タイムマシーンに乗って２００９年の秋に戻りましょう。私は日本に来てまだ数ヶ月。大阪の郊外に住み、たまに好奇心から、誰が演奏してるのかもわからずライブを観に行っています…退屈なバンドも色々観てきましたが、そんな経験からCubismo Grafico FiveやLove And Hates(後にHNCとMiila And The Geeksを知るきっかけになりました！)等、素晴らしいアーティストを体験する事ができました。そんな中でもWednesdayはかなり早い段階で観る機会に恵まれたのですが、そのギター中心な楽曲と、時折レトロなロックに完全に夢中に。次の年にリリースされたアルバムは凄く堪能していたのですが…それからWednesdayは何処へ？
Let’s step into the way-back machine and travel back to the autumn of 2009. I’ve been living in Japan for only a few months, out in the countryside outside of Osaka. Sometimes, for kicks, I’d just go to shows in the city randomly without knowing anything about the group’s playing. Although this resulted in seeing a fair share of bad outfits, it also resulted in me stumbling across the like of Cubismo Grafico Five, Love And Hates (which led to HNC and Miila And The Geeks) and many more. Wednesday were at one of the first shows I ever saw in person in Osaka, and I was won over by their guitar-centric, sometimes retro-leaning brand of rock. They released an album the next year and I really enjoyed it…and then they sort of just went away.
Turns out they released a new EP at the very end of last year, and the above song is the single from it. “Mr. Free” finds the band exploring the same jaunty territory they were traversing back in 2009, although this one starts slow and then barrels ahead as things progress. Structurally, it’s far more patient than most of their older stuff, which found a catchy idea and ran with it. What’s surprising about Wednesday in 2013 is how they sound like a group who could, conceivably, be lumped into Japan’s indie-pop boom – only their relatively crisp sound quality really makes me think twice. Regardless, nice to see these guys still kicking around. Listen above.
Is it an ode to times that have passed, or a celebration of a period in one’s life that will soon be history? The beauty of “Younger Life” is it leaves that a little bit open-ended…it could be a memory or it could be in the moment, but Ykiki Beat’s strutty number about the joys…
It’s tough to keep tabs on Tokyo’s Miii. As of late, he’s been leaning toward the more hyped-up sound, with a great collection of long-playing EDM on Maltine and his contributions to the often blitzkrieging The Wedding Mistakes. Yet “Sunset Dance” is a reminder he can slow things down too. It is a waltz by…
Vocaloid-user mus.hiba has been teaming up with a lot of folks recently – first, Bo En and him came together for the cut “Winter Valentine” on the English music maker’s Pale Machine release. And now he’s bringing the syllabic sounds of Sekka Yufu to the late-night sounds of Irish producer Harmful Logic’s chilly “Whispery Voice.”…
The artists associated with Osaka’s INNIT party have spent the last few years spreading their sounds across Japan, building up from a once-in-awhie party held in basement venues to being able to hold down their own stage at Tokyo’s edition of Sonarsound and tour with all sorts of international names. Not to mention to branch…
The blockbuster comes later, but let’s start from the beginning. What hooked our ears to meeshiieee was actually a song the self-described “slovenely” songwriter labelled as a discarded track. “Umi E” is an incredibly simple song – a strummed acoustic guitar, singing, a few backup vocals – yet the delivery of this song is absolutely…
Sorta surprising that Tokyo producer mus.hiba ended up being one of the dudes from this metropolis to score a surprising amount of international collabs. It isn’t that his music is all that weird, just that it makes use of a technology you more or less never see pop up in Western songs – Vocaloid, specifically…