INWARDS — RAINDROPS

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Highlighting negative with glossy, unobtrusive columns of bass, Inwards aka Kristian Shelley throws handfuls of sparkling synth into the air — clean clusters of beeps, tracts of phasing fizz — for his latest track ‘Raindrops’. Throughout, amorphous vocal samples snap like elastic, burst with watery clarity, matching the track’s title.

Though lacking its techno thump, ‘Raindrops’ recalls the freestyling antics of the synth at work in the Chao Lobby theme from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Perhaps it’s that carefree reminiscence, or maybe it’s the sheer cartwheeling joy involved in Shelley’s soundscape, but ‘Raindrops’ is like a sonic expression of innocence.

The warm bass envelops you, the vocal samples and synth spin like toys, the percussion hopscotches along like a clapping game, then there’s that nostalgic 8-bit element. Shelley's track inches very close to being a small portal opened on an idealised, pixel art remix of your childhood home; yet at its core yawns a bristling void of detachment, an inane world-weariness.

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• 🔔 Feeling So Fun Reality EP, scheduled for release via Brighton-based label Small Pond on 7th October. You may pre-order it and listen to 'Raindrop' over on Bandcamp.

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TSUNDERE TWINTAILS — HAPPY WEDNESDAY

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Part inescapable groove, part pastel playground, ‘happy wednesday’ by apparent composer of “comfort synth” tsundere twintails is a tumble through an upbeat world washed with cute video game sensibilities. The organic beat rattles and thuds alongside FM bass, bold and booming as the backdrop to the soft and colourful gloss of glassy keys.

The whole track is characterised by small noises, giving the perspective that somehow it is smaller than other sounds: a car going by, shutting the fridge door, K-pop. Accordingly, synths like virtuoso birdsong swaying into the air, and scattered vocal chops wobble and snap, adding humanoid minutiae to proceedings.

In an interview with Real Simple, forensic psychiatrist Varun Choudhary said: "Subconsciously, we positively associate tiny objects with the security and comfort they brought us in an earlier time in our lives.” Does the same go for small noises? If so, well, then this really is comfort synth.

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• 🔔 If you liked 'happy wednesday' you'll be happy to know there's more where that came from. And if you really liked it, you can purchase it on Bandcamp.

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🐣 DRENS — BICYCLE RIDER

⌾ LISTEN TO DRENS, BICYCLE RIDER ⌾

A frantic wallsmash of an ode to riding bicycles, the theme of German band Drens' pogosticking 'Bicycle Rider' doesn't need to be guessed at. The drums are destroyed as the thud fuzz of the snare and splashing razor cymbals become a crashing cutlery drawer of mayhem, setting the rocky terrain where the rest of this track tumbles and divebombs.

We asked the band about the background to 'Bicycle Rider'.

"Our rehearsal room is in a rough area in Dortmund, so we park our bikes inside. [Drummer] Joël saw them and started to shout this "bicycle rider" thing," Drens co-founder Fabian Livrée (vocals, guitar) told us. "The special thing is that we didn't replace the lyrics, because we started to like it. It's our kind of humor and we really like riding bikes."

It's just over a minute of wiggling arpeggios, thrashing guitar and thick galloping bass – complete with stringbreaking guitar solo and vocals overflowing with breathless bite – for a punch-in-the-face parody of the surf sound: instead of hitting the waves, they're tearing up the streets by pedal power.

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• 🔔 Get this brash and bouncy bike ballad via your fav streaming service.
• 🔔 'Bicycle Rider' is taken from Drens' recently released Nowhere Beach EP, which you can/should listen to on their SoundCloud.

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🐣 ROCHELLE JORDAN — HOW U WANT IT PROD. MACHINEDRUM

Straight away there's this aura of opulence – that soft synth glow – gold fittings and fixtures and chandeliers and mahogany or maybe teak furniture presenting angularity and sweeping curves in delicious alternation. Rich, that's it—there is a high degree of richness embedded at the heart of Rochelle Jordan's 'How U Want It'. Her voice is of course a fabulous part of the track, its shining jewel, its billowing silk streaming through the well oiled machinery of the instrumental, at some points long and silken, and other times her vocals are tongue twisters, rapid-fire trilling lines that end in swooping lilts, itself full-bodied and robust but bringing it all together, lacing it with delicacy.

