LUMI – BOUNDLESS

All I know about lumi is that they appear to be from DC (Washington DC is that right?) and they appear to be 15 (years old? minutes late? metres tall?). Other than that, nothing. But being unknown to YES/NO until about 20 minutes ago isn't a big deal; they've got traction, and for a good reason. Simply put, it's very nice sounds all round.

Case in point: 'boundless'. After a quiet and fizzy crackling build-up, rough backwards sounds rolling gently like waves of static across a somewhat bossa nova rhythm with handclaps and fingerclicks, the track goes into full swing. Jabs of synth and crashing drum between slabs of empty space that leave you reeling, skiffling hi-hats and soft arpeggios adding flavour and fervour to the pastel furore of the track. There's even a key change at the end. It feels boundless, the galloping rhythm and the power of the staccato synth chords fuelling this sense of open space and excitement.

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• And whaddya know, this track is available for downloading free of charge.

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☟ lumi's Social Media Presence ☟
SoundCloud • Twitter

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SLUGABED – I LUV U & I MISS U

It's beats galore here, a deft command of lounge-feeling groove, continues with this tumbling beat and then drops into a deeper gorge of sound, heavier, pummelling with punches of bass, percussion strewn about, some of it woody and scuttling, some jangling, crunching. A distant feel with soft tropical sounds playing sweet glittering melodies over breaths of synth, and awkwardly slanted with metallic cutting sounds. It's as wonky and robust as it is light and spacey, and it's fascinating how much slugabed can put into one track without it transitioning into complete difference.

Later in the song its title becomes clear. 'I love you... and I miss you... and I really want you to call me back' spoken over the phone, despairing and crooning like an aching ghost in the dead blank loneliness of night. The faraway exotica of the broken beat echoes this distance, this bobbling mantra of beats and reflecting the unease and sadness of whoever might be saying these words and feeling these things. At the same time, the seeming disconnect between the vocal sample and the sometimes happy-go-lucky sounds breathing throughout might be illustrative of someone who, upon hearing the words, doesn't care all that much. It's open to interpretation.

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• This track is a free download, which is lovely isn't it.
• Also, you know slugabed right? If you don't, he is called Greg I think, he's been making music for five maybe more years, he's from London, and he runs a fun label by the name of Activia Benz.

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☟ Social Media Presence ☟
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JULIEN MIER – THE HAND FOLLOWS THE EYE

Getting hooked to this track is as easy as pressing play and beginning its ping-pong insectoid clatter percussion noises simmering away. It's a treat for a brain that wants to listen to these luscious noises, combined with and underpinned with a heady wave of rich bass. Click click clatter click pop. The beat develops and evolves with a skipping syncopated snap, percussive stringy sounds adding to the soft crunch of this popping candy soundscape, colourful atonal chords bouncing along.

The way it breaks into something more sombre is beautiful, the beat suddenly falling away to reveal a wash of rain, an intensifying slosh of sound. Then— nothing. Nothing: brief silence, room to breathe, and then the beat and the percussion enjoy their final fizzing fade to the end. It feels gloriously cluttered, a meandering progression, a busy mind gradually adding more weight and more thoughts until that rainy drop into brief oblivion... and then— and then, it starts all over again. Or its a portrait of going through the motions, automatic living, perhaps, until you begin to think about it too much.

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• This is taken from Julien Mier's new album Shiny Silver Lining, released on Canadian label King Deluxe. You can listen to that or buy it here.

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AMACCHI – A MATTER OF TIME

Stumbling across something nice and new and unexpected is the point YES/NO. Yeah I write about music I like regardless of how un-new or un-undiscovered it might, but the original point was to find new stuff and write about it, hopefully introduce some people to something fresh to listen to.

And with that word – FRESH – in mind, this is 'a matter of time' by amacchi. Who or what is amacchi? Apart from a somebody that makes music, I can't tell you much else. But with freshness being the keyword now, let's leave history and backstory and every other story and focus on the song – this fresh, fresh song.

From its delicious and raw acoustic guitar sounds rippling throughout this instrumental track, sounding as if a guitar were being plucked and played right in the room with you – complete with outdoor sounds of maybe children playing or something... so maybe its better to say that instead of being in the room with you, you're outside, wherever these sounds were lifted from, chilling and enjoying the time passing by in such gentle ways.

☟☟☟☟☟☟☟☟

So yeah, from that, to the wonky synth decorations, breathy and urgent vocal samples whispering in your ear, to the plink-plonking beeps that gradually grow fizzier and fizzier, leading us into a final section of the track dominated by the slow undulating rumble of sub-bass, all of its ornamentations – and that's not even mentioning the luscious beat with its hi-hat skifflings and grittily crunching clap-snare-thing.

FRESH was the word and is the word and it is closely followed by beautiful and moving in a small, everyday way – not to say that the song is everyday, but rather that what it seems to be celebrating... joy, well not joy (note the slightly end-of-the-day feeling) ... the contented awareness of everything around you: simply BEING. It takes cuteness and mixes it with that vague sense of the limits of being alive, mixes lightness with deeply embedded seriousness. That's what I'm taking from it anyway. A matter of time indeed.

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• Seems amacchi is part of the Fan Service Collective, so you should probably check em out if you liked this.

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☟ Social Media Presence ☟
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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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