That retro synth/peppy rhythm/autotune combo gets me every time. For me, the bass synth stands out in this song. Not Aira’s best track, but still well worth bobbing your head to.
Source: Japanator Radio
This track is lovely, dominated by synth keyboard stabs that remind me of MGMT, and a celestial chorus of “Aaaaamen!” (At least I think that’s what they’re singing.)
I haven’t heard the original, but this track is a good one. Despite the busy instrumentation, it still sounds like Puffy.
Source: Japanator Radio
The Slits have a new album coming out soon! It’s been 28 years since their last — I was beginning to wonder. It’s produced by Adrian Sherwood. Slits and Sherwood sounds like a great combination, but maybe would have been more potent had it happened 20 years ago.
I heard a song from the album on On The Wire — not sure about the title but it might have been Can’t Be Late Can’t Relate. The dubby backing is infused with tango rhythms, sounding very nice indeed. The vocals are as atonal as ever, though less upfront than in the old days — can’t tell if Ari Up is still behind the mic (as they say) (don’t they?). I will be interested to hear the album.
Source: On the Wire 18 July 2009
P.S. I found out later that Ari Up is indeed still fronting the band. THe album will be called Trapped Animal.
Dear Stephen Hawking is quirky, twee, fact-filled, jaunty and sweet. From a single called Henry Rollins Don’t Dance, which I really think I need to hear.
Source: On the Wire 18 July 2009
This seems to be credited to Nobuo Uematsu and the Dog Ears. “Here Comes Conga Boy” is ridiculous in a good way. Silly voices at the beginning give way to a a nice jaunty song, slightly homey and old-fashioned sounding. But as the song goes on it starts to go insane. The singer starts being a bit silly. She sings in Spanish briefly, with a snatch of Mexican-sounding music. Then the music gets quite slow and dreamy. Then mad voices appear and the music starts sounding jaunty and normal again, before the mad voices start babbling again. Overall, it’s quite enchanting.
Source: Japanator Radio 97
Aira’s track is is a slightly chaotic and noisy beast. Synth stabs, odd rhythms, vocal samples and odd effects over a disco beat. Aira even sings a bit too. I like it.
On this episode of Japanator Radio I also heard Immi’s version of “Joe Le Taxi”. It’s musically much tougher than the original, with a bit of a techno edge to it.
Source: Japanator Radio 97
I always liked Billy Bragg’s vocal delivery. Unpolished and heartfelt, and such a great accent. This remix of one of his later tracks by Moodswings sets the toes tapping and his falsetto just sticks in my head. Bragg always came up with good melodies and this one is just too catchy.
Twilight Shooting Star! by Puffy is your basic guitar-bass-drums-2 Japanese girls shout-along popfest. Don’t forget the exclamation mark!
Japanator Radio followed Puffy up immediately with Tamaki Nami’s “High School Queen”, which could easily be a Puffy song. Both fun to listen to. Would it be sacrilegious to suggest that I preferred the Tamaki Nami track?
Finally there was a track by Polysics, Baby BIAS. I actually really liked it, mainly because of the female vocals. They sound a lot better than the usual Polysics guy. (via Japanator Radio 92)
Japanator Radio played a couple of tracks from Perfume’s new album “Triangle”. Night Flight has the usual complex autotuned vocals, tight drum fills and retro synth work, wrapped up in a nice melody. This is one of their better tracks. My toes are still tapping.
Edge is a bit different. For a start, it’s long — over 8 minutes of that slightly harsh synth sound. It sounds like an old-school “extended mix”, where they make a regular 3- or 4-minute track, and then edit in a few instrumental sections to stretch it out to 8 minutes. It would have been a lot better if they had left it shorter and emphasised the vocal melodies more.
Songs like this, with its compelling simplicity and sheer singalongableness, are just made to stick in my head. It sounds like a more strident version of The Jesus & Mary Chain, though maybe I’m only saying that because both bands include a pair of Scottish brothers and a stand-up drummer. I love stand-up drummers. Singing drummers too.