The all-encompassing solidity of 'How U Want It' comes from its producer Machinedrum, who creates a playground of synth and beats that stutter and somersault in tracts of audaciously empty instrumental hits, priceless vase ornamental rose footwork, clinking and glittering high-pitch and wonky but bumping and thumping with juddering rubbery quakes too. It is this with its sense of playful urgency that Rochelle Jordan's vocal pairs perfectly, similarly agile and acrobatic, making this track a marrying of two virtuoso elements that soar and sizzle. A subversion of classy with its spilling-over decorative feel, this track is feeling out-of-place at a high-society event and knocking over champagne and having fun in the face of imposition.

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• 🔔 This track is the first release on Machinedrum's newly birthed label IAMSIAM. You can steam it and purchase it variously from most of your favourite services via this hyperlink.

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🐣 BRIKA — JUST WANNA BE SINGLE

It's a jostling multi-faceted party atmosphere, that heat-warped guitar chord sweeping sultry in the cool balm of night and the bounce of the lightly shuffling beat, those foot-tapping hi-hat sheafing, the starry open skies of the slow melt into meandering dance and conversation through the lens of intoxication, carefree and sprinkled with hedonism, somehow those bopping percussive drum machine toms rhythmically echoing measuring time in their rounded synthesised droplets. In 'Just Wanna Be Single' Miami artist Brika invites us to the party, says stay a while, chill.

She sings slow in the verses, silken and low and conversational with the pattern of notes that skip up and down, amidst the luscious spread of percussion, the lovingly crafted handclaps, the sandy shakers, the thump of the kick. Light decorations tastefully adorn the nocturnal groove, little guitar licks in reverse like strings of fairy lights, the occasional wah-wah wobble of a synth chord, and that last slowly building shade of plasma sound, into the eponymous chorus, the laid-back vibe supporting Brika's desire to remain free of obligation and commitment, this sombre starlit saturnalia of sound a suitable vessel for the vocalisation of single life.

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• 🔔 This track has been co-written/produced by Shy Girls alongside award-winning producer Julio Reyes Copello—it's taken from an upcoming EP, so keep your eyes out for that if you like the sound of 'Just Wanna Be Single'.

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🐣 GIRAFFAGE — SLOWLY FEAT. MATOSIC

The freefall bounce of this track, the fun of it, the joy of it, the muted sparkle of its soft pastel ping pong arpeggios, the thick modulating synths, the glooping subtle heartbeat boom of the kicks, the unexpected switches that it goes through, the undeniable romance effusing from it. The first dynamic twist, the staccato chords alongside acrobatic synth bassline, the vocals panning left to right with each word, the fizzling catapulting energy of this part, and the chorus launching like a jet ski on sapphire teal seas, the simple French touch feel of the beat allowing those rich synths and the croon of the vocals to truly sparkle, tropical summer atmosphere bubbling up like heat distortion.

And! Another dramatic turn, the energy toning down from this azure beachtime clarity to something tinged with much more slow, much more ache, Giraffage and co-producing feature-spot Matosic opening up a glittering dreamworld halfway through 'Slowly', the glisten of digital synth keys and the gorgeous major-minor jazz-lounge chords in their complexity glassy wonderful in this new quiet space of the track, exuding a very vintage R&B atmosphere, with its snapping fingerclicks and pitch-shifted vocal and tinkling chimes, the texture made even more nuanced with the sound of birdsong trickling in, a sprinkle of nature in the midst of this cradle of loving electronics, the whole thing a physiological heart-pumping reaction to a crush and the idealist hopeful infatuated thoughts that go with it.

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• 🔔 'Slowly', featuring New York-based producer Michael Matosic aka Matosic, is taken from Giraffage's upcoming debut album, Too Real, scheduled for release on 20th October via Counter Records.

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🐣 CYANURA — SPLASH

There is a wholesome realness in this track that makes it difficult to not bring your other senses along for the ride: skin tingles and warms, mouth and tongue seems to anticipate flavours and textures of tasty food, visions of a natural world elsewhere swirl like mists into your mind. Combining the sounds of outside, the sounds of nature with its luscious crunches and the inviting glory of water sloshing and soothing, combining these with the sounds of indoors, the ultimate indside sounds in the form of synths that bleep simple and videogame-esque or resonate rounded and glassy with artificial digital perfection, Vancouver musicmaker cyanura transports us to wherever we most associate these sounds, a lake shore, the ocean, a boat, a riverside, a tropical island—where there's water, there 'splash' is.

