🐣 MEISHI SMILE, LLLL & U-PISTOL — ALWAYS FEAT. CALENDULA

We heard from a pairing of Tokyo producer LLLL and Manila-based artist U-Pistol quite recently, on the happysad trance-pop-gaze of 'Falling', but now the musicmaking team extends, including Zoom Lens label boss Meishi Smile as well as sometime vocal collaborator Calendula lending their voices to a brand new song: 'Always,' — with a comma, like an unfinished sentence, the miasmic spirit of it hanging there unformed, waiting for the right words to emerge.

From the extensive introduction – a building of excitement with twinkling lights (reminiscent of the marimba arpeggio on The Who's 'Baba O'Riley') above a propellant house beat, exploding into the spaced apart synth chord hits synced with the drums this triumphal showstarting prelude quality to them – from this a spark for the rest of the track is lit.

Calendula's vocal sings quietly but swims in close-to-your-ear intimacy, vocodered layering courtesy of Meishi Smile giving the lyrics a futuristic feel, a sense of distance that fits the lyrical content of two people grasping at mirages of each other as they drift apart in their relationship, the present hammering down in the crashing snares of the beat; U-Pistol's vocals croon the story in juxtaposing upbeat pop fashion: "Slowly we've become two entities / used to be as one, which was you and me."

The track goes through a zippy synth solo, a progression that oozes positivity, heightening the feeling of this song as something "happy", the glitter and soft focus of a cherished memory, before reaching its coda; everything quietens down, the chords summon this sunset melancholy, the happiness of knowing that it happened, looking back, twinned with the all too real feeling of loss. It is romantic, sentimental, looking tentatively ahead, evocative of days gone by, the closing credits of your life.

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GO TO SPOTIFY AND STREAM THE TRACK AND ALL THE REMIXES OF IT* BY CLICKING THIS HYPERLINK

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🔔 The track is out today (!) on a partnering of Zoom Lens and Maltine Records. *It also comes with remixes by: Kristofferson (slow gossamer synths and bass above a house beat in a nebulous reworking); パソコン音楽クラブ (a synth heavy remix with a barrage of footwork-ish beats bumping the track along); ANAMANAGUCHI (faithful to the original, though even more a pogosticking dancefloor of noisy pop); Yoshino Yoshikawa (hefty and cute at the same time with clonking percussive elements and a tumbling beat); Sayohimebou (clattering experimental breakcore remix that fulfils our desire for speed and noise and glitch). Purchase it all as a nice bundle over here.

🔔 The artwork for 'Always' was created by FANGRRLZ, and it really evokes not only the spirit but the content of the song: with melancholy yet neon lighting it reflects the bittersweet feeling, the setting of the Japanese train with its sort of end-credits placement, the way the couple sits in different positions facing away from each other, their face sadly reflected in the windows of the train. Plus an easter egg—the Maltine logo as a sticker stuck below the seat on the right; and the girl is wearing a Zoom Lens badge. It's perfect.

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☟ Calendula Internet Presence ☟
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☟ LLLL Internet Presence ☟
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☟ U-Pistol Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 LLLL — FALLING FEAT. U-PISTOL

Shoegaze guitars stab out staccato patterns in this latest one from Tokyo musicmaker LLLL, 'Falling', a catchy cavalcade of sound that mixes those chorused guitar chords with the piercing neon ice of trance synth, and elements of pop rain down like little gemstones: the uptempo beat and its rollicking tom fills, the breezy chord progression, and not least the vocals of featuring artist U-Pistol.

Also known as Moon Mask, and previously making music under the name Ulzzang Pistol, the Manila-based producer and singer-songwriter sings with mellowed emotion, his voice crooning and fresh. He spoke to us above reverting back to his original moniker: "U-pistol still means Ulzzang pistol," he told yes/no. "Ended up shortening it because the term confuses even the people who are familiar with it. I think shortening it makes it easier for everyone to approach but the heart and meaning of the name still lives on."

His voice flows easily in the cold detachment of LLLL's overdriven drums and spectral javelins of synth, weaving warmly in and out of the sorrowjoy crush of this trance-pop-gaze cocktail, joining with the '80s flavour guitar and cinematic composition of the track to give it its lovable human heart; guitar solo at 2:47 screams virtuoso fire, emphasising the speed whilst contrasting the pop-ness of this track, echoing its title and the frustration of being in freefall.

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• 🔔 'Falling' is out today on internationalist label Zoom Lens. You can grab it here.
• 'Falling' is taken from LLLL's forthcoming Chains Phase 4, part of his 12-month-long "Chains" project, in which a new "Chain" will be released each month, split into 4 individual EP releases courtesy of emotive electronic label ZOOM LENS. Chains Phase 4 is out 28th February.
• The artwork was created by Brenden Savi, and reflects the twisting icy tumult that erupts almost chaotically throughout the track.
• 🔔 Back in the early days of yes/no we received a lovely guest mix from Ulzzang Pistol, representing a cluster of Manila music talent: here is YES/NO GUEST MIX 014.

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📠
☟ LLLL Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 BOD [包家巷] — EMPTY MOUNTAIN WEEPS ALONE [空山独哭]

The screaming cosmic synth that hits at the start of this track, it arrives scathing and scorching, but shot through in the midst of its scratchings and scrapings is this plasma modulation, a sense of the steel and unbridled progress of the present and its outstretched hands craving the years ahead and beyond. The decayed whistle and muffled impact of a bomb, the PA system speaking to the crowd as you embark a ship to a future industrial megacity. This is the scene-setting power of two-thirds noise one-third classical in 'Empty Mountain Weeps Alone [空山独哭]' by LA-based musicmaker Nicolas Zhu aka bod or Baojiaxiang[包家巷] ('Baojia Alley'), presumably named after the same street in Chengdu. Maybe not.

