Shiga-based producer Mecanika loves to explore the texture of noise, which makes “Explorer” an apt mission statement. It’s a rumbling number, one that finds an artist who was always pushing towards maximalism committing, loading the brief song up with whirring synthesizer notes and brighter keyboard notes in the mold of post-Nakata electro-pop. Yet instead of…
Plenty of artists can create minimal, relaxing beats that work best as background music — an entire genre of anime-girl-doing-things-over-beats type streams exist around such music. Producer Poivre approaches relaxed sounds a bit differently on Hammered. Nothing on this nine-track album ever really pushes into particularly energetic territory — digging into Poivre’s history reveals plenty…
How important is accessibility to music? Well, in 2018, it’s vital if you want to reach a wide audience which…duh, but there was a time a band could start small and build up. Scarcity could even work in a group’s favor! Not today, though, where being available on a digital platform is necessary for those…
Sometimes, you just want to dunk your head under the faucet and let everything coming out flow over you. Well, thank you Fukuoka project Ruby Lemon for an apt soundtrack. “Under The Water” is a slow moving synth-pop number more concerned about submerging the listener than reaching any particular destination. The vocals convey this best…
The year is still early —- at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself — but nearly three months have passed, which feels like a significant checkpoint. So far, my favorite album of the year from Japan comes courtesy of Saitama’s Mom, whose Baby Like A Paperdriver offers a dizzying and fun set of genre-skipping…