It has been a little over a month since Koutei Camera Girl Drei released Dawn By Flow, a full-length moving between dancehall-inflected numbers and more driving techno and house pop that has been the group’s go-to sound for a while now. It’s pretty great (“Taiwan No Men” and especially “Movin'” are early song of the year contenders), and the trio isn’t stopping with just that album. They have a new EP on the way, highlighted by the title track “Changes.” If Dawn By Flow mostly moved at a dash, “Changes” gives the trio a chance to take a breather and deliver a tag-team rap over a calm and spacious beat produced by Masayuki Kubo (AVV or And Vice Versa). It’s another side of the trio not popping up too much on their other latest, and a nice detour. Listen above.
New Mikazuki Bigwave Featuring Somunia: Himitsu No Merry-Go-Round EP
Since I can’t just copy-paste the general gist of what I wrote last time, I’ll simply say that Himitsu No Merry-Go-Roung works as a kind of booster pack to early 2019 highlight Hoshizora Romantic. It adds the one element not really present on Mikazuki Bigwave’s breakthrough, which is guest vocals, helping transform familiar future funk backdrops into speedy and sweet pop that…well, look, I’ve written enough about how artists are starting to use “future funk” as a foundation rather than a meme, so I won’t bore you with more of that. But man, Somunia fits in wonderfully among the twinkles of the title track, and even when she breaks down into molecules midway through she adds a human warmth to the song. “Aquarium Night” leans more into the playroom pop vibe and slows everything down, but that only reveals another angle to this project, showing a more intimate side still capable of the skittering energy present in all those nostalgia-eyeing numbers. Combine this with the full-length and you have one of 2019’s more formidable offerings. Get it here, or listen below.
New Normal: Uyuni’s Jellyfish
Uyuni’s backstory leading up to the release of her first EP Jellyfish is one that’s becoming slightly more common. She took part in a hip-hop collective called +Vacation, swerving between rap and a more traditional singing style. So, she exists in the same lane as someone like Haru Nemuri, or even Oomori Seiko (hold that thought), a singer/songwriter unbothered by the borders that once stood around them. This new normal dots her first solo release. Opener “Miss You” moves from rapid-fire rap set over piano notes and synth sparks before twisting into a more pop-oriented hook. Better still is “Nemu,” which uses guitar and snippets of her own pitched-up voice to create the backdrop for her to sing-speak through a variety of issues, leading to a big thumping hook. “Eye” presents more straightforward rock, and then she drops a helpful hint at the end by covering “Fantastic Drag,” a nod to what already felt like two influences on her work but which comes through clearly with this pretty faithful version. It all feels a little familiar, but it is a reality that works. Get it here, or listen below.
New Young Juvenile Youth: “Sugar Spike” And “Darkroom”
The world electronic duo Young Juvenile Youth conjure up has always dabbled in unease, but new single “Sugar Spike” finds them diving straight into loneliness. The number, part of a new monthly single project, doesn’t even try to fake a smile, straight out rejecting the idea of “sugar-spiking happiness” and simply letting an admission of loneliness ring off into the abyss. Helping drive this feeling across is a more understated musical backdrop. The group could sometimes get a little too busy in earlier releases, loading up on so many nervy touches that it just got all cartoon whirlwind. But here, Young Juvenile Youth leave ample space on the verses for Yuki Matsuda to roll her thoughts over, and it makes the moment that reflection breaks apart into every direction on the hook all the more impactful. Listen above.
“Darkroom,” the January offering, is more in line with the Young Juvenile Youth of the last few years. It throbs ahead via synth, creating a constant unease made a little too busy via all of Matsuda’s echoing lines. But at its best moments, the stuttering vocal repetition creates a nice pattern that breaks through the sinister atmosphere. Listen below.
New Manon Featuring Sleet Mage: “Winter Lil Life”
On paper, Manon should be an artist right in our wheelhouse. It is offbeat pop featuring a lot of production work from HNC, an artist responsible for some of this blog’s favorite songs of the 21st century. And yet…nothing Manon has put out to now has really clicked with me, and even seeing her live failed to inspire much beyond “work in progress.” Part of the issue might be the timing of it all — Manon arrived at a moment when a lot of labels realized “kawaii hip-hop” could be a thing, and this is at least partially how Asobisystem (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Yasutaka Nakata, etc.) pushed her, even if she didn’t do much to stand out from the pack. Though maybe it all just comes down to the music, which is too rough to be top-tier pop but also sounds too polished to reveal any interesting wrinkles. And now with so many young independent artists actually managing that balance, Manon’s music feels disjointed.
“Winter Lil Life” inches closer to a workable model for Manon…she doesn’t try to do too much, opting for a nice follow-the-bouncing-ball flow frosted in Auto-tune that works well with the keyboard flights of fancy. But look…we are here because of Sleet Mage, who steals this completely via their short verse, hopping between weird sing-song and traditional rapping, throwing in shouts out to anime and playful adlibs alongside the frosty emotional bars we’ve come to expect from the Sapporo artist. Ultimately, “Winter Lil Life” is just a slight shift in the right musical direction for Manon, but a big leap in showing that she’s at least in the same orbit of artists worth learning from. Listen above.