Intend keeps things soft on “Kyu Ji,” but doesn’t get too quiet over the course of the song. This number, featuring a sparse piano-accented beat, approaches whisper rap, but the MC at the center of it makes sure to prop up her words with a blast of energy to avoid letting it get overly sleepy. While the space afforded by the production goes a long way to making the song work, it’s the energetic but not over-the-top delivery that really seals it. Listen above.
Programming Note – This week has been busy with writing…on deadline, right now!…so these parts have been a bit quite. Hopefully next week will be a bit more free…but we end the week with a big one. For most of his career, Tokyo producer mus.hiba has been working with a single vocalist – Sekka Yufu,…
Shiga-based producer Mecanika loves to explore the texture of noise, which makes “Explorer” an apt mission statement. It’s a rumbling number, one that finds an artist who was always pushing towards maximalism committing, loading the brief song up with whirring synthesizer notes and brighter keyboard notes in the mold of post-Nakata electro-pop. Yet instead of…
関西のPost Modern Teamによる初のリリース曲は“Never Let You Down”でした。2012年にリリースされた最も優れた曲のうちの１つと言えるでしょう。爽やかで甘いメロディーは日本のインディー・ポップ・シーンに衝撃をもたらしたのでは。彼らは“never let you down”と恋人に囁くように歌います。センチメンタルに始まるこの曲はその後の展開をより切なく響かせています。まさに“Heartbreak”や“She Does Something To Me”といった言葉が語るように。最近ではEP、Nite Life LoungeがAno(t)raksから発表されました！彼らがギターとドラムというシンプルな構成だけで美しい世界観を持つ優れた楽曲を奏でています。収録されている全３曲はPost Modern Teamが今までやってきた事と変わりはないのですが、シンプルな繰り返しの多い曲がいかに感情を強く表現出来るか証明してくれました。タイトル・トラックでは主人公がディスコで“good times”を過ごしているのですが、曲中で決断の時があったり。このドラマチックさはグループ史上でも異例なのでは。他の２曲はもっとストレートに感情を表現しています。“Fade Away”はシューゲイザー調の曲。“thinking about those high school days”や”before you fade away”といった文脈からは良い思い出を振り返っているのだなと感じさせられます。 “Betterdays”はタイトル通りの内容なのですが、曲の積み重なって行くような展開はPost Modern Teamの新しい一面と言えるのでは。（ボーカルがBuilt To Spillに似ているのも印象的でした。) ダウンロードはこちらから。視聴は以下から。 NITE LIFE LOUNGE. EP by Post Modern Team
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfgB3bX0sLg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=fr_FR&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] Two of Japan’s best musicians got a chance to shine on one of the Internet’s best live-music shows this week. La Blogotheque’s genius “A Take Away Show,” where bands perform stripped-down songs usually in public places, featured Shugo Tokumaru and Tenniscoats performing in the streets of Tokyo. Tokumaru, who managed to sneak a new…
Producer Ryuei Kotoge released a new album a couple weeks back, and like his previous work it’s a wonderful experiment in texture. Daydream features songs that bring to mind sandpaper (“Layered,” with its buzzy synth work) and mist (the sparser “Rain”). I could throw adjectives at this music all day, but critically Kotoge knows how…
The Draping series keeps on delivering, and the seventh installment in a project bringing together three heavyweights of the Japanese juke community stands as a highlight. This trio of track brings the energy, each creator offering up one of their briskets creations to date. DJ Fulltono gets it going by embracing repetition with a particularly…