Halfway through this short sharp snippet of sound we are introduced to this gargantuan construction site, the glitching beat like heavy machinery working in unison clashing together cranes and cement mixers and all the movement and drills and hammers and metal and muscle carving away at the surface of the earth and constructing a cradle of consumerism. In the background the silken tones of a traditional Chinese lute-like instrument (there are many so to name one would be a guess), like a sigh of nature drowned out by the grunts of advancement, reminscent of the hole-boring mall-making and gaudy grandiosity at tourist destination Yangshuo. Nature as stomped on by humanity. And it ends, the rush of cars in the rain, piano sounding a gentle shrug as protest, a casual hands-in-pocket lonely lament.

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• 🔔 This wonderful experimental piece arrives from bod's upcoming release for Zoom Lens called Piano Compositions: a 17-minute piece of which this snippet is in fact the 3rd movement. It's out and available tomorrow (15th December).
• 🔔 Read about the strange carnival that is Yangshuo right here, which we wrote about as part of our Visits travel series.

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☟ bod [包家巷] Internet Presence ☟
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MEISHI SMILE – BLANK OCEAN

Meishi Smile has shared a song via Ryan Hemsworth friends-only-not-a-label Secret Songs. Who is Meishi Smile? I hear you cry. Don't worry. His real name is Garrett Yim and he is from California and he makes music so sweet you'll want to cry, so bleakly sad that you'll want to smile. At the beginning of last year he released his debut album, LUST, which I really enjoyed – a high-energy whirlwind of J-pop flavours that was as wistful and introverted as it was all-encompassing and euphoric. A lovely mix, in short. Oh and he is also the head of alternative pop label/collective, Zoom Lens.

Anyway, the track is called 'Blank Ocean' (the title alone is the first tearjerker – even that speaks to me) and it's really good, basically. The intro is a real killer, a 27-second gradual slide into the track's candy-coloured bounce featuring cold, fizzing synth with hints of the Amen-style breaks. The main body of this track is all breakbeats, with zithery plucked instruments plaintively echoing the melody of the vocals, which are vocodered to good effect, almost as a detachment from the true emotion of what they're singing.

Mr. Meishi Smile has kindly provided the lyrics and with lines like, "let's end our lives in a sentimental way / let's echo our youth like death in poetry," the fearsome despair and hopelessness at the heart of this song become more evident.

In true Meishi style, he's also added some brilliant pan flute sounds, the hollow quirky sound of them conjuring the otherworldliness of one of his influences, the soundtrack of Bomberman 64. Add to this the blooping (almost like Sonic jumping circa 1991) synth hook and breezy guitar chords, and you have a whole lot of disparate and perhaps even conflicting elements.

But Meishi Smile weaves them all together with a finesse that not only results in a well-crafted piece of sugary and emotive pop, but that also, in its loud and bustling way, harks back to Meishi's roots in harsh noise music. Top marks!

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• Meishi Smile made a guest mix for YES/NO last year – Valentine's Day-themed, too! It's really good! Go listen! And download it~!
• Also I interviewed Mr. Meishi for Red Bull Music Academy magazine regarding Zoom Lens. Go read!

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☟ Meishi Smile Social Media Presence ☟
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XAVIER BONFILL 1000 CUCS (MUS.HIBA REMIX)

Hello. How are you? I've always been interested in writing about the music of mus.hiba; from Tokyo, they're just one person who makes electronic music. I think I first stumbled across them when I was having a mooch around over at Zoom Lens, collective and label part-masterminded by Meishi Smile – mus.hiba is a part of Zoom Lens, if you didn't know what I was getting at by that. In any case, I'm here now and I'm writing about them which is fine.

But the spotlight isn't entirely on mus.hiba; it's actually not an original track but a remix of a little something-something by Barcelona trackmaker Xavier Bonfill. In addition to having a really cool name, he also makes some pretty cool music: the song in question, '1000 cucs', is a quasi-bizarre, alternative pop affair, filled with crunchy saw-wave synths and catchy vocals that sing the refrain "mil cucs", which I learned is "a thousand worms" in Catalonian. An interesting song on its own, mus.hiba's remix soaks it in a dreamy atmosphere and hangs it out to dry in a world where each gentle breeze tastes of the fresh and vital land.

Dotting the track with a clacking beat whose cracking slaps of percussion, and fidgety kicks, summon up a juke feel, providing a rhythmic flow that underpins the rest of the song's sound like a colourful bridge. Delicate flute sounds play a plaintive tune before fizzing synth leads bust in above unintelligible vocal samples from Xavier's original. The drop a little less than halfway through is heralded by a twisting flourish of ghetto snares, and arrives in the form of wildly phasing synths – tireless waves of gushing electronic gales, washing through your brain as if your thoughts were mere mist for a minute. Then we fade out, followed by crystalline clusters of sharp synth – v pretty.

It's an unabashedly chillwave tune – chillwave may have disappeared, a kinda dead genre, but to make and label stuff under this title is not only wonderfully individual, in that it ignores the flow of the majority, but it is also warming to see that people make what they wanna make. Who gives a sheisse if chillwave is so two years ago? Anyway, this song comes from the second remix EP, IX​=​? B (Made in Japan), that has followed Xavier Bonfill's release of last year, 9=0, and you can listen to & purchase both on XB's Bandcamp.

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