Few people are sad to see 2016 go, perhaps justifiably so – but it wasn’t all bad. This year had no shortage of wonderful music released, and so Memories of Shibuya is looking back on 5 of the best songs to come out in 2016. Streaming options aren’t available for all songs, but links will be provided where available.
Do you crave nice things? Is your life lacking in goodness? Sakanaction understands your trouble. New single “Tabun, Kaze.” seeks to remedy your ailments through the beautifully processed guitars, dance beats and driving synthesizers that the Hokkaido-based group made their name on. Most new music is horrendous and the world may indeed be going to hell, but one can dance in the flames to the sounds of Sakanaction.
As Negicco said in their “Idol Bakari Kikanaide”, “normal people don’t buy things like CDs anymore” – so, naturally, CD sales in the present era are mostly accounted for by hardcore idol wotaku, with the “normals” either buying their music off iTunes or, more likely, hopping to their favourite torrent site to fly their pirate flag. As a consequence, most Shibuya-kei artists don’t bother releasing singles on physical media anymore, preferring instead to use videos to promote an album directly. However, there are still some groups that still release singles in the conventional sense, and here are our picks for the three best of these releases (there really weren’t many Shibuya-kei songs released as single CDs in 2014).
The Sakanaction web store is nothing if not shockingly comprehensive – sure, you can find the expected items such as T-shirts and iPhone cases, but you can also find Sakanaction underwear and a branded rain poncho among the more conventional goods. While most of the designs aren’t bad, what truly amazes is just how much depth there is to the selection. Keychains! Stickers! Blankets! Multiple sorts of bags! Truly, Sakanaction’s “Sakanatribe” store offers more Sakanaction merchandise than you could ever possibly want.
I only just recently expanded the blog’s coverage to include a number of somewhat more “fringe” Shibuya-kei acts, and as such I missed the release of Sakanaction’s latest single on October 29 – especially disappointing as said single contains a remix from none other than Cornelius himself. The video above is for “Hasu no Hana”, B-side to their latest single “Sayonara Emotion”, and it’s sure to make fans of creepy, oddly-coloured spider costumes happy; pleasant song too, even if it’s more than a touch on the repetitive side.
