Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds

Welcome to the newest issue of Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds where I talk about my favorite omelette recipes new albums from the Japanese underground of the week.

I think at the beginning of these newsletters, I like to talk about some small non-music related stuff, maybe “life lessons” as you want to call it. The one for this week is to not overload yourself. Recently I’ve been like “I want to keep writing music”, “oh and work on the newsletter”, “oh and start an English/Foreigner implementation business for Japanese companies”. I haven’t even tried starting that last one yet, but I’ve already been overwhelmed with finding the balance between writing music and finding music/writing for this newsletter. I’ve learned that trying to do 30 min of each after work just stresses me out, so from this week, I’m going to try a whole Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday = songwriting, the rest = newsletter kinda thing and see how it goes.

Anyways, there were a couple of great albums and lots of great singles this week so let’s get into it.

🥧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 😉

Glans - slow tree

Genre: Ambient, Noise Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental Rock
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

Making albums that are just one giant song feels like a thing of the past. It definitely started with Prog Rock right? Albums like Close to the Edge by Yes and Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd feel like a symphonic piece or giant composition where the band goes all in on making all of the parts weave in and out together. Then with the technology of CDs in the 90’s and 00’s, there didn’t have to be sides to the tape anymore, you could make even bigger pieces of recording that were literally one song. Think Long Season by Fishmans or Feedbacker by Boris.

So this band Glans from Sapporo only has one album. This is their first album, and it’s one giant song. They had become semi-famous in Sapporo via their live performances for the past couple of years, but this is their first step into the recorded music realm (at least under this name). Making albums like this is risky because they could potentially go one way or the other. If it isn’t an engaging listen then it just becomes one giant song that feels like a chore to get through.

This isn’t one of those. This album constantly throws curveballs at you to keep you on your toes. So okay, yes it’s not technically one song because the songs are divided into sections with different names, but to me, this is one giant song. Let’s be real, if you weren’t looking at your phone you wouldn’t know where one track ends and the other begins.

I honestly can’t believe this is this band’s first album, you can tell that they’ve probably spent almost every day jamming with each other. It’s hard to tell if this album is improvised or not because it feels so calculated yet so simultaneously freeform. They go from ambient to psychedelic rock, to kinda funky? The ending is a little unexpected and part of it drags on a bit too long, but I still highly recommend this album.

Rating: 🥧🥧 Oh that’s hot

Favorite Tracks: Um, all of it? Hard to separate into individual tracks and there are only 5 so…..

VIDEOTAPEMUSIC - Revisit

Genre: Ambient, Field Recordings, Minimal Beats
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music

Collages are surprisingly difficult to craft. Of course, you can just throw some random clippings together and say it’s a collage, but the important part is where your source is. The arrangement is important as well, but I believe the most crucial aspect of colalge crafting is where you get those little bits of paper, magazines, etc.

Revisit by VIDEOTAPEMUSIC is the definition of a collage of nostalgia. A lot of the samples are from old VHS tapes and the melodies feel like they’re from another era. The Revisit probably refers to going back to your childhood, to the sounds that were around you. While I didn’t grow up in Japan, I think a lot of you reading this (including me) consumed Japanese media when we were young, so there’s a sense of far-away nostalgia that other albums rarely capture.

“Susaki (Flotsom)” is the perfect example of this, containing random Japanese voices from news clips and TV shows tied together like a bow with a melody created by a Melodica. This album also feels a little bit like a collaboration effort, with the last 2 tracks being remixes while also including freetalk-like vocals by Manami Kakudo on the track “Nomozaki”, a personal favorite on the album. Maybe this is to add to a sense of community to the experience of nostalgia prominent throughout the album.

Despite the beats and layers of instrumentation, I definitely think it’s best to approach this as an ambient album. Some of the tracks lull and don’t move anywhere, but I think that’s the point. Definitely a great listen from front to back and amazing background music that occasionally perks your ear.

Rating: 🥧🥧 Oh that’s hot

Favorite Tracks: Nomozaki, Susaki (Flotsom), Ureshino (Cha Cha Dub), Goujyou Jima

🍵Piping Hot Singles🍵

Hakushi Hasegawa - Departed
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Experimental Pop, Electronic, Jazz?

Pot-Pourri - Y
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Indie Pop, Singer-Songwriter, A hint of Electronic Ambient

浦上想起 (Urakami Souki) - 抜け出せ！
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Jazz-tinged Pop

SOM4LI - Frozen
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Indie Rock

BBBBBBB - Yuhi
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Experimental Screaming Hip-Hop, Weirdo Stuff

Billyrrom - Windy You
Spotify | Apple Music
Genre: Sugary Soul Pop

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 send me a message on 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 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.