With a big emphasis on foley – that is, creating sound effects or in this case instruments by effectively sampling real life sounds – cyanura serves up a bustling collage of percussion that gives this song its rich textural dimensions, that all-senses effect where the clean clicks and clops tapping and popping in the track feel like different hard sweets: it is quite literally delicious. We have the crunch of footsteps, the dry shuffle of sheafing through pages of a book, reverbing finger clicks, distant hi-hats, tiny rolling snares—a percussive playground. It almost overshadows the beautiful plaintive melodies of the track, a modern day pastoral, the childlike nature of it summoning a deep sense of fun and nostalgia associated with fun and the places where it can be had. Idyllic is the word.

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• 🔔 This beautiful track is cyanura's first to be uploaded so keep an eye on their SoundCloud.

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☟ cyanura Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 AESAIRE — CHROMATIC CANOPIES [初演 • PREMIERE]

A slice of music toasted and spread with a sweet combo of videogame music and carefree swing, Aesaire's track takes us into a shuffling world of fourth level fun, the sort of music that doesn't denote the easier levels of a game but something a few stages on, you know, but not the hard levels. What first sprang to mind was Dynamite Headdy, sort of like this, but more the atmosphere it effuses, the way it visually builds grass-topped 16-bit platforms and robot enemies as it bounces along. The syncopated melodies weave with the jabbing chords that stutter between the wide swing of the kick-snare dynamic, the dreamier soft choral haze that flutters upwards for extra breeziness in the already breezy quite jazzy chiptune-flavoured 'Chromatic Canopies'.

Indeed its feeling of playfulness is a direct effect of the music theory elements behind the track, "swing rhythms and chromaticism," as Aesaire tells us. Basically a free-for-all of any notes rather than those of a particular key, chromaticism literally adds colour—and the colour at work in this track comes foremost from the bleepsome melodies that appear to dance around the other bassier notes and the chords, and from the more rhythmic sections themselves, too. It's like a hop, skip and a jump, a spring in a step, setting off on the right foot and various other light, optimistic cliches for the beginning of this music project, as well as a brazen reminder of the importance and influence of videogame music in the current landscape of the electronic music world.

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• 🔔 This is only the beginning, so keep your eye on Aesaire's SoundCloud.

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☟ Aesaire Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 ANOMALIE — NEW SPACE

Wow there is nothing quite like listening to something that is instantly loveable, but not just that but more like completely coursing through veins from the first few seconds, literally merging with your blood cells and sailing the capillary network to your heart with all the calories and cholesterol and electric energy of it all. That is 'New Space' by Montreal-based keyboardist and producer Anomalie. Citing everything from J Dilla and George Gershwin to Daft Punk and Skrillex, as well as his classical background and jazz study, the musicmaker explains the track and the EP its taken from: "basically a melting pot of all my major influences while featuring the keyboard as the centrepiece."

And as the central tenet of this track the virtuoso keyboard canters gloriously throughout, displaying effortless glassy lounge chords that tremolo blissful while underpinned with fuzzy texture basslines, a whirl of bold colour set to a lush crackling raw organic beat that shuffles with hip-hop breeziness and bright metallic zing. Keys drip-drop with pliant cuteness, flowerbuds popping open with cartoon vigour, so easy so easy Anomalie creates this ultimate VGM-leaning instrumental odyssey, a tantalising teeter between lounge horizontality and the hyperactive funk dynamism of jazz, the composition jumping jostling atmospheres, stable instability bursting at the seams.

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• 🔔 This comes from Anomalie's debut Métropole EP, out now on Lowtemp Music. You can buy it digitally over on Bandcamp for CAD$3.99.

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☟ Anomalie Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 WORLD AIR — YARD MAN

Stringing us along with a slowed-down salsa rhythm or something similar, this track exudes an otherworldly appeal, both in this rhythm which because of its downtempo feeling feels alien and unlike the rapidity of a Latin rhythm, as well as in its sounds that flutter between wilted by heat distortion and the first few levels on a platformer—you know, when it's all grass and blue skies and the enemy AI is pretty low and the gaps to jump aren't all that. This is all tied together with a glorious minimalism, spaces between the very real analogue sounds served with a sheen of dusty record player fuzz, the only thing jumping out being a dub-flavoured sample soaked with reverb almost making it indiscernible, but it mentions the song's title: 'Yard Man'.

