Era Wadi – PRPL FREESTYLE REMIX ft. ARDLAP As many visitors to my once world famous not-cooking-blog know I do like the odd bit of off-kilter house music and this week provides zero exceptions in the shape of Ardlap’s remix of Era Wadi’s track PRPL. Era tells me he was a massive Prince fan and wanted to pay his respects to the wee guy by writing a song about the colour purple (not the film, ha!) and then have it remixed by someone certifiably insane. Et voila! Voici le résultat! Une chanson house vraiment dérangée! No idea why I’m speaking French but this song made me do it. And you will be s ..read more

Spandau Ballet once sung a song about gold that was used in the 1984 Los Angeles games and it was all like “GOLD! Always believe in your soullllaaahhalll! You’ve got the powah to KNOW you’re indestructible woah” etc etc and it was fun at the time. However, Gold by The Infinity Chamber (TIC) is nothing like that but is a deceptively technical finger style arrangement a la mode du Donovan with maybe a small side dish of Nick Drake. When I asked TIC what the song is about he tells me: [The track was] finished in the hot summer of 2004 when I was living in Yildiz, Istanbul. I’d been listening to ..read more

Hey ho another round up of songs I found recently and rather liked. Some via Submithub and some on random travels on Twitch. The Kites – Drunk In Japan Well, this being a Japanese music blog (mostly) these young scamps make the blog by virtue of singing about ‘being drunk in Japan’ which I have not done yet, although I have been trashed most other places. The band tell me “[we] have followed the trusty formula of releasing unrelenting guitar bangers that sound custom-made for radio airwaves, festivals, headline shows and everything in between”. Quite. And Drunk In Japan is a great song. It do ..read more

Over on Submithub I often peruse the Hot or Not charts and every now and again I find a song that piques my interest. And Some days ago I happened across this song by Lifeboats: This is a massive song with huge production, crushing drums and a deceptively uplifting chorus. Comparisons to Linkin’ Park or System of a Down will suffice but these guys lend an interesting blend of melody and melancholy I don’t hear often. The band lends more detail over a brief chat: [We are] a kind of powerful and modern rock’n’roll fed by a chaotic assembly of 5 guys, a gang of friends with very different backg ..read more

As many folks of this once world famous Japanese music blog know I often times find great music at the back of my sock drawer and will write about awesome new music I find! So without further ado, lets jump in and see what we have! Reality Addiction – Grow Up When I write about music I’ll often find inspiration from lots of sources, one of which is perusing the Popular Charts over at Submithub. And that’s where I found this really cool song which caught my attention with the minimum of fuss. A super melodic pop-rock song very much in the vein of Keane (of whom I’m not a particular fan, but pr ..read more

I aimed to write this blog post ages ago but life events got in the way – namely a very hot and humid trip in Taiwan. Ahead of that journey I meant to write about a really interesting new singer called Dune Moss and her excellent new song Eyes Inside My Walls which came out September 1. Dune is no stranger to the industry and in 2021 auditioned for American Idol and made it to the top 40 although she has no idea why she auditioned in the first place “I have no idea why I thought that would be a good idea…”. Hard agree. Eyes Inside My Walls is a deceptively powerful song but it’s sound is rath ..read more

The final sections of Dream Brother by Jeff Buckley use guitars playing a heavy ‘down beat’ chordal melody which is very much like the Cocteau Twins. It turns out he was a massive fan. This would be why then! Over to Liz Fraser from the band who explains a wee bit more: Who knew ..read more

Yi – Runaway To all the fellow producers reading this blog, a great way to meet new artists is to hang out on Twitch feedback streams where all the other producers send in their tracks for analysis by those watching and the stream creator. And so it came to pass as I was hanging around streamer Todd Champ‘s channel, a young chap called Yi pitched in with this absolute gem of a song. Clearly inspired by M83, FM84 and all your face synthwave greats, this is a very strong tune with a seriously infectious chorus. I really really rate this one ..read more

ウィアグリーバー – Singer It’s nice to get some more Jrock through to the blog as a lot of folks seem to think I like listening to RnB and hip hop, which is fine n all, but that kind of music isn’t why I started Najinsan. ウィアグリーバーcomments “how luxurious is the freedom we have taken for granted? I wrote this song while thinking about that.” It’s a fairly predictable pop song but a really nice listen, nonetheless. Turbo Knight x Sonic Shades Of Blue x Castles Made Of Sky x Waves_On_Waves – Healing Hands Wave on Wave are collaborators from Finland, Sweden, and the US and t ..read more

Seeing as I’m now a curator on Submithub I get sent loads of cool things. This week I’m distilling down five of the best. Enjoy! NAMESAKE – In Different Cities ft Jewel Owusu A fairly harmless slice of feel good bubblegum pop to play as you drive down to your local cinema to watch Barbie, which like the film, “explore[s] the delicate balance of seizing opportunities and embracing the transient nature of relationships”. I’ve not seen Barbie yet but I’m 100% sure this is what it’s about. Sumer Nights – John Fox When John sent this over I was probably going to pass because of the somewhat abras ..read more