Simply embracing self-provided descriptions of music or, really, any art without any personal reflection on it is usually a fools game. But man…Bojou Tracks description of themselves really nails it, and is as good as you could ask for. “Bojou Tracks is a label for sensitive hearts,” and the compilation Bojou In Da Tracks delivers…
More of a Soundcloud-centric rapper round robin than a song proper, “nap” highlights four very promising artists taking their own perspective on the hazy, often-gloomy sounds of a wave coming from America. We’ve highlighted two of them before — Sleet Mage, whose Astral Body Boi tape makes our top 50 of 2017 if we redid…
Another one from the “technically, 2017” file, but “Arousal” feels like a good bridge between the old year and the one we’ve just landed in. Osaka’s Paperkraft had a nice little year, establishing himself as one of the better artists in Japan you could tie with the “lo-fi house” tag (though, to be fair, that’s…
Along with his tofubeats projects*, Yusuke Kawai worked as djnewtown. Under this moniker, he created breakcore loaded up with anime samples sliced up neatly and rearranged into jittery numbers full of life, while also offering flashes of his future work. If you went ahead and wrote the history of Japanese netlabels in the 21st century,…
Tokyo-based electronic producer Erik Luebs kicked in the new year with a dizzying two-song set built for the dancefloor. Cycle 1 | January finds Luebs laying down something quicker paced than other recent tracks from him, which in 2017 tended to be a bit more shadowy and cerebral. Yet something like “Pressed” just zips ahead,…