you hanging around. Last year, they released an album of defrosted Beatles-inspired tunes that grew tired after one listen…but said release had just enough moments of inspired sunny pop one couldn’t really muster up…
There was a time, not all that long ago, that it felt like at least one new indie-pop gem surfaced out in Kansai on a weekly basis. I doubt the collective music fans of Osaka, Kyoto and beyond have moved on from their Sarah Records collections, but the pace certainly slowed down a little bit…
Osaka’s JinnyOops! originally attracted attention from the teeny-tiny Japanese music blogosphere by introducing horns into punk-tinged rock. It was a cute little touch to a type of music always in surplus, a move bordering on gimmick-ness save for the group’s ability to not sound like a novelty. JinnyOops! easily could have held onto this clever…