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Beat Runner: Miyabi’s Neo City

Plug in to social media, look for posts about Tokyo and you are almost certain to find photos of comparing the metropolis to the dystopian Los Angeles from the film Blade Runner. It’s an epidemic. What all these snapshots fail to do — besides add any depth to the city beyond “wow purple neon!” — is capture the actual feeling of navigating the city late at night. They zoom in on this techno-orientalist view of the capital when the really thrill of being out late is the mix of bleariness and excitement at all the possibilities the night posses.

Producer Miyabi captures this fantastically on their debut album with Trekkie Trax, Neo City. From the brief intro track, this album establishes a feeling of dizziness — synths whizzing all around to create a disorienting vibe, only a beat keeping everything moving forward. It’s the dominant sound on Neo City, adding a strobe-like affect on “Last Things” (one of the few numbers here with a dominant vocal sample at its center, but turned blurry by the rush of the noise behind it) to the tipsy melodies of “Core” and “Remember.” Miyabi even finds moments of late-night reflection on the spacier “Blue,” giving the album an actual pacing. It’s a set that actually captures the feeling of Tokyo just right, from a lot of nocturnal angles. Get it here, or listen below.

New Pavilion Xool: “Loveless”

Here’s a good case study in how to make a sample really work for you. Pavilion Xool’s latest builds itself around a sample from Ariana Grande’s “Forever Boy,” specifically a few lines that are mostly tightened up, with an emphasis on the breathing noises she makes between words. Yet Pavilion Xool builds a woozy, pitch-shifted nebulous around this voice, and is able to keep it compelling even if the main vocals are mostly consistent. Look at it as a very enjoyable reminder of their skills in making a track come alive. Listen above.

New Maison Book Girl: “Raincoat To Atama No Nai Tori”

Maison Book Girl making a play for international listeners is kind of unexpected, though fitting. They just wrapped up a tour of England, and are even signed to a new British labeled focused on Japanese music, and really if any post-BiS (version 1.0) idol group deserves that shot it’s the one with the most interesting sonic palette. “Raincoat To Atama No Nai Tori” sees no major shifts away from the junior-high-school-band-room set of instruments they lean on, but as they’ve done in recent years they make every xylophone note and woodwind count. And it pushes the intensity of their vocals up even further. And it all builds up to a solid chorus, a little more measured than some of the highlights from last year, but sticky all the same. Listen above.

New Prince Graves: Take Me To Your Planet

The Prince Graves project initially seemed like it would be venturing into stranger territory when their first song came out. The new outfit of former She Talks Silence member Ami Kawai explored more experimental areas while also touching on the shadowy indie-pop of that previous group on their debut album, too, but their newest single moves in a slightly different way. “Take Me To Your Planet” is woozy indie-pop yearning, featuring the most rollicking melody Prince Graves have created yet coupled with vocals that express an upbeat hope rather than Lynch-adjacent dread. Taken with the breezy hammock of a song “Piece Of My Soul” (somewhere between Mac DeMarco and Boys Age), this single shows Prince Graves moving a little closer to the indie center. Get it here, or listen below.

New Fragile Flowers: “Owaru Sekai No Madogiwa De”

Fragile Flowers return with a new bit of rollicking, shimmering indie-pop. “Owaru Sekai No Madogiwa De” finds the pop unit crafting a heart-on-sleeve, feedback-overlaid-all number that dashes ahead. It’s one part indie-pop gallop, but the group adds a shimmering layer of electronics over top to give it a more fleeting feeling. Better still are the dual vocals, which find the male and female sides of the band mostly signing in unison…before it’s time to break apart and add some twists to the number come the chorus. Listen above.