a Japanese indie music blog
July 10th, 2018 marks the 5 year anniversary of Broken Little Sister’s popular shoegaze tribute to the Beatles. The album, titled Beatless and released under the moniker Meeks, includes ten covers of famous Beatles tracks, but with a dreamy, reverb-drenched twist.
To celebrate the anniversary, Broken Little Sister released three extra tracks that didn’t make the original release. They’re currently available at the band’s Bandcamp page for whatever you’d like to pay.
Tokyo’s Yukla Down put out their first record material in the form of a three-track demo EP titled “In Demonstrationem”. The five-piece, whose lineup includes a member apiece from Si,Irene and Civic, offers a throwback 90s UK shoegaze sound that isn’t all that common in the Japanese scene. It’s pleasantly scuzzy introduction, particularly on the first track, “Torture Me (With Your Kiss)” which sounds both nominally and tonally like something off of Isn’t Anything, but with a turn of the century American emo tinge to it that’s pretty cool. “If You Only Knew” is another textural ripper of a song with more of a groove carrying along the cascade of harsh guitar noise, while “Borealis” is a chilled-out instrumental featuring droning guitars and a simple bongo-tapped beat.
While I don’t bemoan the lack of aggression in Japanese music nearly as much as I used to, I really appreciate Yukla Down’s noisy contributions. The quality of the demo, in terms of both sound and composition, is really solid. The band will be appearing at the July 29th Total Feedback event at Koenji High. For more information you can follow Yukla Down on Facebook and Twitter.
A couple months back, Kyoto newcomers Browned Butter released their first recorded material in the form of a single track titled “Fall”. The song would be more formally introduced via net label Ano(t)raks’ DIE IN POP compilation album. Just this past month the band released a debut 3-track EP of the same via the same label.
At first listen, the title track follows a pretty standard pattern for Japanese shoegaze with the blaring lead, somewhat subdued guitar backdrop, male-female twin vocals, and the stripped-down verse crescendoing into the bridge. But while this format can be boring in some cases, Browned Butter’s sound has a really good balance to it. The male and female vocal parts complement each other really well and sit really well in the mix. The melodies are catchy and simple.
The album’s second track offers something a little different, playing a bit more like something inspired by “Three Out Change”. It’s more of a deliberately paced guitar rock track, with those excellent breathy vocal harmonies really shining on top of another simple but fun guitar hook.
“Fever”, the third and final song, might be the best of the bunch. Again, it’s pretty different from the previous two songs, featuring more of the elements of a shoegaze tune. The vocals in the verse are chilling and when the song explodes into the chorus they just fit in there brilliantly. It’s a powerful track.
Though a three-track EP is a pretty small sample, Browned Butter showed some good versatility on their debut. The songwriting is really solid and the vocals are stunning. “Fall” is a great start. Let’s hope they keep it going.
