HYPERJUICE – CITY LIGHTS (PARKGOLF REMIX)

PARKGOLF's moniker no longer appears in all caps on his SoundCloud page so I'm really not sure how to address him anymore. For ease (since I am not much of a caps lock user and can't be bothered to hold down shift every time I type his name) I will refer to him as Parkgolf. Eeesh, but it doesn't look as good, does it? It's ok. This is change and progress probably.

If you don't know: PARkgolf is a musicmaker from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. He first caught the attention of YES/NO after he remixed 'I Don't Care', a brash and sweltering iridescent reworking of the Tofubeats original that appeared on the latter's remix version of his album Lost Decade back in 2013. Since then he's been dropping ever more electrostatic pearls of plasticine playfulness, sometimes in the form of originals, other times in the form of remixes, always jittering with untetherable energy.

And with that, here's his latest: a remix of 'City Lights' by Tokyo duo HyperJuice; maybe I'm just a sucker for a Seinfeld-esque bassline, maybe this is just the kind of music to sate my overstimulated mind – either way: expect nerf gatling gun bass popcorn laced throughout.

It's safe to say that this is an out-of-control ferris wheel of fun, turning the original track into a fireworks celebration of the vocals by EVO+ (unless they have exactly the same name and I've got this wrong, she is an utaite, which means she's predominantly, or at least started out by, posting cover versions of mostly VOCALOID songs on Nico Nico Douga), with gentle piano belying the jet takeoff that awaits with Parkgolf's mastery of plasma beam chords, a decoction of pulsing rhythmic-explosion dynamism and crystalline fluidity.

The drums are full-bodied, thick, like the sound of that thing astronauts train in as it spins WHOMP! - WHOMP! - WHOMP! The scree of bass notes jumbling with complexity, a wonder of virtuoso sonic storytelling and summoning energy in the listener – who with each phantasmic blast of synth sound sets our minds and bodies aglow with rainbow frequencies, careening dopamine hailing from neurone to neurone in orgasmic succession.

---

• There's a free download of the track via Dropbox right here (clicking).
• 'City Lights' appears on recent HyperJuice release, Lights.

---

---

☟ PARKGOLF Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Myspace • Bandcamp • official site • Twitter • Tumblr • YouTube • Wikipedia

---

---

BUDDHAHOUSE – PUBLIC ENEMY

Ready to go on a journey of jostling energy, drink a cup of urgency pressed and bottled in the chilly Japanese city of Sapporo, elbow your way into some space on the dancefloor and buss out the hardiest and most robust of your two-stepping prowess? Because that's what you're gonna get with 'Public Enemy' by BUDDHAHOUSE.

I've already mentioned the city, but yes, BUDDHAHOUSE is a self-professed "DJ, beatmaker" from Sapporo, which is on the "wild frontier" island of Hokkaido, Japan. And this track, like I mentioned, is a wonder of energy and urgency, of no-nonsense, no-frills, wild dance-only music.

Dissect it and you'll find – within a dynamic ebb and flow of drops and build-ups – its punchy punchy kicks, its marching snare drums urging you abrasively into rowdy dancefloor formation, rolling toms adding warlike pugilistic flavour, jangling jingling scathing hi-hat noises crashing together like a box sharpened swords going down a slide, its cutting synth chord pattern sweeping over the bustling bang of the beat. Shuddering galloping aggressive house with retro ornamentation; imagine someone breakdancing to this in the snow at the side of a road as confused cars slow down to watch.

Two great parts: at 2:53, a turntablist record scratch bookends a slice of slow amen beat bustle, before the shout of "Somebody in the house say 'yeah!'", which is sampled from Public Enemy's 'Caught, Can We Get A Witness?' and thus giving BUDDHAHOUSE's track its name.

And from 4:28 onwards, where there's this tiny rising-and-falling bleepy melody that really really reminded me of the tiny bleepy melody in the breakdown bit of the theme for Stage 2 from Streets of Rage.

---

• And look, here's a free download of 'Public Enemy' for all your listening and body-moving needs.

---

---

☟ BUDDHAHOUSE Social Media Presence ☟
SoundCloud • blog • Twitter

---

---

PARKGOLF KISS ME

I've been wanting to write about PARKGOLF for a rather long time but for some reason I just never got round to it. I'd heard a few songs before the release of tofubeats' Lost Decade Remixes album (remixes of songs from his album Lost Decade) but it was PARKGOLF's remix of tofubeats' 'I Don't Care' that really won me over. But still, I didn't get around to writing about him. So you should go and listen to that song. Anyway, here I am now.

For those who don't know, PARKGOLF is a beatmaker/producer from Sapporo, Japan. His music is often punchy, energetic and filled with lovely synth, mostly with a leaning towards the quirkier side of what could be considered pop music. Sounds good right? Well it sounds even better when you actually hear it in your literal ears, I can tell you that. His latest offering, 'Kiss Me', is a rollercoaster ride of theatrical sounds, making for a sound that sounds almost like a song from a futuristic musical - West Side Story for the neon club generation. Maybe.

There's a lot going on here. The intro is so good it might as well be like some kind of electronic foreplay. The main synth melody is outrageous, high-register pitch-bent chords that have something of a Japanese scale to them - a gloriously unexpected melody; I love the audaciously long duration of some of the notes. All of this is intermingled with variously altered vocal samples (one of them chopped so well it sounds like someone waggling their tongue around) and, during the midsection, some funky slap bass and some house-style piano chords. Spacey synth and bulging bass counterparts make their presence known alongside a hefty beat whose snares and claps scream laid-back-down-south-hip-hop, accompanied by rollicking hi-hats. At 2:35 the chords are wonderfully stop-start, sharing space with playful piano sweeps and kick explosions - this part's almost like a bit of prog rock.

And that was the wonderful pop of PARKGOLF. There's a bit of house in there; funk, hip hop (perhaps more aligned with trap), as well as those notes that seem like a piece of traditional Japanese music in the hands of a genius robot. There's a great deal of punch here, too, almost like a statement to the world, a song that stops you in your tracks; the soundtrack to the sometimes risky request of "kiss me" indeed.

---

---

Listen to PARKGOLF on SoundCloud
Follow PARKGOLF on Twitter