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Space Race: +you & space x’s with u

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I don’t normally associate the music coming out of Wasabi Tapes with “space,” but +you’s with u — featuring an assist from space x, up to you to decide if that’s a real artist or a little bit of extra flair to the project — imagines what the wonky label’s attempt at an ambient album might sound like. This release boasts a loose “space” theme, with bits of NASA dialogue sampled throughout and references to the cosmos throughout. Plenty of busier moments appear throughout, like the radio-scramble of “Rocket Or Chiritori” or the dialogue heavy “Aliens.” But the best moments find +you creating stretched-out numbers that feel like floating in a wide space, such as on the twinkling and chilly “Futari Dake” or the calm of “Ecco.” Get it here, or listen below.

Suiyoubi No Campanella Teams Up With Chvrches For “Out Of My Head”

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Link for video viewable outside of Japan here

Well here’s an unlikely collaboration. Chvrches capped off a recent swing through Japan for the Fuji Rock Festival by sharing a new song featuring…Suiyoubi No Campanella (I mean…just KOM_I? Kenmochi Hidefumi involved, because it sure sounds like Chvrches). Hey, now that’s a nice profile raiser. The song itself is very much in line with the fest-ready electro-pop Chvrches have made a career out of, capped off by a call-and-response hook. KOM_I’s big touch comes in the moments where she lets loose and rips off screamed vocals…about social media, nonetheless…to add edge to a group that excels at holding just back from tipping over. Listen above.

Digital Holiday: Manatsu No Wakusei Dai Chokuretsu’s Summer Vacation EP

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Another entry in the “Vocalid used intriguingly” files. Manatsu No Wakusei Dai Chokuretsu finds artists Matsu Kasa and Yoshihisa Hirata teaming up to create an oddball bit of Vocaloid coming from a label known for dabbling in singing-synthesizer rap. To that end, Summer Vacation EP comes complete with skits, ranging from robo classrooms full of mean teachers to discussions about Yellow Magic Orchestra. But the main draw are the songs pushing digi voices to the front, such as the pleasant pop of the title track to the hip-hop-inspired brain melt of “Kiokusoushitsu” (complete with human voices jumping in the digi fray…and Vocaloid saying skrr skrr). It’s a creative use of the technology, but more importantly they create something good from it, standing out from the crowd (both Vocaloid and Japanese rap). Get it here, or listen below.

Also worth checking out — the poppier stylings of Yoshihisa Hirata’s recent solo album utilizing Hatsune Miku. Get it here.

New De De Mouse: “be yourself”

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On last year’s Dream You Up, producer De De Mouse embraced modern music and gave into the pleasures of pop like he teleported back to 2007. His latest release be yourself only builds on that ecstatic release, layering synths and vocal slices on top of one another to create a full-length that doesn’t feature any major departures for him, but rather finds him continuing a particularly jubilant streak. That might best be displayed on the title track, which got the video treatment. It is maximalism at its best, less pulverizing and more like a party popper, with voices bouncing off one another while funk-inspired touches power everything forward. As is his style, all those syllables don’t push for greater meaning, but rather serves as another instrument towards creating something really joyful. Listen above.

New Le Makeup: Pure Voyage Diaries

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Le Makeup’s recent documentations of daily life haven’t put much of a priority on his voice. Despite aiming to capture the unnerving feeling of a world getting worse, the young Osaka artist has so far avoided using words to do the work for him, letting the music set the atmosphere and whatever syllables get come through being less about meaning and more about capture the off-center mindset of life in the late 2010s. Pure Voyage Diaries sees Le Makeup raise his voice just a little. “My My” plays out like a proper rap song, one in the mold of Lil Peep thanks to the guitar pangs and generally bummer mood accompanying the stuttering beat, with Le Makeup actually delivering some simple but effective rhymes. It’s a shift — one that continues on the title track — but which remains blunted enough to feel apt for Le Makeup’s mood (and, kinda critically, isn’t Le Makeup trying to make his big “Trump stinks” statement or something…it is still more observational, but now more upfront). And then comes “D.I.E.S.E.L” which is like an indie-pop song bordering on pop punk. Huh what, but also I love it. Because Le Makeup excels at sharing where his mind’s at…and here is where he is at. Get it here, or listen below.