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New The Pats Pats: Sing And Pretty

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Few feelings excite in the digital age like seeing a previously net-shy label dumping their discography onto a site. So was the case this week with Passion Records, which took to Bandcamp to share a handful of releases from artists who have put out music through them. Among the albums uploaded was The Pats Pats’ Sing And Pretty, a charming and fun rock album originally out this past March — that is now easier to get for most people out there. The duo’s latest finds them trying out a lot of styles — the title track kicks off the album with a sweet acoustic-guitar-guided number, but on the next number “AnoLuck” a keyboard joins the drums and guitar to up the energy up. From there, The Pats Pats try out ’60s girl group pacing (“Sugar Summer”), accordion-powered ska-lite (“3 Code”) and lots of chugging indie-pop (such as on “Handspinner,” which is, yep, about fidget spinners). Get it here, or listen below.

Tech Crunch: FQTQ’s Goodbye Computer

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Technology is an overwhelming force in the modern age…so hey, might as well make something fun using it, yeah? Japanese producer FQTQ delivers a pretty straightforward set of electro-pop bouncers on the Goodbye Computer album, and while the cover art indulges in what I imagine is many of our secret desires to boot our computers out a window (just me?), the songs here are mostly concerned with simple movement. The title track fizzles and cracks along, making space for a few cartoon sound effects and a particularly gooey synth line, while “Night People” rejiggers an after-midnight club number into something a bit sillier around the edges, with digital touches sounding like they are about to fall off. FQTQ does best, though, when working with others, whether that’s constructing a twinkly rave up for Mizuki Momoe to sing over on “Full Moon Tonight,” or making space for some sweet sweet sax courtesy of Kusuke on highlight “In Motion.” Get it here, or listen below.

Electronic Round-Up: Erik Luebs, Takeda Soshi And Hideo Nakasako

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— Erik Luebs shared the latest installment of his Cycle series, the next two tracks representing for the month of May. Previous entries have coaxed words like “woozy” out of me in the past few months, but opener “Concrete Shimmer” takes that haze and adds a real sense of sweltering joy to it. It builds up, each new addition adding to the dizzying feeling, but also never feeling shadowy or unnerving like previous tracks from Luebs. And if you want something a little more uneasy, “Geiger Counter” has you covered in all its skittery wonder. Get it here.

— House producer Takeda Soshi often embraces the lo-fi end of that style, but latest track “Shine” makes sure to let a little dazzle in for good measure. The keyboard shimmers snaking through all of this number’s near-seven-minute run give it a liveliness some people obsessed with analog sound can forget, while also making such a long playing track keep the energy up for the whole time. Listen below.

— Now, from the lo-fi to the crackling, producer Hideo Nakasako returned with a new number recently called “Mind Film.” It opens with plenty of space, before crackling electronics and discombobulated samples zoom in, giving this one an unsteady pace. The texture, though, is so detailed that it’s easy to just get lost in how crunchy and blunted this all sounds. Listen below.

Happy Kuru Kuru Teams Up With 2ToneDisco For “Napoleon”

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Idol unit Happy Kuru Kuru have tried out a variety of producers over their young career, though a trend among the trackmakers they work with has certainly emerged. The pair often sing over high-energy music merging future bass with cuddlier touches — Yunomi’s roughneck playhouse being a common setting, with appearances by the likes of Tomggg and Brinq, to name just a few. “Napoleon” serves up a nice change-up. The music comes courtesy of Los Angeles duo 2ToneDisco, and they create a slippery dance track that manages to maintain the same idol-appropriate atmosphere of Happy Kuru Kuru’s while deploying an entirely different set of sounds (see those subtle bell chimes, for one). There’s more space, and the pair’s voices get glazed in effects at various points, which is a nice detail that keeps the song shifting. It’s a great song, and the latest example in 2018 of Western artists collaborating with Japanese ones — virtual or otherwise — to create really top-notch dance pop. Get it here, or listen below.

New Kamisama Club: “Submarine”

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Kamisama Club turn the uncomfortable into joy on “Submarine.” The duo have always been pop fiddlers, creating bouncy numbers out of weirder sounds, but here’s the first time where they really pull off a whirlwind rush of sounds that borders on collapse…but just holds together to be among the year’s most fidgety joys. An instructional-tape-ready voice welcomes us into this world, and then everything gets elastic as the vocals enter in. Then its really off — the singing gets wild, the music collapses, lip noises creep in, it goes through this jaunty section where they show off their neo-Shibuya-kei leanings (and a little De De Mouse, for good measure), and that’s just glancing over it. None of this should gel, but Kamisama Club make it stick just right, and it’s one of their strongest efforts to date. Listen above.