日本のジューク／フットワークって聞くと少し取っ付きづらいイメージがありますが、”Japanese Juke & Footwork Compilation“というそのまんまのタイトルのコンピは、シーンの入門にはうってつけ。様々なプロデューサーが、多彩なアプローチでこのシカゴのジャンルに挑戦しています。でも４５曲も収録されているので、もっと手軽にジャンルを知りたい場合は、食品祭り A.K.A. Foodmanの新曲、”Tantei Kun”がオススメ。切り刻まれたサンプルはジャンルの特徴を上手くとらえているのですが、テンポは比較的ゆったりぎみ(的確なのが聴きたい場合はPicnic Womenとか、アメリカのTraxmanをチェックして下さい）。でも、ソフトロック調の心地よさは素晴らしいです。視聴は以下から、もし気に入ったら、４５曲のコンピにも挑戦してみて下さい。
There are an abundance of hip-hop beatmakers in Japan right now. Lidly belongs in the upper echelon of these types, creating instrumental music that is not just the result of somebody listening to a few J. Dilla CDs and calling it enough of an education. His stuff is far more abstract, far stranger than the…
I do not profess to being a guy who knows much about Japanese hip-hop. I have about as basic an understanding of the scene one can get, but that’s it – I don’t know the intricacies or the regional differences or even, like, the fashions (I think Yankees’ caps are popular?). What I do know,…
This is, as the project’s name implies, a pop song. It just happens to be captured through a very damaged prism, all the catchiness of “I Die In Tomorrow” turned sinister and unsettling, a bad dream rendered into a just-under-two-and-a-half-minute track. The beat is jagged and the vocals are blurred out, the actual words nearly…
Man, has it been almost two years since Nagoya’s The Moments caught our attention with “Short Trip.” The Japanese indie-pop boom was just getting underway, and that was one of the first songs to earn dozens upon dozens of repeat listens, and even pop up on our monthly music mix (remember that thing). Now, a…
「自分が歌うつもりが無い曲を書くのにいつも罪の意識を感じてる。」と語るのは、Cloud Buseyことボブ・ワイリー。Lights ＋ Musicにて新曲、”havUever”について解説しています。この曲はジャスティン・ビーバーの曲にしてもいいんじゃないか、と言い、もしジャスティンが見つけたなら提供する、との事。確かに”havUever”の輝くようなシンセとビートは、ジャスティンのボーカルが際立つような物になっています。 でもまあ”havUever”にはボブのボーカルが一番しっくりくると思います。ビッグネームのポップ・スターが歌ったらまた違った物になるんじゃないかな。Cloudy Buseyのトラックでもそうですし、特にIce Cream Shoutの”Tattooed Tears“なんかでは、ボブのボーカルは心に触れてくるような、暖かい真心を感じるような物では決してないものの、現実的で冷ややかなその表現は、同じような経験を持つ人から、より大きな共感を得られるでしょう。Cloudy Buseyの新作からも分かる通り、ボブのボーカルはどんどん説得力を増していてます。ジャスティン・ビーバーが歌っても良いのかもしれないけれど、ボブの歌う”havUever”は、独自の美しさで溢れています。
大阪のThe PaellasがEP Followingをリリース。素晴らしいタイトルトラックFollowingは今週のはじめにアップロードされ今回２曲を追加、EPの全貌が明らかになりました。Spiderはテンポ感の早いインディーポップの楽曲、もう一曲はThe Cleaners From Venus のカバー曲になっています。こちらはオリジナルよりも音質をこもらせスピード感を出した楽曲になっています。EP Following は日本のインディーポップをリリースするオンラインレーベルano(t)raksの第一弾リリースにも、EPは無料ダウンロードが可能なのでこちらからダウンロードもしくは以下から視聴を。 Following EP by The Paellas
Japan’s juke and footwork scene can seem intimidating to dive into – the aptly titled Japanese Juke & Footwork Compilation collects 45 tracks from a wide range of producers serving up their take on the Chicago genre – but sometimes all it takes is one song to serve as a guide. Shokuhin Maturi A.K.A. Foodman’s newest song “Tantei Kun” might be one such entry point, as it hits on all the elements of the genre without feeling like too much to take in at once. Foodman dices his samples up, but the song moves at just a slightly slower speed than most footwork tracks (see Picnicwomen or American artist Traxman for examples of something that darts more). Most importantly, the purée of soft-rock sounds sound really nice. Listen below, and if you like that, give the aforementioned 45-song compilation a whirl.
Kudo Kamome’s voice can turn even a jaunty tune into something concealing some unease. Her two 2018 releases wowed in how they shifted pop onto its side, taking the experimental energy of Japanese underground communities and seeing how that might sound against more accessible sounds. Almost a year since Apple Sleep, her voice plays a…
The one thing I can predict rather confidently is…when these two songs play live, they will slay. As someone who has spent a lot of time in 2014 staying at home and avoiding live music (I’m a fun guy!), I have devoted precious nights spent in to thinking back to recent highlights of when I…
Our first brush with Ghostlight came via an album of remixes…so it’s nice to spend some time with an original work courtesy of the Tokyo project. “Wendy” is a “rain song” that actually came out in a slightly more skeletal version late last year on European label Seashell Records Pluviose comp, but in 2014 now…
It has been a long time since we first wrote about the twee-tastically named Three-Weeks-Old-Lovesick Puppy. Now about a year and a half later she’s gone and released her first mini-album, the adorably titled Tickle Tickle. This six-tack album features a few new songs and some re-recorded versions of old Puppy tracks like the Three-Berry-Ice-Cream-evoking…
So two prominent skateboard brands based out of Osaka (The Mint and Soundboarding) have teamed up with Vancouver-based outfit Beats For Change to release a Japan-centric compilation raising funds for the Japanese non-profit organization Second Harvest. All proceeds go to the group, and the comp features a bunch of producers from all over the world….
All the names flying around Lemon’s Chair’s MySpace at the moment leave cartoon cuckoo-cuckoo clocks orbiting my skull. The two new songs featured in the player on Lemon’s Chair site credit “Lemona/Masashi Imanishi.” I know Imanishi’s a proper member of LC, but what’s Lemona? Like a low-calorie alternative? The two recent additions definitely strike a…