“Kimi Wa Queen” finds somewhat of a middle ground between the bossa-nova-inflected Wonder Underground and the dance-floor-eyeing Mirai Addiction. The general pace is still pretty relaxed, but Puni Puni Denki lets a nice bounce sneak in that gives this one a little more of a strut. That’s partially thanks to assists from production team Mikeneko Homeless and Shin Sakiura, artists who have made a career tightroping between jazzy territory and more upbeat electronic grounds. With Puni Puni Denki, they hit on just the right mix, and an apt backdrop to remind of her singing abilities, here taking on a smokier late-night-lounge quality that matches up with melancholy lyrics. Listen above.
New Uami: “Yoshinayo”
Uami is one of those artists who releases songs at a rapid clip, making weekly visits to their SoundCloud a good exercise to get into. Some numbers stand out among the rest, though, and “Yoshinayo” stands as a recent highlight. What starts as some easy-breezy keyboard notes soon gives way to a busier main melody, one that both has a bit of a hop and conceals some iciness. Uami’s multi-tracked vocals come in and add some tension as they grow in energy, going from a plain-spoken delivery to a yelp. Listen above.
Fidget State: Pinballbally’s “Waves”
Tokyo duo Pinballbally’s debut album Hi-Fi Vitamins is a streaming gem for those who like their electro-pop on the jittery side. “Waves” serves as a good gateway in — well, it is the opening number so I’m not offering you anything clever there — as it features lightly-filtered vocals hopping over a fizzy melody. The way it pops and ratchets about is what makes it special, as it feels less like the work of a few instruments and more like a bunch of sounds being triggered on some sort of scatter plot. It’s catchy and the main song isn’t all that daring, but the way it rattles about makes it sounds new. Listen above.
Faded Feelings: Ikechan’s “Kissaten”
The standout ability of Kissaten is to take an array of sounds that easily could have turned into chilled-out background tunes and make them demand your attention. Producer Ikechan uses keyboard and weather-report-ready beats to create relatively easy-going tracks, but wraps them up in a layer of crackle that serve as another layer rather than a trick to make it seem more calming than it actually is. “Nostalgia” does this best, turning a jaunty bounce into something a bit more disorienting thanks to the fuzz hanging around the corners, while “Analorythm” sets pleasant melodies against synth that sounds like it just stepped off a tilt-a-whirl. Best way to get ears focused? Add in vocals, which is exactly what Ikechan does on the back-to-back bouncers of “MintSynth” and “Analog Disco.” Never a moment to drift off. Get it here, or listen below.
New House Of Tapes: “Funeral”
The past two weeks have been packed with work, meaning keeping up with new music has been a challenge. Hopefully I can find a way to vanish to a mountain retreat or something and just catch up on everything in the near future (more likely, actually get back to all my emails and, uhhhh, do my job). Near the top of that must-listen list is the latest full-length from Nagoya’s House Of Tapes. Up to this point, I’ve only listened to “Funeral,” a number that manages to be very House-Of-Tapes-y without sounding like the project’s main operating mode. This isn’t a suffocating number, but rather a delicate number guided by keyboards and a drum beat. The tension comes from the feeling that these melodies are going to derail from one another, replacing the usual pounding with a sense of something about to go haywire at any second. Never comes though, and instead all of these sounds find an uneasy balance. Listen above.