Heard a nice set on Japanator Radio 77 today. Ayumi Hamasaki “Days” (Eight Bits of Tears remix by YMCK) sound like YMCK remixing Ayumi Hamasaki. Bubbly, tinkly, short and sweet.
Strawberry Machine’s nagging “Where is my Doless” is very cute. Actually it’s supposed to be called “Where is my Dress” but her accent is very strong; no doubt she’s singing phonetically. Anyhow, maybe a bit too much emphasis on the cute vocals and not enough on the instrumentation compared to other SM that I’ve heard.
Odd J-Pop of the week is Susumu Hirasawa’s “Astro-Ho! Kikan”. It has a tick-tock metronomic rhythm with pizzicato strings, an old-fashioned traditional-sounding male vocal, bursts of static, intermittent screams, an electric guitar solo… and that doesn’t really cover it. Perhaps not as strange as all that, but still strange.