There are many things that London musicmaker World Air's track calls to mind. We can look at the cutesy vibe of Yoshi's Island, for instance, whose soundtrack is similar in atmosphere, and we can also namecheck Super Mario 64 for its use of garbled synth vox, the same sort of sound that punctuates 'Yard Man' with syncopation and childlike officiousness—even the hotel theme from Earthbound feels not-too-distant. Nothing is too sharp here: the sounds are rounded, gently bevelled, the percussion that punctuates throughout bounces with retro drum machine pliability, a zany half-acid bass squelches with SNES slacker vibe. Warm warped organ keyboard chords twinkle and chime with muted sparkle, small melodies spring upwards decayed and wobbling. World Air crafts your very own soundtrack to your life as World 1-1, a simplistic dream of sound that feels warm from fingers to toes, familiar, almost archetypal yet undeniably fresh and bursting modestly with vital carefree beauty.

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• 🔔 This marvellous track is taken from World Air's Lo Recordings-released album Air's World, Vol. 1, which comes packed with five tracks, including 'Yard Man', that are sound different yet follow the same immediately loveable organic timeless fun aesthetic. Listening is highly recommended.
• The abstract artwork for the track, a swirl of pastel breeziness and not wholly bold, fluid yet constructivist lines, was created by Liam Richardson.

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☟ World Air Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 KERO KERO BONITO — FOREVER SUMMER HOLIDAY

The pastel tones of this track are imbued with carefree havingfun-ness, not necessarily pleasure-seeking nor hedonistic because those things are overly gratuitous, but instead Kero Kero Bonito's summer anthem, like many KKB bangers before it, strips things back and makes things simple for us with a head-over-heels sense of freedom and innocence, all the while bass bloops, synth shimmers, rounded drum machine jostle tumbles along.

Sarah code-switches not only between Japanese and English but also between singing the fresh pop melody and calling out in playground rhymes. It is without pretence supercharged with pop power, breezily skipping with digitised vocodered softness, spinning the track's catchy lines with metronomic rhythm: "And I gotta find my shorts and shades, cause I know the sun is here to stay, so we can all go take a break on a forever holiday." The content of the bouncy-floating hook, of the entire song in fact, highlights a specific theme—a 'Forever Summer Holiday', an illustration of the feeling of wholesome anticipation when the vast summer seems to stretch out in front of you without end, each sunny day time to fill with whatever you want.

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☞ RARE YES/NO LAZY INTERVIEW #26 W KERO KERO BONITO (2014) ☜

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Nothing beyond simply having fun is insinuated in this condensed idealisation of the summer break; a quality of non-nostalgic longing that makes Kero Kero Bonito so fresh is that rather than aching over things that could be considered faded and gone, their music instead summons that feeling as a present, happy, here-and-now occurrence. Syncopated chords add a party atmosphere to the proceedings, glimmering liquid synth brings poolside sparkle, fun ornaments pop by (e.g. 1:44) for a VGM infusion; something about the vocal melody and tone recalls Mario 64's file select screen, then there's the Nintendo-flavoured marching band drums at 2:22. The triumvirate of KKB powers on unmatched, bubblegum princess pop made universal, experimental computer music throwback sounds made polished and digestible, the indoors outdoors, the bridging of things and unabashed celebration of moments.

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• 🔔 'Forever Summer Holiday' is taken from Kero Kero Bonito's Japanese edition of their 2016 album Bonito Generation, out 12th July on Sony Japan.
• 🔔 There is also a video for 'Forever Summer Holiday', directed by Theo Davies.

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LILY – BEACH GIRL

We're discovering Lily as Lily, rather than Lily as she was formerly/is still known (Ultrademon). It seems a good a time as any; recently she released her debut under this new moniker (her real name), Psychic Jealousy, and it's the first explosive opener from that album that's the focus here: 'Beach Girl'—an exciting swirl of ineffable fun. "Beach girl"... What does it connote? A girl at the beach. But Lily says much more than just this, painting a deeper picture of summer, holidaying, freedom, memories, broad and minute sonic brushstrokes forming an unending, relatable image. Partly, it's the polished late-90s-early-00s-party-music vibe that give it a quality of being somewhat unlocatable in time, lending a fantasy feel to it: or maybe that's just the internet talking.

Slap of snare shakes the track into life, different patterns of syncopated digital synth chords and plink-plonking boops make themselves known, some of these at one point or another becoming part of its frenzied refrain, uptempo beat pulsing pulsing with life beneath it all. These sumptuous and deeply toned sounds, clean and rounded, forming the main crux of the track, are decorated with thin synth arpeggiating down in misty rain, orchestra hits rapid-firing, all of it whirling together, melodies crossing over and changing dynamically throughout, the beat – with its punchy snare and precision hi-hats – dictating changes and keeping foot-tapping, head-nodding, heart-beating time.

