Think of the Juke Shiyouya series as a pleasant come down from the grittier Atomic Bomb Compilation. Whereas the latter uses juke music as a way to warn about the dangers of nuclear power and weapons — often by taking a darker, at times doomsday-ready tone — Omoide Label’s ongoing collections simply gathers tracks from…
Vocaloid technology sounds best when it is part of a digital maelstrom. Although it feels like the majority of producers fond of the software place it against rock, the best applications of the instrument have all come in electronic music, whether over start-stop patterns or sparser, icier fare. Although envisioned as a replacement for human…
The title, as beautiful as it sounds, is not totally honest — it is more like “singing-synthesizer juke,” as the voices popping up across this collaborative album between Omoide Label and Massatsu Records come from a variety of sources (one example — the sixth song here uses a computer-speak program, one that helpfully lays out…
Half of this entry should be relatively self-explanatory — these are albums that, for various reasons, just missed our final cut. All of them are worth your listening time, and them falling just outside of the top 30 really shows just how much good music came out of Japan. The other, though, is a bit…
Omoide Label has a knack for putting together wonderfully energetic compilations, whether they be focused on juke or otherwise. Their latest various-artists get-together veers towards the latter, though Your Sound sounds a bit more energetic. Budding producer Nyankobrq serves up a squiggly bit of electro-dance that seems descended from the DJ Newtwon school of production…