🎧 Shibuya's Scrambled Sounds - Issue #25

5NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHING! It’s this week’s issue of Shibuya’s Scrambled Sounds

So I’ve been talking about a big design overhaul for a long time, but it seems like that will finally be happening in the near future 🤩 I'll keep you all updated once everything gets finalized.

This week’s episode includes:

• An album 8 years in the making

• A modern Electronic duo’s tribute to underground dance music

• 2 really great EPs for you all

🥧 Fresh Out The Oven Albums 🥧

Reviews of the best new albums that came out recently
*with some exceptions

Shugo Tokumaru - Song Symbiosis

Genre: Art Pop, Indie Pop, Chamber Pop
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

Shugo Tokumaru is back after 8 years since his last album, with more of the same eclectic, slightly off-kilter Chamber Pop he’s become semi-famous for. What if Illinois era of Sufjan was just a little more “quirky”, a little more “weird”. Okay, I mean Sufjan is an interesting guy as well, so that might oversell this, but Tokumaru’s music is similar to that era of his work in that a lot of time and energy was put into the orchestral arrangements. There’s always little bells and whistles as well as beautiful instrumentation to keep you on the edge of your seat.

If you’ve heard Tokumaru’s album “Exit” before, you know what to expect this time around. I will say that he seems a little rejuvenated here. There’s lots of short tracks sprinkled throughout the album, little twinkles of ideas that don’t overstay their welcome. They feel like accentuations to the overall album, perhaps alluding to the title of the album, a Song Symbiosis of sorts.

But of course there are fully fleshed out tracks as well. To me, these are the best parts of the album. Take the song “Canaria” for example, starting off somber and downtrodden, but ending with a cacophony of instrumentation including a theremin (I think? Could be a saw?) and other instruments of various sorts. Also, Tokumaru plays almost every instrument as well, showing that he has both the technical talent as well as melody sensibility.

I didn’t go too far into the nitty gritty of the tracks on this album, but I think this might be his most consistent one so far. If you’re into Indie Rock/Pop with lots of instrumentation, definitely worth a listen.

Rating: 🥧🥧 Oh that’s hot

Favorite Tracks: Counting Dog, Hitofuki Sote, Sakiyo No Furiko, Canaria, Hora

Pasocom Music Club - Love Flutter

Genre: Synthpop, Electronic Dance Music
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

Pasocom Music Club is a bit of an enigma. While the duo consistently stays within the realms of Electronic music, their taste and genres vary from album to album. They started off as YMO fanboys, paying homage to 80’s Technopop, donning synthesizer sounds from that era. With their last album “FINE LINE”, there were touches of Shibuya-kei and Hip-Hop, sounds that weren’t as prevalent in their previous albums.

So you would expect them to continue in this kinda quirky diverse direction right? Me too, but this album is very focused on one particular sound. To me, it feels like a tribute to dance music as a whole. From Techno and House to Drum and Bass, they touch all bases on this album. I saw one of the members at a local venue doing a DJ gig recently, and it definitely felt like it was the predecessor to this, what he had been spinning that night definitely crept onto this album.

Is this album pushing the boundaries of dance music as we know it? Nah not really, but does it SLAP? It has it’s moments. “Drama (feat. Mei Takahashi)” sounds like a slightly warped and distorted version of an early 2010’s club hit. There are quite a few tracks with guests and it feels like these songs try to scratch their pop itches. However, my favorite tracks are the ones without guests, where they experiment with Minimal Techno, Ambient, and UK Garage.

There are guests on this album whose music I love and have written about on this newsletter before. Which got me pretty hyped, but after further listens, I have to say I think the melodies by the guests feel so 2 dimensional on this album. If you’re looking for good live sounding DJ performance, I think this record would be up your alley. Otherwise, check out some of the other albums in their discography.

Rating: 🥧🥧 Oh that’s hot

Favorite Tracks: Fabric, Please me (feat. MFS), Boredom, Memory of the moment, Colors (feat. Haruy)

♨️ Steaming EPs ♨️ 

Some good EPs for you to check out

BLUEVALLEY - WHITE ep

Genre: Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Krautrock, (Sounds like early Supercar)
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

Ibuki Takai - 金星の声 (Kinsei no koe) (Voice of Venus)

Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Ambient
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

🍵 Piping Hot Singles 🍵

Here’s where you find the newest hottest singles on the planet from Japan

Hoy Chang Su - A certain girl
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Genre: Indie Pop, New Wave

路地 (Roji) - 虹の色 (Niji no iro)
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Genre: Indie Pop, Jangle Rock, Shibuya-kei-inspired

AOI12SAI - Antenna
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Genre: Japanese Pop, R&B inspired

Ichiko Aoba - Lullaby
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Genre: Acoustic Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Pop

❤️‍🔥 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.