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• As mentioned, 'Beach Girl' is the opening track to Lily's recent album Psychic Jealousy, released on Chicago label Deep Space Objects (for which Lily does A&R); listen + download over on the label's bandcamp.

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水曜日のカンパネラ –『シャクシャイン』

Sunday, April 3rd. Hiroshima. Walking around Tower Records, listening to their music selections, noticed a Listening station dedicated to someone I'd never heard of before. Listened. The pull on my liking mechanism or my affection neurones or like whatever was INSTANTANEOUS AND LASTING. LASTING ENOUGH TO COME BACK TO THE APARTMENT AND WRITE THIS.

The name of the someone is Wednesday Campanella or WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA or 水曜日のカンパネラ [Suiyōbi no Kaｎpanera]. It is made up of frontlady KOM_I and producer Hidefumi Kenmochi and director Dir.F, whose videowork gives the duo's kinetic music a very very worthy visual equivalent (see below). [Another great video is the one for 『ディアブロ』 ]

and song that captured and arrested my senses about well a few hours ago is called 『シャクシャイン』 or 'Shakushain'. Shakushain was an Ainu (indigenous people of northern Japan and more notably of Hokkaidō, northernmost island of Japan, which was formerly known as Ezo) leader, involved in a conflict which became known as Shakushain's Revolt. Trade between the Ainu and Tokugawa-ruled Japan favoured the latter, Ezo having been brought under de facto Japanese control centuries earlier, and was managed by the Matsumae clan. Shakushain led a brief war in 1669 against the Matsumae, and other specially appointed forces sent to bolster the region threatened by a united Ainu, before surrendering. After peace deals, the Ainu generals celebrated. That same night they, inclduing Shakushain himself, were assassinated by the Matsumae. This was one of the only instances of large-scale resistance against Japanese rule by the Ainu. Hiistorryy lesssooooooooooonnn~~~~~~~~

This is interesting because 水曜日のカンパネラ's song is wordularly an ode to Hokkaidō (the video as you'll see is a sightularly ode) and its modern delights. It's interesting because the beat is brash and polished and heavy on the bass and pops in your ears peppered with a bristling hail of percussion, with satisfying cymbal crashes and awesomely expansive and rich handclaps exploding on occasion. It's interesting because strings and simple melody crescendo in parts carrying a somewhat melancholy undertone beneath its tide of feeling, a part of which – an organlike sound – continues into the second verse, where the first was bare of instrumentation bar the booming beat and KOM_I's rapid fire layered softly-spoken rapping; it's interesting because the song presents a quirky beat-based modernity alongside unpretentious and swelling heartfelt instrumentation, two distinctly different things melded skilfully and, more important, very enjoyably.

☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟

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• 『シャクシャイン』 is track 1 of 水曜日のカンパネラ's 2015 album ジパング, Zipangu. it is presumably titled after what the explorer Marco Polo reported as the Chinese name of Japan at the time: Zipangu (or Cipangu)... either that or after the manga Zipang
• urge whoever is reading to watch a playlist of this and previous songs w/ vids on YT

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☟ 水曜日のカンパネラ Internet Presence ☟
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CAPCHII – SOMETHING

Here is a nice new bit of music from a new musicmaker called Capchii. They are ostensibly from Tokyo – there's no way to verify that, of course, so let's just go with it. Tokoyo-based musicmaker or let's say producer called Capchii. The katakana given on SoundCloud for the name is カプチー, which I'm presuming is just a shortened form of カプチーノ which is the katakana for cappuccino. Coffee, especially in its foamier incarnation as denoted here, has a homely, cosmopolitan feel about it, and connotes being something like fluidly urban. Truncate cappuccino to Capchii and you add an extra dimension of cuteness – fitting for someone whose Twitter bio says "I like bass and cute music."

But aside from these thoughts spilling without much care onto this keyboard and typing these words, the morsel of music that has been created by this coffee-themed producer for a lil spotlight today is called 'Something'.

Something! Pulsing kicks drive this along throughout its duration, a bassy beat also featuring a combined snare-handclap that sounds like a watermelon being smashed, or maybe a heavy hardback book bellyflopping into a puddle, specifically a puddle glittering in the wet sunlight after a rainstorm. Bubbling sounds pop in the background. A simple looping piano melody, something unmistakably jolly and upbeat, is a sign of things to come.

