Envy is one of my favorite bands, and it would seem they've come out with yet another brilliant album. Melding elements of post-rock together with screamo and hardcore, Recitation comes together as both a moving and an artistically significant album, and serves as a further refinement of Envy's style. The slow parts are artistic and moving, the fast parts are fun and loud, but don't take my word for it, listen to this video and then try it out(/end run-on sentence).
World's End Girlfriend is another solo outfit from Japan specializing in electronic music. I always enjoy Japanese music at first, but it tends to grow old on me, which is the reason I held off on posting about this album. Something I've discovered while listening to it over the weeks however, is that the album uses non-traditional electronic instruments liberally, such as piano, saxophone, violin, and of course, electric guitar. It's also punctuated with bits of classical-sounding music, making for a refreshing sound from Japan. Regardless, if you don't like cacophonies of noise, ignore this album. The 'Bohemian Purgatory' songs form an epic middle of the album, employing classical and jazzy sounds interspersed with Electronic. 'Dier Spiegel Im Spiegel Im Spiegel' forms a non-rhythmic 4 minute entry into 'The Offering Inferno' which consists of little more than a single note on a piano being struck periodically, nonsensible feedback noises, screaming, and what sounds like a Cerberus tearing a town apart for 8 minutes and 33 seconds, and can hardly be considered music by itself. It really seems to be a blemish on an otherwise fun album, and is followed by a peaceful piano/violin driven closing track. If you enjoy frantic electronic pieces and can get over an 8-minute track of jarring noise, then enjoy!
Artist: Firo Album: Tender Grain Genre: Electronic, often a bit jazzy
This is one of those albums I wasn't sure if I'd end up posting. After many a listen, I've decided that this album is in fact brilliant enough to post here. Since you've doubtless not heard of Firo, it's a solo project from Japan. Luckily, it falls free of all the conventions I know of from Japan. Much as its name implies, Tender Grain is a bit tender and also downright minimalistic at times. From the upbeat 'Silver Lining', to the music box-like tune of 'Nilonio', Tender Days is an all-around enjoyable electronic album with plenty of replay value.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a decent song from this album on vimeo or youtube, so here's a myspace link: http://www.myspace.com/firofiro
Artist: The Best Pessimist Album: To Whom It May Concern Genre: Instrumental post-rock with piano
This is the first time I've heard a Best Pessimist album, but it looks like I may have to rectify that situation. To Whom It May Concern is a pretty standard post-rock album, along the lines of Explosions in The Sky or If These Trees Could Talk. Honestly, it's standard enough that I don't even feel like I have to go out of my way to explain what makes it special, other than its heart-felt melodies. At any rate, it's a great album, give it a listen.
Artist: We Love Album: We Love Genre: Electronic dance w/ vocals
This album reminds me in many ways of The Knife's 'Silent Shout'. From the atmospheric electronic style to the vocals from a girl whose main language isn't English, We Love could almost pass as a new Knife record, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. Although the album is often quite repetitive, it doesn't come off as commercialized or pretentious, rather running in the vein of a slightly minimalistic yet introspective work. Altogether, I'd say the album comes together quite nicely in a way you'd expect more of musicians with several lps behind them, definitely worth a listen or three.
Artist: Inlets Album: Inter Arbiter Genre: Acoustic with vocals; indie rock
Oh my god, my blog's been up a whole 30 minutes and I still haven't posted about Inlets. I feel so dirty. Inlets is incredible, and way under-known. Think of a younger Thom Yorke singing to Iron and Wine's instrumentation, and that's something like Inlets. Pretty kickass, right? In practice it ends up being even more kickass, since he has a tendency towards angst and unusual scales, as well as unusual instruments. Check it out. Download. Enjoy.
Artist: Satanicpornocultshop Album: Arkhaiomelisidonophunikheratos Genre: Beat and vocal intensive electronic and acoustic
Having had a period in my life where I was absolutely crazy for any music from Japan and having passed through that period, I really am not crazy about mainstream music from Japan. Not that there's anything wrong with it in particular, it just seems so fake and whatever-the-opposite-of-minimalistic-is to me. Often there will be a band that strikes my fancy as passing these limitations however, and Satanicpornocultshop is certainly one of them. The album comes off as being extremely frenetic. It's very hard to pin a genre on the album, but most of it is unified by being electronic. Various different genres of electronic mind you, but electronic nonetheless. I really don't know what else to say about this album other than that it's original, a fun listen, and that you should check it out.
Artist: Envy
