Maybe you've heard of Shugo Tokumaru. His unique, cutesy folk sound with atypical instruments and various toy sounds has been gaining attention since his debut in 2004, but most notably capturing listeners with 2007's
Exit and more recently with his fantastic album from the present year,
Port Entropy. Here, he performs with four others, including drummer Shingo Shinmachi, who creates a unique noise-pop sound under the moniker of Chanson Sigeru to make a very interesting sound, blending various style into a delicious pop/rock brew.
The album seems to be a bit split, however. The first two songs are these abrasive, thick sounds with only a slight resemblance of Shugo's folk leanings. Noise pop, shoegaze, math rock, folk rock, etc. etc. etc.; it's tough to get a perfect grasp when relegating to common music "genre"s. 9 Teeth Picahia starts us with these nice calm melodies, even with the distortion, with soothing male vocals floating above it, and then slams the drums and increases the feedback, keying to the vocalist that he should probably shout to be heard. He obliges. And it continues to flow between the two in the 7minute track, occasionally throwing some samples just to make sure we aren't settling into the sound. The next track, Buscape, starts with an oddly timed riff, a cowbell, and shouting far off into the distance before fading off only to come back to a much more dense form of the beginning riff, supported this time by drums and a synth composition with a sound somewhere between a car horn and the broken accordion. Intensity builds up and falls off until finally leading us into a cacophony of sound, stopping to reprise and then leading into the next.
And it's at this point that it seems that Shugo takes command. The album because much softer, those charming melodies that were there before become even more charming, but also a bit clearer (not necessarily cleaner, however) and I believe Shugo also handles more of the vocal work (not cited) . It really ends up becoming very reminiscent of 60's pop bands. A little Beach Boys here, a little The Zombies there, and then taking that sound on a tour through modern Tokyo.
Buy (this is about the only place I can find it, sorry)
Official site (this is one of the coolest band pages I've seen in a long time. I can't really get past the language barrier, unfortunately)
Sleigh Bells is a Noise Pop duo from Brooklyn, NY. The duo is Derek E. Miller , the former guitarist for Poison The Well and Alexis Krause from the teen pop group Rubyblue.
There are a ton of shoegazing bands. You could pin it to a number of reasons: Most anything with a bit of fuzz and feedback is considered shoegazing, in many cases you can forgo memorable melodies for unique timbres, My Bloody Valentine is heralded by many indie music circles, etc it doesn't really matter, all that I can say is that when roaming for underground bands, it's almost definite that there is a number of promoted bands labelled as shoegaze.
And another shogaze post. Much like the circumstances of their formation, Cruyff in the Bedroom has a lot of field to play with here. Formed in the year of Japan was announced to host a World Cup and named after soccer/football legend Johan Cruyff, this Japanese band, although certainly encapsulating the thick atmosphere that defines shoegaze, does a lot to try to create a sound that works as their own. While this album is certainly dominated by the fuzzy guitars and walls of sound, there are plenty of moments to lose those shackles. Frequently they slide to a softer soothing sound, occasionally they add somewhat of an "electric rock" feel or maybe falling towards Shibuya-kei, and with the very good Hakuchume, as well as it's following song, a section of orchestrated strings bring a welcome change.
Someone on the boards asked for shoegaze, so I thought I'd oblige. Not much to say here really. Mostly just another band that rides the wave of early 90 shoegaze artists. There is a certain amount of room for character, however, and I think they do well to fill that space, without cheapening the sound. They do, however, add more of a unique sound with their latest release, All of the Stars
Ecstatic Sunshine is a creative outlet for guitarist Matthew Papich. What originally began as a duo (with Dustin Wong), it has now become a solo project for Papich. Freckle Wars was recorded when ES was still a duo, which makes this album different from the other albums in ES' discography.
Maybe you've heard of Shugo Tokumaru. His unique, cutesy folk sound with atypical instruments and various toy sounds has been gaining attention since his debut in 2004, but most notably capturing listeners with 2007's Exit and more recently with his fantastic album from the present year, Port Entropy. Here, he performs with four others, including drummer Shingo Shinmachi, who creates a unique noise-pop sound under the moniker of Chanson Sigeru to make a very interesting sound, blending various style into a delicious pop/rock brew.