🎧 Issue #48

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s this week’s issue of Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds !

Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing well and ready to check out this week’s features of new releases from the ever-lasting waterfall of new Japanese underground releases.

*There should be a GIF of a waterfall here… PSYCHE!

🥧Freshly Baked Albums 🥧

Reviews of the best new-ish albums

kanekoayano - thread of stone

Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Rock/Pop
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

Back with a new variation of her name as well as a fresh band of musicians (pun intended), Ayano Kaneko has crafted what might be the best album in her discography since 2019’s SanSan.

This band is exactly what she needed to push her music forward without being stagnant in her typical singer-songwriter style. Her lyrics were always thought-provoking and unique, but her songs sounded same-y after a while.

But here, we have various genres/moods such as the bright fuzzy pop of “sunshine“ or the balladry of “i’m not sad”. What makes this record shine is the tight playing, especially by the rhythm section. I particularly like the bass and drum interplay on the track “me and the sunset”, where they both hold the song down in a hypnotic rhythm allowing the lead guitar to hum in the background.

While some tracks like “Lucky” don’t quite live up to the highs of other tracks, the highs are really highs. This is hopefully the beginning of a revitalized career and let’s see if it gets even better from here.

Rating: 🥧🥧🥧 We gonna need oven mitts - potential classic, highly suggested listen
Favorite Tracks: noise, me and the sunset, sunshine, i’m not sad, difficult, a stone and a butterfly

TamTam - Where They Dwell

Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Indie Pop
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

Masato Oomi - Photonics

Genre: Indie Pop, Jazz Pop
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

🍱Mystery Bento🍱

An older album you should check out

Kotringo - songs in the birdcage (2007)

Genre: Art Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Jazz Pop
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

I usually don’t find a lot of music through music player algorithms, but this is one of the ones that the (not so) gracious gods of Apple Music have bestowed upon my ears.

This album could easily go down as “quirky”, but instead I see it as “Art Pop genius”. The perfect continuation of the more cutesy, electronic side of the Shibuya-kei sound. The Art Pop genius side is proven by the fact that Ryuichi Sakamoto produced this album, that alone making this worth the listen.

Whether it’s the grooving bassline of “sora”, the ever changing “tiey tiey tea”, or the Mario Kart island course-esque beat on “hoshikuzu”, this an album that grabs you on your first listen and begs for more.

Favorite Tracks: hoshikuzu, hikari, sora, afterschool melancholy, tiey tiey tea

♨️ Steaming EPs ♨️ 

Some good EPs that recently came out

SAGOSAID - itsumademo shinu noha kowai? EP

Genre: Noisy Power Pop, Alternative Rock
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

ayutthaya - epoch EP

Genre: Indie Rock, Power Pop
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

🍵 Piping Hot Playlists 🍵

A collection of tracks from all the new albums and EPs I’ve talked about so far this year.

Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds official Spotify and Apple Music playlists below!
Freshly updated!!

Playlist Links:
Spotify
Apple Music

❤️‍🔥 Thank you! ❤️‍🔥 

As always, thank you thank you sooooo much for reading this issue of Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds! 🥹

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See ya next time! Breakfast is ready.

All SS Sounds logos and images were created by local Tokyo artist Mai Moroe.
https://www.instagram.com/maimoroe/
https://www.moroemai.com/