The main reason this is going up is because it’s a great reworking of Ryan Hemsworth’s “Against A Wall,” featuring Lofty305. The always wonky Seiho gives the song a jazzy edge – throwbacks to his earliest recordings on Day Tripper – along with a reggae-ish (!) vibe, while also dropping in waves of synths. Listen to it above.
(The other reason I post is I’m seeing both of these dudes play tonight…my first all-night show in forever. So this seems like the right move.)
It’s like a really trippy go-around on the Jungle Cruise – Osaka’s wonkiest stuffs in as many animal sounds as he can to the jumpy “Tucanbounce,” featuring appearances from elephants, monkeys and a lot of birds. Seiho structures the song so that most of the noises actually fit into the fabric of the song and aren’t just tropical wallpaper (like how the monkey howling is sorta a turning point in the whole song…though the screeching hawk seems kind of wasted). It’s a sweltering number. Listen below.
Two of Osaka’s brightest music producers collide on this fun little experiment. Both artists contribute an original song…and then the other goes and remixes into something totally different. Booty Tune staple D.J. Fulltono brings his skittering juke sound on “Baby Je Kajoo,” a fast-paced albeit slightly too long number. The always-unpredictable Seiho steps up, slows it down and adds in more sounds – is that a bird squawk??? – morphing it into a more playful, loose-limbed creation. His original offering here, “Honor,” is similarly unpredictable though not nearly as wild as some of his previous creations – it swivels all over the place, but never really freaks out totally. And Fulltono’s version? He finds something coherent in all that twisting and turning, and turns it into a bob-worthy dance track. These two really do bring out the best in one another. Get it here, or listen below.
I completely forgot it is Easter this weekend, and for many folks that means extra days off. So…here are some new Japanese electronic songs to savor over the holiday.
– New Seiho, yessssssssss. “Plastic” isn’t as fidgety as the Osaka producer has gotten in the past – but he certainly stuffs a whole bunch of sounds into this one. Ranging from traditional Japanese drums to split-second vocal samples to punishing bass squonks. Despite all these inclusions, “Plastic” is a nimble cut. Listen below.
– For something a fair bit less fun (but every bit as captivating), Kyoto’s Eadonmm has a new song called “Vanilla” which…is as minimalist as it gets. It is tagged sorrow and, I sorta feel why (emptiness, ya know). Enough happens, though, to pull you into the darkness. Listen below.
– Last, busy-body producer Obutsudan-Sumino has possibly his wackiest song to date out now…”N’goma” is an acid-dipped festival hopper that predicts a really fucked up summer. It’s a trip, listen below.
The artists associated with Osaka’s INNIT party have spent the last few years spreading their sounds across Japan, building up from a once-in-awhie party held in basement venues to being able to hold down their own stage at Tokyo’s edition of Sonarsound and tour with all sorts of international names. Not to mention to branch out and start their own labels. And now, they get a chance to spread it to the United States. Seiho, Magical Mistakes and And Vice Versa will do a jaunt around America this March, with stops in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Baltimore, Oberlin College and Wesleyan College. Click here for more details.
As somebody who has seen all three of these dudes multiple times…definitely find a way out to one of these gigs.
In advance of this tour, each artist has released a new song highlighting the sonic variety that will be present on the American stops. Magical Mistakes delivers a subtle shape-shifter of a song, Seiho’s “Crazy Nail Polish” is a bit of glossy whiplash (voices stuttering over themselves, synth zips, a bunch of sounds locking into just the right order), while And Vice Versa’s “Twins” is a shuffling dance member that’s the most dancefloor-oriented. Listen to them below.