Voices have long crept into the music of Foodman, from discombobulated sonic touches to honest-to-goodness guests. Yet usually the humans joining the producer for songs clash with his wonky sounds — Ez Minzoku welcomed Bo Ningen’s Taigen Kawabe in to rap in a way that felt like it was trying to claw out of the music, while other guests offer similar mashings, serving as another off-kilter element to his music. “Clock,” from the highly anticipated (around these corners, at least) Aru Otoko No Dentetsu, shows how something more melodic and traditional can fit into Foodman’s world. The backdrop is Foodman operating in a sparser mood, percussion trickling down and subdued hoots emerging from what sounds like feet stepping on ice (it sounds familiar, but I’m blanking if this came out without singing before). Over this, Tokyo’s Machìna offers singing that goes from muted to right upfront…and it isn’t creating more cacophony, but rather working alongside the music. Turns out something familiar can sprout in these weird grounds. Listen above.
New Yunovation: “Roki Store”
The Expo ’70 Commemoration Park in Osaka is probably one of my favorite places in the world to visit. It’s peaceful and pretty and all around a place that puts me in a good mood every time I have had a chance to stop by while in Kansai. Yunovation’s “Roki Store” takes its title from one of the snack stands found in the park’s confines, and the melodica-guided number captures the same bright feeling simply visiting this place can give. It’s a chance for her to flex her melodica skills, but it also captures the feeling of escapism simply visiting a place you like can bring. Get it here, or listen below.
New Taquwami: “Long Kigo III”
I don’t know what it is about the back half of 2018 that is conjuring up serious electronic nostalgia for me personally, but I’m here for it. Ventla returned, and Metome captured ennui for a time gone by perfectly. And now, Taquwami returns via Secret Songs. The producer hasn’t been gone that long, all things considered — the Moyas EP came out in 2015, and still manages to sound a million years ahead of everything else. But a lot has changed in just three years, so “Long Kigo III” does feel like a real shock…and real comfort, one of the best in Japan’s electronic music scene returning. His latest isn’t quite the shapeshifting madness found on Moyas, but more reflective of the slow-burning numbers of Aj Mo Ka / Ka Ao Um. The main melody zigs and zags through the whole song, but everything around it blurs and mutates. The percussion changes, what sounds like a particularly menacing Kirby sucks in air, voice pop up briefly to add the grandeur of the landscape. It’s a trip, and I’m so happy to take it again. Listen above.
New (Kinda) The Pats Pats: “Sugar Summer”
We’ve already written about the album this one comes from, but now “Sugar Summer” has a video and…well, the season feels right to revisit it, so why not? “Sugar Summer” is a highlight from Sing And Pretty, finding the duo embracing girl group pacing alongside a nice indie-pop chug. Feel good vibes for the remaining warmth. Watch above.
New Fuji Chao: Welcome To Underground
The music Fuji Chao has been making over the last couple of years has always been visceral. Samples sourced from cartoons featured screams and crying, while the artist herself dropped in spoken-word lyrics that played out like confessions of complicated emotions. Part of this reaction comes from a distance between listener and artist, but it can’t all be chalked up to circumstance — Fuji Chao excels at using sounds to strike emotional chords.
Welcome To Underground shows this really well, almost to a fault. While her latest album contains plenty of emotional release — see the melancholy reflection on depression and connection that is “I Played With The Sea Like A Kid, You Loved Me” — it also plays out like something exploring internet-saturated culture (something made most clear on what appears to be a bonus track, “Welcome To The Hell,” which directly wrestles with the idea of the Web being a nightmare hole). “Internet Fight” moves between warped drum ‘n’ bass abrasions to reflective passages back to digital freakouts, while the familiar start-up jingle of Windows 95 gets sliced up later on the album. A fair amount of Welcome To Underground is among the most aggressive music Fuji Chao has put together, capped off by “Hello Kitty,” a song sampling some sort of scene where a guy pulls up “Japanese girls puke in each other’s mouths” and…well, you get something just like that in audio form (I am not brave enough to try to source this one). It’s gross, but so is the internet and I guess that’s the point.
Yet countering those harsher and revolting moments are sweeter ones. Some are intentional reflections in a sea of chaos like “Milk Iro No Bra,” while others just strike something in me (“Electric Fuck Rain” picks up the same melody as QQIQ’s “Daydream,” an absorbing bit of dream-pop that…can no longer be found online at all, so listening to this is both melancholy and rage-inducing regarding the Web as archival destination). And it makes moments of breakdown, such as a song constructed from samples of Evangelion’s Asuka all the more powerful. Get it here, or listen below.