Gradually other instruments join in to form a cavalcade of positivity; soft sub-bass begins to ebb and flow beneath it all, acoustic guitars play chirpy arpeggios, jaunty strings singing out, high pitched synth melodies intertwine with one another, weaving in and out like little birds zooming around together on a sunny afternoon, the inexplicable heavy haze of distorted guitar providing strips of abrasion here and there, which adds a confounding element to what is otherwise a lesson in the progression of different instruments in a semi-classical setting.

It's a compound of sculpted percussive parts and of whimsical melodies, resulting in a winsome piece of music with clear direction; seemingly untainted by genre or pretence, it's fresh and lively, like catching a glimpse of a small dog trotting happily along. Cute, but not obviously so – not the collective vision of cuteness, but a personal one, illustrated for our own hearts to enjoy.

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☟ Capchii Social Media Presence ☟
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FORK AND KNIFE – DUMFUN

I'm writing about this track because it is good and it made me feel happy when I first heard it. Maybe it's more that the track sounds happy and so swathed me in a metaphysical cloud of happiness whilst I listened, and also: is it even possible for any music to be qualitatively, objectively "bad"? These are my thoughts.

What is this track? 'Dumfun'. It's a fun name, isn't it? I don't know what it means, perhaps a neat contraction of a sentiment akin to "mindless fun" but what's in a name? Huh? What's in a name? Sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much. And it's by the well-named Fork and Knife (maybe named after the Brand New demo of the same name?), a musicmaker from London who is also a co-founder of collective/label Not Like That.

And you're wondering, what's so damn fun about 'Dumfun'? It's the whole journey, the whole humble odyssey of the track, that makes it not only interesting on a musical level but also, yes, a fun listen. It keeps you on your toes. Even after a few listens I'm like, "oh this part?" Its spontaneous structure is a good thing indeed.

It begins with squiffy far-off synths that equally could be the intro to some big trance song, yet it grows and graduates through glassy, popping decorations, adding big reverbing snares – rapid-fire droplets of which serve as ornamentations later on – and thudding kicks, then jumping up into a side-to-side head-tilt kinda rhythm; very bouncy, and supplemented with blooms of sub-bass. Cutesy synth vox spin simple melodies throughout sprinkled with wah-wah, and gleaming streaks of synth chords sweep steadily beneath, spreading their heartwarming glitterations alongside the occasional sample of children cheering, further exemplifying the feeling of joy that dwells at the heart of this track.

It's not exactly dancefloor-destined, not precisely pop, not wholly videogame music, but rather Fork and Knife has meted out a combination of all three. There are minor changes you could make to it to attach it more extensively to each one of those labels, but why think about that? Why think about the potential when it already exists in the state in which it exists: as a composite, genreless slice of electronic fun.

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• A free download of 'Dumfun' is available, if you clickety-click here.

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☟ Fork and Knife Social Media Presence ☟
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LANCASTER – SUNSET DANCE

Here's a lovely rich and crunchy gravel-zest slice of future funk from a producer called Lancaster. What do you need to know? His real name is Luis Rodriguez and he is from Philadelphia and from the looks of things he was born in 1996, making him like 18 or 19. As many other talented purveyors of future funk are, he is an associate of KEATS//COLLECTIVE – spiritual home to other creators of modern funk/disco/soul classics, including Skylar Spence (fka Saint Pepsi), Harrison, and Rollergirl, to name just a few on their long and illustrious roster.

Looking at the lists of artists included in their compilations sometimes it's like… Pokémon, or something equally collectible. Each of the numerous artists exists in this stylistic, aesthetic-led, nostalgia-breathing space, yet they're all different people, with their own individual styles and flairs. Let's get going on the Future Funk Trading Card series – that would be suuuper fun!

Anyway, here we are with Lancaster (a fine name) and his track 'Sunset Dance'. It begins with a sample of some sort of interview with… some punk people (forgive me for not knowing), something which pops up throughout the track; they talk about being individual, and not wanting to wear Lacoste clothes, and how punk is "overwhelmingly loud". An interesting thing: the interviewer notes that in being different to everybody else, punks end up looking the same. More on this in a second~

This song is thick with funk, a multicoloured miasmia of music that samples a lo-low pitch-shifted version of '80s group Manhatten Transfer song 'Spice of Life' , distorted and overdriven, with classy-breezy horns added along with semi-brutal ricocheting drums – it's even tagged "oversaturated".

