Sometimes, trickery or genre subversion or nifty sonic tricks that make your music sound like it was found on an orphaned VHS tape (despite the music being made on a MacBook Pro). All of those scenarios can result in great music, but so can keeping it simple and just creating hyper catchy. AFAMoo doesn’t complicate “Thinkin’ Bout U,” even if some of the synths sound a touch faded and the vocal sample at the very end feels a little too on the nose. But the producer mostly just lays down a shifty groove, and lets guest vocalist Lil Summer deliver an un-smudged performance tightroping between ecstasy and ennui. Listen above.
New Kokushimusou: P.man / Matango
It has been more than a year since Sabacan Records shared any new music, but they are back and with this new one from Kokushimusou (the duo of Guchon and Hujiko Pro) that reminds how welcome the netlabel’s wonky releases are. “P.man” lifts samples and the start-up music from Pac-Man to create a rave-up built around 8-bit chirps. This kinda goofy but very effective combination is very netlabel in execution — which makes sense, given everyone involved — and a nice reminder of the free-for-all vibe that was surrounding that scene in the earlier part of this decade. “Matango” is a little more straightforward, built around a sample from the American trailer for a Japanese horror movie (I mean…wait until you figure out what the monster is, yeeesh), but still carries a welcome energy and sense of playfulness. Get it here, or listen below.
DHL Crew Presents Digital High Life Compilation Featuring DJ Badboi, Kissmenerdygirl And More
Digital High Life is one of many great little parties scattered across Tokyo, with this particular gathering being part of a constellation of get-togethers featuring DJs and performers pulling from all kinds of genre to create something fun. Digital High Life Compilation offers a nice snapshot of this event, finding creators associated with Digital High Life (and, like, plenty of other releases we geek out over around these parts) sharing new songs. Some, like Boogie Idol, get really on brand by providing jingles for this comp, while producers such as DJ Badboi and DJ FFFTP create bouncy dance track drawing from a range of styles (the latter being a high-speed rework of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life”). Kissmenerdygirl comes through with a ridiculous bit of digi-horn assisted uplift on “Party (Edit),” while Firedrill comes through with a late comp blast of sunshine with the rollicking “Againagain.” Get it here, or listen below.
New ind_fris: Sink In
The ongoing “city pop” revival online tends to place an emphasis on the funk and disco-indebted tunes emerging out of Bubble era Japan. Yet every bit as central to it were genres seen as far less cool in 2019 — jazz, AOR, fusion, the stuff your dad might listen to (give that dad some credit, he’s cooler than you think). Perhaps that will change — I mean Seaside Lovers is getting reissued, c’mon! — but even if it doesn’t albums like Sink In offer up as wonderful a homage to this side of throwback Japanese music as you could ask for. Producer ind_fris out of Osaka has crafted a modern-day spin on a dusty style, creating songs that slowly unfold and create calming, resort-ready backdrops with plenty of subtle shifts as they play out. Centerpiece “Wave Transition” shows this best, starting with guitar strums and the sound of waves rolling in before mutating into a squiggly electronic number featuring distorted melodica notes breezin’ by…before changing once again into a rumbling dance number topped off by gentle piano melodies. It’s built for blissing out and kicking back in both measures, and this attention to detail appears all over Sink In, from tropical hops like “Airplane Going Nowhere” to the misty minimalism of “Mean Time.” Like a lot of the best explorations of Japan’s musical past, Sink In finds a Japanese artist peering into a familiar sound and finding a new angle on it, and updating for new times rather than settling for nostalgia. Get it here, or listen below.
New Carpainter: Declare Victory
Carpainter made the leap with 2017’s Returning, showing just how sturdy his sleek mutation of U.K. garage and 2-step could be. Declare Victory serves somewhat as…well, victory lap (or maybe “victory reminder”) while also letting a few new twists into his rattling style. The bulk of this release sticks to what Carpainter has done so well over this decade, opening up with the one-two punch of “Transonic Flight” and the title track, high-energy dance mutations done up with twinkling touches and criss-crossing beats. Declare Victory offers up variations on this speedy formula from there, whether they be heavier (the sinking-sub-alarm of “Mission Accepted”) or lighter (the bubbly and near transparent “Noctiluca”). Sprinkled across, though, are newer touches to the Carpainter sound, which feel more like dips in the sonic pool that still manage plenty of excitement. Check those synth melodies cascading down “Enrichment Center” that lend it a slight spa feel — and also signals the closest a netlable-adjacent act has come to, like, Emeralds — or the pavement-pounding rush of “Wut U Trying,” anchored by a vocal sample. But some of that is better suited for thinking about another day — with this one, Carpainter reminds that he has a winning formula still working wonders. Get it here, or listen below.