“Taker Giver Pool” offers another angle on producer Pavilion Xool’s sound. The young Tokyo-based artist has some swift moments in his catalog, but “Taker Giver Pool” unfolds the quickest of anything they’ve released yet. The beat just moves quicker, the whole song feeling all the more woozy because of Pavilion Xool’s use of pitched vocal…
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…
Aya Gloomy’s initial foray into music after joining up with Tokyo’s Big Love Records was to create a buzzing, unsettling number that gave just enough room for her singing to come through clearly, even if the whole song felt like it was being sucked into a whirlpool. Now she has her proper debut album out…
World’s End Girlfriend don’t keep things simple. The project’s new song “Meguri” clocks in at nearly ten minutes, and finds Katsuhiko Maeda crafting a dramatic slow burner. The first half is all build — Maeda arranges strings and piano to create a dizzying climb upward, pretty but also a touch unsettling. It’s when the electric…
One of the driving themes of CHAI’s music thus far — made all the clearer after talking to them — is inclusiveness, of celebrating the unique characteristics we all possess. “I’m Me” isn’t quite a manifesto for the four-piece — that remains the herky-jerky “N.E.O.” — but it’s definitely them at their most direct, avoiding…