After a stretch where Nagoya’s House Of Tapes explored the more melodic side of his sound, here comes “Melodia,” a deep-space nebula of a song spouting all over the place. Neither constricting like earlier House Of Tapes’ songs nor peacefully ambient, “Melodia” twinkles and stumbles about, rarely staying in place long enough for one consistent idea to materialize, but rather zooming off in every direction possible. It’s a lot for just under three minutes, but absorbing in its chaos. Listen above.
Tag Archives: house of tapes
New House Of Tapes: End Of Collapse
“Collapse” seems to be a word popping up with a bit of frequency in the Japanese electronic music scene this year. Seiho’s recently released Collapse is the most obvious, an album that gets its name from a deliberate move to break down his style and rebuild. Nagoya’s House Of Tapes latest album is called End Of Collapse and, though sharing a word with Seiho’s album makes it an easier connection, it is a similar reconstruction of sound. House Of Tapes’ earliest material was pure crush, four-on-the-floor beats and layers of concrete synths making for a constricting (but attention grabbing) listen. End Of Collapse is the end result of about a year spent expanding, of still taking advantage of space but adding in more melodies and sounds that added some air to the proceedings, highlighted by songs such as “Rusty Pop Noise” and “Youthful Twilight” (both here). This set features even more directions — and, on the barbed “Our Noise,” a return to crushing sounds, albeit balanced a bit by zippy neon noises ripped from a forgotten Genesis game — House Of Tapes letting ideas zoom all over the place, from the ominous ambient of “Night Cloud” to his finest dance track yet, “Juxtaposed.” It’s an album where things seem like they will — ahem — collapse at any moment, disparate pieces smashing into one another, but the chaos always holds, and ends up being absorbing in a way House Of Tapes hasn’t been yet. Get it here, or listen below.
Electronic Round-Up Post: Sweesweesweets, House Of Tapes And Pasocom Music Club
I’m trying this new thing for the next couple of months where I try to be “productive,” especially in the morning, and sometimes to achieve that you just have to look at the songs you’ve recently favorited and be like “yeah, let’s write about this.” So here are a few recent highlights!
— Oh, what fine timing, the biggest project on my plate revolves around the same sort of electro-pop Nagoya’s Sweesweesweets dabble in: packed tight, vocals as another instrument, the hard edges softened by female vocals. “Cider Girl” is their latest, and an at times melancholy slice of electronic maximalism. Listen above.
— Hmm, probably could have made this a Nagoya-themed post, what with House Of Tapes sharing a new song called “Cosmic Low.” It has been a long while since House Of Tapes has embraced the pulverizing sound that first got our attention, but “Cosmic Low” is one of the more suffocating things he’s made in recent memory, but with a few pockets of air provided by twinkling dance moments. Listen below.
— Pasocom Music Club has been on a tear in 2016, the relatively mysterious project creating some of the better instrumental songs out of Japan. In the past month, they have shared two highlights — first came the slippery “NEXCO Higashi Nihon,” and just the other day shared the spacier, deep jungle-worthy “Pom Poko.” Listen to both below.
New House Of Tapes: “Twinkle Colors”
Nagoya’s House Of Tapes has recently been exploring the softer side of his sound, moving a bit away from the punishing four-on-the-floor beats and tar-pit synths marking his early works in favor of brighter sounds. “Twinkle Colors” marks one of his bigger shift into this neon-bright direction yet, if the title didn’t give it away — it revolves around fleet synth notes, and the percussion acts more as a force scooting the song ahead rather than something to trample with. But the twist is, House Of Tapes has figured out bubbly and glowing can be just as sonically constricting — as Electrical Light Parade as this gets, it still makes the most of a lot of sounds. Instead of feeling like impending apocalypse, though, it sounds like something much more joyous. Listen above.
Electronic Round-Up: House Of Tapes, Miii And Snail’s House
– Nagoya’s House Of Tapes recently released the Magnolia EP, but that isn’t slowing down the producer any. He has shared “Nice Dream” which is another pulverizing, suffo…wait, what, this is actually really soft and sweet?! After a small collection of chaotic songs, “Nice Dream” scales things back a bit and opts for a dreamier sound (albeit one that still breaks out into a gallop late, but within his world it’s like the other side of the pillow). Listen above.
– Miii mostly makes really aggressive, really bone-rattling electronic music leaning closer to the EDM spectrum, and a lot of it is very good, but also sometimes not the most interesting sound to write about. “Scuffed White,” however, is a swerve of sorts, the producer delivering a seven-minute-plus number full of sliced up syllables and a melancholy atmosphere. The intensity picks up as the song moves ahead, but never turns brutal. Listen below.
– This one is a little older, but I revisited this week and was reminded of how nice it is. Snail’s House gets jazzy on the simple and sweet “Thinkin’ Of U,” a nice change of pace from the often-manic sounds the young producer usually shares. Nice for staring out of windows to. Listen below.