Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds

Hi everyone, I hope you had a pleasant week! While it isn’t directly music related, I just wanted to take a moment to say RIP Akira Toriyama.

I’ll be honest, I might not even be making this newsletter if it wasn’t for his influence on me as a kid. Dragon Ball Z was the show that got me into anime. It was what inspired me to stay up late at night to watch other shows similar to it, which caused me to make other friends who liked Japanese culture, which led to me getting into YMO right after high school. Not only DBZ, but Chrono Trigger too, which remains one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. While he didn’t create the music, the visuals are the perfect accent to the sounds, a near perfect game. RIP, and I look forward to seeing one of his last creations, Dragon Ball Daima when it comes out.

Now, on to this week’s albums!

Fresh Out The Oven Albums

CIGARETTE in your bed - Lost in…

Genre: Shoegaze, Gothic Rock, Alternative Rock

Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

The recent resurrection of Shoegaze has brought in an overflowing amount of new talent onto the scene. It’s happening all over the world, artists like Parannoul (pretty new) from Korea and Like Tracy Hyde (not so new) from Japan have been an integral part in this change. The latter of these 2 bands’ last album was mixed and engineered by Mark Gardener of Ride fame, acting as a passing of the obfuscated guitar noise torch.

So what does CIGARETTE in your bed bring to the table? First, they have the Shoegaze superstar-studded support mixing duties by Elliott Frazier of the band Ringo Deathstarr. That doesn’t make an album “good” though. So the question is, what contribution do they make to the shoegaze-ethos. I believe that what they bring to the table is the juxtaposition of variety and consistency. Almost every track on this album brings in something different when compared to the last track. Whether it’s the whammy-ed out guitars and drum rolls of “Tomorrow”, or the Pixies-esque “Don’t touch me I’m sick”. The album is a rollercoaster of nostalgia, but it retains a consistent layer of both guitar and bass fuzz.

The first thing that stands out is the vocals are pretty punchy, less MBV more Hum, something rather rare within the Japanese Shoegaze scene. I personally think the mix of the vocals could either make you love or hate this album. However, they’re really good at balancing the typical haziness of the genre with some 90’s alt-rock vocal style and sounds. I think this see-saw performance is best displayed on the track “Insane Supermarket”, leading off with a mid-tempo drum groove but when the chorus arises it feels like floating through the air.

While I do think that CIGARETTE in your bed are consistent in their sound, I would say one thing holding them back is there are few moments on the album that have a wow factor. Not saying there isn’t, the bass and guitar match each other in washed out sounds and the drums bring in plenty of interesting touches. However, I want more standout moments and tracks, and a little less of the repetitive lyric/chorus syndrome that occurs throughout the album. But despite this, I’m excited for their future. If they take advantage of the more diverse aspects of their sound, and expand some of their ideas a little further, I think their next record could make them a standout band amongst the newest wave of Shoegaze artists

Favorite Tracks: Why…, Tomorrow, Insane Supermarket

Neibiss - Daydream Marker

Genre: Hip-Hop, Shibuya-Kei Influenced

Spotify | Apple Music

No Buses - 1624 EP

Genre: Indie Rock, Experimental Pop

Spotify | Apple Music

Soichi Terada - Apes In The Net EP

Genre: Video Game Music, Techno, Drum and Bass, Breakbeats

Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

*Bonus Writeup!

So this EP actually consists of older music, but I just wanted to take a second to say that if you’re into any Electronic music and haven’t listened to Soichi Terada, please do so! He’s the guy who created the Ape Escape soundtracks. Best place to start would be either this EP or the Sounds From The Far East compilation.

Thank you!

Thanks again for reading this issue of Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds! If you have any feedback or questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to either my email [email protected] , or the official Instagram page (click the icon below). If you like what you read, please tell your friends, like our Instagram etc. I hope to eventually be a primary source for Japanese music for the English speaking world because I want to share my love of music with as many people as possible, and you all would be the way that could happen.

See ya next time! Breakfast is ready.