Now, this could be a reference to the actual music itself, or something else: if you take the snippets of punk interview present here and equate them with future funk, this track could be taken as a message about the current online music scene being oversaturated. Maybe. Rodriguez also says in the SoundCloud description, "this song means a lot to me." On the other hand, the insertion of this punk interview could just be ascribing to a punk aesthetic, a rebellious spirit, alive in the sample-heavy music of future funk; this kind of attitude, just because it's not distorted guitars and gobbing on people, can thrive in any new music form. For me, chopping up old songs and making new jams outta them, well, I love it, and I definitely think there's something punk about it: nobody's asking permission here, it's about producers using raw materials (samples, sounds, effects) in any way they want in order to portray a fantasy, an idealised throwback to the past, a netting of old music bent to the will of the producer and moulded in whichever way they want: it's freedom.

Another note in the SC description simply says "press play pt 2," which – judging from the title of his 2013 Bandcamp release Press Play, could be heralding a brand new album from Lancaster. Hooray! (maybe)

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☟ Social Media Presence ☟
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THE FUGEES VS. NAS – SURVIVING THE TIMES (BOEHM REMIX)

Here's something courtesy of Boehm, a musicmaker from Bucharest, Romania. A good mash-up (do people still call them that) is always appreciated, and here Mr. Boehm (perhaps named after the German musician/inventor) has shown that you can be wildly creative even when there are TWO original tracks to consider.

There are no holds barred in this future leaning remix, totally juddering with an addictive tropical beat and accented with the glorious reverb of beachside guitars with the occasional ornament of bendy slide guitar like a seagull swooping as a sunset splashes its muted fire over the still-warm sand and gentle sea.

Xylophone tumblings give this a lovely forest-jam flavour, I say forest but I mean more like a little copse of palm trees, a coastal vibe that incorporates jaunty harmonica from I don't know where. It samples 'Fu-Gee-La- by The Fugees, the hook from the track reworked and interspersed between verses from Nas' track 'Surviving The Times'.

All of it sounds perfect to the bouncy rhythm here, the piano chords and the groovesome synth bass and the soft, triumphal chords; the backdrop to wild synth solos that seem to diffuse into the air like a solar flare in reverse, or like the synth-happy soundtrack to one of my favourite SNES games, Top Gear. It even ends well, the instruments bowing out to each other as we're left with the wooden roller-coaster of the xylophone melody to contend with, amongst other things.

Luscious sounds and a rhythm you can totally groove to; perfect for listening or moving. Probably goes well with a bowl of unadon or as the last song to play at work before you leave to go home, glorious glorious home.

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☟ Boehm Social Media Presence ☟
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LAZY INTERVIEW #26: KERO KERO BONITO

← LAZY INTERVIEW #25: TROPES

Another Lazy Interview. #HaterzStayBack

But in all seriousness, a trio of very nice musicmakers making unique music step up to the plate and hit three over-the-fence home runs. Yes, it's Kero Kero Bonito (or KKB as you are quite at liberty to say)! This 3-piece are doing good things for music. Why? How? Well they make a kind of pop music, a weaving together of gleefully pedestrian bilingual rap, minimalist drum machine dancehall, and cutesy melodies: something they've tagged "ultrapop" and something that I doubt you've ever truly heard before. You may've heard incubative versions of it, but nothing like this. No no no.

They dropped their debut mixtape / album Intro Bonito last year, and made it freely available, but NOW they are releasing it on Monday, officials, on nifty record label Double Denim. I talked about the first offering from that mixtape (which is now strangely the LATEST track to be taken from the album) called 'Sick Beat' – a great introduction to the wonderful world of KKB, and interesting in that Sarah raps about playing or, actually, being sick at videogames, with the line "It's often said, I should get some girly hobbies instead" just about summing up the unfortunate opinion of the general populace (probably). GAMES FOR EVERYONE is what we say.

There's also a very fun video for call-and-response style track 'Kero Kero Bonito' – super colourful and nicely random, why not watch it?

Anyway they're just about blowing up right now, and with the album being released on Monday, what else is there to do but be dunked concisely into the "playful/strange" swimming pool that is KKB as they collectively quickfire-answer these damn lazy questions of ours.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
We’re KKB, we’re from everywhere and we do our homework.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
Because the youth of today need a political voice!!!!!!!

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
Bilingual schoolyard dancehall. Bilingual schoolyard dancehall.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
iTunes, any time.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
Cats, dogs etc.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
We played at a local hall and the old people were dancing in a ring.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
Sarah: Chibi-Tech – Moe Moe Kyunstep (PART II - キュン -)

Jamie: Danny L Harle – All The Time

Gus: Pa’s Lam System – Like A Lady

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Jack Thomas and Hari Ashurst-Venn.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
#ultrapop.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
More chords – world tour.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
Social media presence.

