Great Music Week

This has been an excellent week for music releases in Japan, with 3 albums that are now in constant rotation on my iPod and iMac.

Fantastic Plastic Machine – TOO – A new album by Tanaka-san, which continues in the same style he’s been using since the release of BEAUTIFUL. I still prefer the FPM of old (the first two albums), but this is still fun music, and has a good beat for when you’re walking to work.

Sweet Robots Against the Machine – RE: TOWA TEI – This is a remix album of the TOWA TEI album, and offers some interesting alternates of the tracks. Still haven’t listened to it much, but I like a lot of what I’ve heard (even though I’m pretty sure I prefer all the original versions).

Sketch Show – TRONICA – A new EP by two ex-members of of the seminal group YMO (whose third member was Ryuchi Sakamoto). This is such a great little CD, and includes two tracks produced by Cornelius. If you haven’t sampled Sketch Show yet, do yourself a favor and check out their full-length AUDIO SPONGE album. A nice mix of smooth electronicism and breezy melodies.