It’s that wonderful time of the year, after the holidays and after a vacation spent abroad wherein I desperately try to catch up on all the music that came out during this time away. Making this even more difficult is the stream of news stories coming out, both music related (Keyakizaka46 seeing several members faint…
No rest for ΔKTR, who released three solid-to-great releases over the course of 2017 (including one of our faves of the year.) Yet only a few days into 2018 and the producer shares The Temper Of Our Time, a new six-track set of warped samples revealing new dimensions to older music. ΔKTR’s creations always have…
Tokyo’s Metoronori crafts alternate-world pop, but oftentimes she only offers glances into this otherworldly place. Her albums — such as this year’s Hanryo, #36 on our favorite albums list — features songs rarely going over three minutes and 30 seconds, which is plenty of time to wow with her off-kilter sound. Yet new song “Mizuumi…
Osaka’s The Neon City captures snapshots of youth across Fancy In Twenties. Her debut EP comes after a solid stream of songs and demos, and the brief set consolidates her daydreamy synth-pop sound. Her songs are sparse, opting for a woozy simplicity that makes the vocals stand out and makes the instances where the music…
We didn’t put together a favorite songs list this year, but if we had, you better believe that iivvyy would have gotten on there. The combo of HVNS and Kosmo Kat made some of the more mind-bending electronic tracks to come out of Japan in 2017. Part of the project’s charm comes from how it…