I started researching Japanese IDM/glitch artists and I’ve stumbled on two that I really like. If you’re into Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre etc. you’ll like Ryoji Ikeda and Aoki Takamasa as well! Glitch is seriously my new drug.

This first video is made by a fan, and I love it. This is “Data.Microhelix” from the album “Dataplex” by Ryoji Ikeda.

Buy Ryoji Ikeda’s music here!

This is Aoki Takamasa’s “Mirabeau”, off his album “Parabolica”.  The audiovisual display is by Ryoichi Kurokawa.

Buy Aoki Takamasa’s music here!

Hollow Head by tangentbot

This is a new song I wrote yesterday and finished at around 2 this morning. This reminds me of my old stuff, as it is all industrial-ish, but I’ve incorporated some obviously new techniques into it. There are even some ridiculous sounding synth guitars in it which I absolutely LOVE. I’ve gotten fed up with not finishing music. I may get fed up with not playing live shows, eventually.

I just wrote “absolutely robots” a few days ago, which you should check out here if you haven’t already.

I made this with elements of red (carrots and my homemade aka miso) and white (taro and shiro miso) in observence of the traditional colors of the Japanese New Year 正月 (shogatsu) . I didn’t actually make any traditional Japanese Near Year foods (お節料理), but I may still – I have some burdock for gobo kinpira :3 .  Anyways, click on the image to make it a little bigger (and check out my dirty stove – oh yes! ).

I’ve been working on this one forever. I finished two songs as part of another project and I was so inspired that I loaded this one up and finished it as well! There are a couple ideas I toyed with, structure-wise, that I really haven’t used before, and I’m excited that everything turned out so well.

Here it is in all its dithered-down, mp3 glory:

Absolutely Robots

I realize I’m a bit late on this, but my favorite manga series, Yotsuba&!, who was picked up back in January by Yen Press, is back! They just released volume 7, and I just picked it up at Kinokuniya. I have the first run of Yotsuba as well, released by ADV Manga, and re-release so far is excellent.

Yotsuba&! focuses on the day-to-day life of a five-year-old adopted foreign girl named Yotsuba Koiwai. She has all sorts of seemingly normal, everyday encounters and adventures that constantly blow her mind. She discovers swings, learns about global warming, becomes a milkman, and obsessively absorbs every little thing that comes her way, forcing her excitement on her dad, her dad’s friend , Jumbo, the neighbors, and anyone else she happens to come across. Her enthusiasm is contagious!

Yen Press has also re-released the manga for Azumanga Daioh, my favorite anime. I haven’t read the manga yet because I’m not a fan of the “comic strip” style layout.

If you like cute, slice-of-life manga, check out Yotsuba&!.