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Tag Archives: LLLL

Busy Week Catch-Up Post: LLLL, Boys Age, Annie The Clumsy and DJ NHK Guy

It has been a busy last few days around these parts, not helped by me finally downloading a certain wonderful cat game, and this blog has fallen behind a bit. That’s no good! Here is a catch-up post of a few notable releases from this week.

– Tokyo’s LLLL posted the free-to-download “Times Can Be Hard,” inspired by current events going down in America recently. “This is not meant to be any political statement. but I felt very emotional about recent incident in America and this is my response as an artist,” he writes. Listen below.

– The always-busy Boys Age teamed up with Annie The Clumsy for a collaborative collection. On the front half, Boys Age deliver an easy-going set, featuring a clearer version of last year’s “Crystal Killer.” Annie The Clumsy, meanwhile, delivers happy-sounding ukulele music hiding biting lyrics (though a title like “You Bastard” sets the mood well). Get it here.

– I basically don’t trust anything tagged “Japanese” (or featuring Japanese characters on the artwork) on Bandcamp anymore, but I’m going to roll the dice on DJ NHK Guy and his new OMG NHK ILY EP because 1. that name and 2. it is out via Fukuoka’s Yesterday Once More, which works for me. Oh and 3. it’s a fun five-song set opening with a Picnic Women worthy bouncer turning the Jackson 5 into pure helium. And from there NHK Guy is off, with the crystaline boogie freakout “Go Go” to the dramatic “Pretty & Brown.” Get it here.

New LLLL: “Blue”

Tokyo outfit LLLL’s newest album, Faithful, just officially came out, and you should certainly hunt it down. To give you another preview of it — one featuring the project’s original singer rather than a guest making a fantastic turn — LLLL released a video for second song “Blue,” which you can watch above. The song itself is more immediate than first taste “Only To Silence,” a good example of how the shadowy unit takes the immediacy of J-pop and takes it to an uneasier place.

New LLLL Video: “Only To Silence”

We wrote about this song a bit before, about how it finds two Tokyo artists who often operate in the shadows coming together to make something hopeful in the face of the crushing realities of urban life. Fittingly, the new video for it is a time-lapse clip of Japan’s capital, gone trippy at times but often just capturing the hugeness of it. Watch above.

New LLLL Featuring Metoronori: “Only To Silence”

Welp, this Spring just keeps getting loaded with promising releases.

The meeting between LLLL and Metoronori is something that seems natural — both are Tokyo artists who create woozy…and sometimes dark…music shaped by the metropolis. And both injected moments of joyful escape into their music, lining even the most shadowy moments with hope. And so they’ve teamed up for “Only To Silence,” a peak at LLLL’s forthcoming album Faithful out on March 15 via Progressive Form. The big revelation is Metoronori…in her music, she tends to dart between off-kilter electronics, and often times sounds like she’s whispering. Yet on “Only To Silence,” she steps out and delivers a wispy, attention-grabbing performance that meshes just right with LLLL’s slow-building electronic surge, peaking in one of the project’s most affirming musical moments yet. Listen above.

Maltine Teams Up With Amagawa Uchu For New Songs, Browser-Destroying Site

1. Overall, I love what Maltine Records has been doing/continues to does, but the only thing that makes me bite my lip is these special sites they make for big releases, such as this collaboration with Amagawa Uchu. Mainly because it destroys my computer every time…a large part of that is, despite being a (*air sucking sound*) Millenial, I stink with computers beyond opening new tabs. So yeah…having to restart my browser all the time can be rough!

2. But thank goodness for the music, which more than makes up for any technical agony. Amagawa’s release with Maltine doubles as a highlight reel of the netlabel’s best contributors…one original track is produced by Parkgolf, the other by “ultrapop” lord Yoshino Yoshikawa (uhhh more on him later today). And the songs get remixed by manic chiptune artist Gigandect and Tokyo’s shadowy LLLL. Listen to them above…or go here and tell me how to make my computer better.