Make Believe Melodies Logo

Tag Archives: LLLL

New LLLL: “You”

Posted on by

a0195860735_10

Well here’s an exciting collaboration: Tokyo’s LLLL will release their proper full-length album through Zoom Len’s, the American label co-run by Meishi Smile and responsible for releasing music by the likes of i-fls, Yoshino Yoshikawa and more. The album, Paradice, can actually be heard in its entirety right now here, but I’ll hold off on a longer review until I properly give this one time. For now though, let’s zero in on “You,” a new track from the shadowy outfit. It’s a rumbling number…don’t let the opening silence fool you, that’s just to build tension…seasoned with the J-pop-worthy singing the group has deployed to great effect in the past. It’s a zippy number, and one straddling the line between dark and light quite well. Listen below.

New LLLL: MDF02

Posted on by

Here’s some great weekend listening – Tokyo’s LLLL are releasing a new three-song set on the label Modular Field, and you can listen to the whole thing now. LLLL work in mysterious ways…they pop up to release great music at intervals, and then vanish for some time only to creep out of the shadows once again with something like this trio of tracks. MDF02 opens with one that’s familiar to anyone who have been following the group since they first appeared, the darty J-pop-meets-Jesse-Ruins “Because Of My Eyes,” which still sounds as good as it did when it first surfaced online a couple years back. Next up is “Odness,” an even zippier number fractured by digital scronk, the sound of a pop song breaking down on itself. It ends with the most straightforward…for them…song, “Far From Now.” Listen below.

New LLLL Video: “Because Of My Eyes”

Posted on by

The new clip for Tokyo duo LLLL’s “Because Of My Eyes” captures what looks like a weekend night spent in Japan’s capital – lots of neon lights, dancing at clubs and a woozy effect that brings to mind walking around while sloshed. All of this, though, is shown in black and white, interspliced with shots of women just sort of staring at the camera and plenty of shadowy frames. It’s a solid match to the song, which takes elements of technicolor J-Pop but puts it into an unsettling package. Watch above.

New LLLL: Mirror

Posted on by

A sense of unease has run through all of LLLL’s music up to this point, the pop-appropriate flourishes of the Tokyo duo’s self-titled debut and the follow-up “Spider Web/Drafting Still” single always undercut by a creeping sense of something lurking in the shadows. Mirror, LLLL’s longest release to date, also happens to be its most dizzying, a mini-album where the strangeness of past releases sounds more linked to the pop than before. The appropriately titled opener “Oddness” establishes the prevailing mood quickly – the intro synths sound like they could have come from a slasher flick, and then more electronics rush into the song. As the song progresses, sound speed up and slow down unpredictably – even the glossy vocals, usually untouched, go through the wormhole. It’s manic and twisty – but also still catchy.

The next song, “I Wish You,” reveals another great duo operating in the same mindset as LLLL. The way the song manipulates the vocals while setting it up against what could be called a dance beat brings to mind Sweden’s The Knife, another group warping electronic-pop music into sinister new shapes. So the rest of Mirror goes – the songs maintain a pop edge but carry a darker tone that lend these tracks extra depth. Get it here, or listen below.