Intricate electronic freakouts might be the new wave in Japanese music. Shogo Nomura’s second album Sweets Have A Dream teases some cuteness but never settles for just that, as the songs here are closer to the twist-a-minute creations that someone like Hakushi Hasegawa has started getting looks for. Skittering breakbeats interact with bell chimes and…
Main thing to understand with this one — it isn’t all retakes of existing songs from the indie-pop duo Caro Kissa. Only one number, closer “Perfect Dream,” is a re-imagining of an existing number from the group. That makes this short but sweet release all the better though, as listeners get three jaunty new numbers…
The right amount of cute can be tricky to pull off in music. The “kawaii bass” wave of the last few years has mostly receded, but twinkly dance-pop numbers still appear frequently, and they can just be too much, relying on high-pitched singing and an abundance of playroom-ready sounds instead of a good idea. Wotoha…
Voices come to the forefront on this split EP between NC4K mainstays Paperkraft and Stones Taro. Samples of singing and of humans just generally generating noise have popped up in their releases, but the Rally Hard EP pushes them to the front in a way that none of the other releases from the label has…
Smany’s latest album To Lie Latent isn’t quite a new release. Rather, it features a lot of glances back at the wispy electronic singer/songwriter’s history. Some songs are simply brought back, while others — such as “2113,” originally released in 2014 via Bunkai-Kei Records — get updated and played around with. It’s a personal favorite…