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New Gaburyu: Yurare Notification EP

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The newest EP from producer Gaburyu shows just how easily human and synthesized voices slide into their busy electro-pop world. Yurare Notification starts off with a song that first appeared back in 2017, the appropriately fizzy “Pop It Soda,” a busy number finding Vocaloid singing traversing around a backdrop drawing from all sorts of dance corners. The newer inclusions only build on this approach. “Botanical Botanical” uses a steady thump as background for digitized rapping, while better still is the Wave-Racer-by-way-of-Animate pinball of “Internet Beach.” Mixed in among all the computerized noise are two songs featuring Somunia, both reworks of preious releases and both frantic creations featuring some clever disruption (“Summer Leap” in particular goes wild in turning the voice into a tool that can be bent and eventually morphed into a bridge all its own as Gaburyu hop-scotches between Jersey Club and 2-Step). Get it here, or listen below.

New HiRO.JP: “Last Month”

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While finding new angles to old sounds is always going to be great, sometimes capturing the vibe of a time now lost can be just as impressive when done on a Colonial-Williamsburg level. HiRO.JP’s “Last Month” offers up a sleek, sax-accented city pop slinker that isn’t far removed from the synth-glazed peaks of Soichi Noriki. It can never truly touch the real deal — it’s always an echo — but this is a particularly good effort, pushed over the top thanks to vocals courtesy of someone named Ise, who adds the emotional tension to really make life in the big city — at anytime — pop. Listen above.

New Mom: “Boys And Girls”

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Not to puff it up too much, but Mom has…kind of gotten big? OK, more like “rising steadily” but since releasing an album late last year the genre hop-scotcher has gotten a decent amount of attention, and also appeared in an ad for Apple. This is all lining up for Mom’s next album, May’s Detox, to be a potential launch up even further. “Boys And Girls” works a bit as a calling card for new listeners, while also finding the creator using a lot of elements that have popped up before and sharpening them. Opening with guitar strums and quicksand-speed deliver, “Boys And Girls” eventually bursts open into a following-the-bouncing-ball dash that eventually dissolves into tripped-out, Mac-Speak-accented (product placement? Kidding) that then warps between tempo. For all this shifting, it remains catchy, and a winner for anyone familiar with or just coming to Mom. Listen above.

New Have A Nice Day!: “Kill All Internet”

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Short post: Yes, let’s.

Long post: The bulk of Have A Nice Day’s! Enter The Void EP finds the project doing what they do best — creating keyboard=heavy escapes that manage some humor but mostly play out like bedroom-made movie soundtracks. This set features their most group_inou indebted instrumental to date (the pinballing “Window Shopping”) and one of their better potential stabs at something bigger yet as well (the stomping, basement-take-on-Chvrches “Nostalgia”). It’s a good EP, and you can listen to it below.

But the opening song is the one that sticks with you. Have A Nice Day! mostly dabble in big-time emotions, making music to make someone getting off their 9 to 5 feel like they are about to set off on an adventure. But “Kill All Internet” zooms in on one topic, wrapped up in this squiggly rush of synth and building to the kind of glorious shout-along chorus bound to wow the Loft crowd. I’m not sure how much this is really an anti-online screed and how much of it is just creating some great slogans, but “Kill All YouTuber / Kill All Internet” works wonder and even if violence isn’t the answer it the purveying sentiment — that this shit sucks, even before we had a bunch of goobers rushing online to defend a Swedish gamer in the wake of real tragedy — still hits hard. Listen above.

New Oyubi: “Dark Bedroom”

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Oyubi flexes a bit of range on newest song “Dark Bedroom.” The young producer has earned a lot of looks thanks to their take on Chicago-born juke music in the last couple of years, but for this post-midnight number they jump across the pond and take cues from British 2-step. “Dark Bedroom” drifts between intimidating and dreamy, sounding more apt for a 3 a.m. stroll around Shibuya’s backstreets more than anything else. A nice change of pace that shows how much variety Oyubi is capable of. Get it here, or listen below.