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• DO download Kero Kero Bonito's mixtape Intro Bonito on Monday. Massively worth it ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
• Also check out a load of other artists answering questions in the Lazy Interview series.

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← LAZY INTERVIEW #25: TROPES

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☟ Kero Kero Bonito Social Media Presence ☟

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LINDSAY LOWEND – BODY PARTY INSTRUMENTAL (SNES VERSION) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

You can pretty much always trust or at least count on Lindsay Lowend to create very good songs. That's basically a given. Yep, this is the Washington DC-based producer dropping in again with more sumptuous VGM-(videogame music if u please)-inspired music, and what's more he's made this casually whilst he's on tour in Europe. Just dropping genius joints offhand and nonchalant – it's loveable.

Using SNES soundfonts, which are basically just instruments used in SNES games, for chords played in whimsical story-telling patterns, LL offers up a new and particularly wonderful rendition of Ciara's 'Body Party'. I've been burned before for posting on Twitter about a Ciara remix that was available for free download, so there's this underlying feeling of dread as I write this. In any case, aside from the crystal clear samples of the original, this may as well be a totally new song, which it kind of is.

Crunchy 16-bit bass carves out curving tunnels beneath the totally winsome chords, nostalgically fresh, as a metronomic beat keeps time in a simple bop from kick to snare. Later on it's as if KK Slider from Animal Crossing has joined in, the bwee-bwee-bwayy-bwoo noises later on basically summoning KK from his digital plane to this earthly world, sharing the stage with Ciara, and with Lindsay on keys. An ideal fantasy line-up in the world of fantasy line-ups.

The three tags that accompany this song on SoundCloud basically sum it up: #CIARA, #SNES, #SILLY_SHIT. And even if it IS silly shit, it's some of the best silly shit I've heard – perhaps it's better just being called "a fun song." And with that, he's also being rather pioneering in the pairing of seemingly disparate styles: SNES-era sounds &... Ciara. Usually a joke song is also kiiiind of rubbish (most things by Flight of the Conchords exempt), but Lindsay Lowend is clearly a musician through and through – even though it's silly, he can't help but make it oh— so— good.

• Yeah, this is a free download (clicketh).
• PS. WHERE does that funny little "Oh…" noise in the song come from? I recognise it but I've been going crazy trying to think where it comes from. If you know please tell me. Thank you.

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AVEC AVEC – MOON PRISM [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Here's Avec Avec with some totally brrrrand new shiz. In fact it's so brand new that it doesn't even sound like Avec Avec, or at least the music by Avec Avec that I know. Last time I crossed paths with his sound it was... ah yes, it was last summer. Last Summer. Days without end. So long, beautiful skies. But the sound of Avec Avec was one of super-ultra-pop, city pop, "pops" as it is known occasionally – urban and urbane pop stylings, immaculately clean-cut and sharp as a shard, yet soft and podgy, gooey on the inside like a golden egg that oozes mercurial contents.

Sorry wait, what, you don't— well that's fine. Who's Avec Avec is what you're basically saying? Hmmmyup that's fine. His real name, if it helps, is Takuma Hosokawa, he's from Osaka, he's like 26 or something, and he's also in a band/group gleaming with pop, Sugars Campaign. He's a Maltine Records affiliate, has appeared on the Lost Decade remix album for the legendary tofubeats, and has worked with producer and VGM-maker bo en. He's been around, and no doubt he will continue to be around and get around as time passes.

"Y shud I care lol" – because he makes good music. And this is no city pop, ultrapop nope: 'Moon Prism' is a monster.

This is ultrahouse. Pophouse. Packed with a kind of surly yet cutesy attitude, the song bounces along with pulsar bass dragging you along for the ride, harsh piano chords playing in house syncopation, becoming soft synth versions of themselves in places, descending patterns giving it this toppling effect all the time with a hint of something about to explode. Altered vox samples blabber as a beautifully demented ornamentation alongside stellar clusters of driplike bwips, the occasional gun-cocking, a bedspring squeak or two and a "HEY" for good measure, taking those cheesy tropes and inserting them into a hectic house framework that oozes with all the quirky energy that first brought Avec Avec to my attention. 100% big sounds here.

It's as if stuffed toys ran the clubs, or a situation in which pastel colours suddenly rule the world – all the normal stuff is there, a bubbling beat, chords that make you go crazy, fun samples, but it's Avec Avec's style that truly brings this to glorious life.

• Um it's a free downlan so go download it (.wav file too so it's nicely quality)

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Like Avec Avec on Facebook
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