Duo Frasco keep up their prolific pace in 2018 with “Dramatic,” their latest digital single. And like the numbers before it, “Dramatic” finds them shifting things up ever so slightly, highlighting the pair’s ability to bring in various elements under a funk-pop umbrella. “Dramatic” features a pronounced electronic bounce, which gives it extra force than…
There is a blurriness to electronic duo Animal Hack’s new album Gift that helps it stand out a bit from other artists in the same zone as them. Their latest release features plenty of hallmarks of contemporary electronic music in Japan — see the big release of opener “Body,” the breezy portions of “Plastic Night”…
Sapporo’s Bighead is one of the better producers in Japan going right now when it comes to creating flat-out electro-pop jams featuring Vocaloid singing. World Is Wide finds them in their comfort zone, utilizing the familiar digi-sing of Hatsune Miku to create energetic pop numbers. The music across these 11 songs features plenty of contemporary…
Video game-derived sounds appeared in the swirl that would eventually be called Shibuya-kei — while lots of attention (rightfully) goes to the style’s focus on the dustier corners of the record store, not-so-faded 8-bit sounds also popped up frequently, giving the style a nice splash of computer-age energy. Shibuya-Kei Chiptune Cover Compilation, then, isn’t a…
For months, I had no idea where to start with Emamouse. She’s an artist who has been active for over a decade in Japan, but thanks to sites such SoundCloud and Bandcamp has appeared especially prolific in recent years. Just look at her own Bandcamp page, and try picking a single gateway in. Maybe one…