Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds

Hi everyone, I hope you had a nice week. Started my new job and it’s always humbling to remind yourself that there’s a lot to learn when you start something new. A new industry (travel) means there’s a lot of industry-specific lingo I gotta wrap my head around.

Out of the releases I got a chance to check out this week, there weren’t too many that stood out to me, so it’s a little bit of a smaller selection this week. But despite that, there are some outstanding albums and EPs featured in this issue, so don’t miss out and read/listen below!

🥧Fresh Out The Oven Albums🥧

Rating System

🥧 Pretty warm - for the hardcore fans of the genre
🥧🥧 Oh that’s hot - for any fan of the genre
🥧🥧🥧 We gonna need oven mitts - potential classic, highly suggested listen
🥧🥧🥧🥧 The kitchen’s on fire!! - modern classic, must listen

** I only talk about albums I liked in this newsletter so even the “Pretty warm” albums are still good 😉

MITSUISHI - MITSUISHI

Genre: Electronic Genres Anonymous, Techno, Hip-Hop, Experimental
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

Rather than giving an introduction to the artist at the beginning, I would rather just tell you my first impression of this album. The first thought I had was “Why are there so many different sounds and genres here? Is this even one person?”. The cover perfectly represents this dynamic change as there are multiple faces, cut and juxtaposed in various arrangements.

I later found out the answers to my questions. This project is 3 different artists; dooo, MONKEY_sequence.19, and tee-rug all bring their own tastes to the project, which results in a not-so-unified but also cohesive. All 3 artists are on the same page, but they have different font styles and sizes. If you look at the track listing, you’ll see the tracks say “feat.”, but actually what that means is that that musician made that track. I’m sure there was feedback between the group of what made the album, but I do like this interesting group approach that they had. It reminds me of one of the reasons it’s easy to love YMO or The Beatles, each member brought in completely different styles to their songs but they all made it fit together.

From the unabashedly Flying Lotus love of HIpGNoSIS eeeILISH, to the on-edge yet bouncy Paranoia, if you like Electronic music of any kind, this is an engaging listen from front to back.

Rating: 🥧🥧 Oh that’s hot

Favorite Tracks: Bad Life, HIpGNoSIS eeeILISH, Savage, Paranoia, Holy Af

HAAS a.k.a. Hiroshi Takano - Calm / hibinohibiki

Genre: Ambient
Bandcamp

Since this is a soundtrack to Hiroshi Takano’s photo exhibition, I’m not going to go into too much detail, but I just wanted to say there are some really beautiful tracks here and if you’re an ambient fan or even a fan of pluckering guitar sounds, I highly recommend this collection of tracks.

Also just wanted to say that Hiroshi Takano’s music is definitely worth checking out. He’s had albums produced by Todd Rundgren and was a frequent collaborator/touring guitarist for the YMO crew.

Lemna - Mantis 14 - EP

Genre: Minimal Techno, Experimental, Polyrhythmic
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

🍵Piping Hot Singles🍵

Yuka Nagase & SASAKRECT - Ex (feat. Cat Biscuit)
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Pop, UK Garage

Nagakumo - あるところ (arutokoro)
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock

Qubinoix - Girls Are Alright
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock

Shigge - アルゴリズムが殺す2人
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Pop, Drum and Bass

OGRE YOU ASSHOLE - 偶然生まれた (Guzen umareta)
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock

Shingo Suzuki - You Don’t Know (What Life Is) [feat. Kojoe & Ruri Matsumura]
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Hip-Hop

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 by replying to this email, or the official Instagram page (click the icon below). If you like what you read, please tell your friends, like the official Instagram, etc. I hope to eventually be a primary source of 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.