i did say more music
and also a news update: I'll be shipping out for Japan in August, as I did get into JET after all. :D The period from application to departure is so long that it still doesn't feel very concrete, but I imagine it'll pick up once I get my placement.
--
Anyway, the point of this is recent discoveries:
I seem to be the last person to have heard of sleepy.ab, which is kind of surprising because they're right up my alley. Ambient and melodic, with a clear high-ranged vocalist and dreamy lyrics, but plenty of darker edges. Various tracks have also reminded me, at certain points, of Shugo Tokumaru, Muse, Fridge and the Sigur-Ros-et-al brand of melodic Scandinavian cold weather music. This is not surprising as they're from Sapporo and understand cold weather.* (The difference is that not all of their music is meant for COLD and ICE. XD;;) That's not to say that overall they sound particularly like any of those groups... I am really awful at the "group x sounds like the lovechild of group y and singer z after a pub crawl with band c" type comparisons so it's just, idk, freeform sonic association. Uh. Downloading would probably be a more reliable way to find out what they actually sound like.
Everything is from paratroop, their latest album, except "loop", which is from fantasia. I'm happy to upload more for any interested parties. :)
diver
do re mi
flee
insomnia
mori
loop
The hook for noanowa is that they have a cello-playing frontman (frontwoman), which as a former cellist I can't in good conscience resist. After love at first listen with "Haku", I then found that... the rest of their music is cheerful bouncy pop that sounds nothing like that. Well. Haku remains an excellent track, wailing cello and ethereal vocals and all. Sort of Björk-ish. Just give it a minute to get past the piano intro and out of the initial melody.
Haku
Haku live, i.e. cello action
Not so recent discoveries in the next post.
*It's hard to explain but some bands do cold climate music and some don't. Spitz doesn't, for one, winter music for Spitz is a cold day in Tokyo, no snow. As a matter of fact I can't think of a single snow or ice lyric off the top of my head, probably because Kusano grew up in Fukuoka. Versus the aforementioned Scandinavians - Sigur Rós, Kings of Convenience, Björk, Röyksopp, etc. - or the Arcade Fire. Or even GLAY. White landscapes broken by black branches.
--
Anyway, the point of this is recent discoveries:
I seem to be the last person to have heard of sleepy.ab, which is kind of surprising because they're right up my alley. Ambient and melodic, with a clear high-ranged vocalist and dreamy lyrics, but plenty of darker edges. Various tracks have also reminded me, at certain points, of Shugo Tokumaru, Muse, Fridge and the Sigur-Ros-et-al brand of melodic Scandinavian cold weather music. This is not surprising as they're from Sapporo and understand cold weather.* (The difference is that not all of their music is meant for COLD and ICE. XD;;) That's not to say that overall they sound particularly like any of those groups... I am really awful at the "group x sounds like the lovechild of group y and singer z after a pub crawl with band c" type comparisons so it's just, idk, freeform sonic association. Uh. Downloading would probably be a more reliable way to find out what they actually sound like.
Everything is from paratroop, their latest album, except "loop", which is from fantasia. I'm happy to upload more for any interested parties. :)
diver
do re mi
flee
insomnia
mori
loop
The hook for noanowa is that they have a cello-playing frontman (frontwoman), which as a former cellist I can't in good conscience resist. After love at first listen with "Haku", I then found that... the rest of their music is cheerful bouncy pop that sounds nothing like that. Well. Haku remains an excellent track, wailing cello and ethereal vocals and all. Sort of Björk-ish. Just give it a minute to get past the piano intro and out of the initial melody.
Haku
Haku live, i.e. cello action
Not so recent discoveries in the next post.
*It's hard to explain but some bands do cold climate music and some don't. Spitz doesn't, for one, winter music for Spitz is a cold day in Tokyo, no snow. As a matter of fact I can't think of a single snow or ice lyric off the top of my head, probably because Kusano grew up in Fukuoka. Versus the aforementioned Scandinavians - Sigur Rós, Kings of Convenience, Björk, Röyksopp, etc. - or the Arcade Fire. Or even GLAY. White landscapes broken by black branches.