Another 12 months down, and that means it is time to have some fun and go extra-long for year-end content. Japanese music generally felt either too focused on celebrating the fading days of the Heisei era or on crowning new J-pop superstars for the next generation — or giving us truly left-field viral hits like…
It’s always good to see a band start to upend their own formula. The central driver of Yahyel’s music has long been tension, generated by vocals swinging between raw and filtered set over an electronic creep. Lately, that march has lead to moments of release, and on a song like “Iron” it even became kind…
Tokyo’s Yahyel have a new album out this spring, titled Human. “Pale” is the latest look at their sophomore album, and it underlines the elements of the band that make them stand out from similarly tipped groups coming out of the capital. Musically, “Pale” features a lot of the unnerving touches that have always crept…
Visuals play a massive role in yahyel’s existence as a band, exemplified at this year’s Fuji Rock Festival. The video for forthcoming single “Rude” played during that set, and was easily the most unnerving part of the band’s set, and it remains just as creepy in an uncanny valley way on its own. It’s also…
Electronic outfit Yahyel caught our attention primarily because of the unnerving edge lurking in their music — the way things are bent ever so slightly, or prone for rippling. Yet despite a pretty clear James Blake influence, the group haven’t gone crazy with manipulating their vocals. On previous song, the singing was pretty untouched give…