This is the debut EP from Japanese-American transplant 8tari. Born in Tokyo, she moved to New York as a child & began piano lessons before returning to Japan at when she was 12. However, a freak accident with a prototype blockchain connected gashapon machine outside of a keki shop near Takeshita Street resulted in 8tari being decentralized & becoming an NFT. Lost in the network & no longer able to physically touch a piano, she began making beats that soon began to fill the back streets of Shibuya after down-resizing them for transmission at human audible levels. Renown west coast producer DJ Muggs eventually took 8tari under his wing & is producing her debut EP in full.
“Neon Sunburn” is a dreary piano opener to the EP that I can only visualize serving as the soundtrack to a rainy ass day whereas “The Guns of Brixton” works in more keys by fusing them with some strings & the sounds of nature that help give the instrumental a woodland feel to it. The penultimate track “Paradise” has a more climactic vibe to it almost as if it were playing in the background of an important scene to a really good movie leading into “Bad Scene, Everyone’s Fault” ending the EP with a drumless, warm beat.
What we have on Lofi Punk here is essentially Muggs dabbling with chillhop for a duration of 4-songs, 15 minutes & it makes me wonder if he plans on traveling further down this rabbit hole in the future because it’s a really interesting change of pace for the seasoned west coast producer. The instrumentals that he cook up here each have their own mood that they bring out & I like to think of it like him paying homage to the godfather of lo-fi hip hop himself: the late Nujabes.
This is the debut EP from Japanese-American transplant 8tari. Born in Tokyo, she moved to New York as a child & began piano lessons before returning to Japan at when she was 12. However, a freak accident with a prototype blockchain connected gashapon machine outside of a keki shop near Takeshita Street resulted in 8tari being decentralized & becoming an NFT. Lost in the network & no longer able to physically touch a piano, she began making beats that soon began to fill the back streets of Shibuya after down-resizing them for transmission at human audible levels. Renown west coast producer DJ Muggs eventually took 8tari under his wing & is producing her debut EP in full.
“Neon Sunburn” is a dreary piano opener to the EP that I can only visualize serving as the soundtrack to a rainy ass day whereas “The Guns of Brixton” works in more keys by fusing them with some strings & the sounds of nature that help give the instrumental a woodland feel to it. The penultimate track “Paradise” has a more climactic vibe to it almost as if it were playing in the background of an important scene to a really good movie leading into “Bad Scene, Everyone’s Fault” ending the EP with a drumless, warm beat.
What we have on Lofi Punk here is essentially Muggs dabbling with chillhop for a duration of 4-songs, 15 minutes & it makes me wonder if he plans on traveling further down this rabbit hole in the future because it’s a really interesting change of pace for the seasoned west coast producer. The instrumentals that he cook up here each have their own mood that they bring out & I like to think of it like him paying homage to the godfather of lo-fi hip hop himself: the late Nujabes.
Japanese up-&-comer 8tari continues to roll out her debut EP Lofi Punk produced by DJ Muggs by attaching a music video onto her debut single “Neon Sunburn”.
Accomplished hip hop producer & founding Cypress Hill member DJ Muggs has signed Japanese born American transplant 8tari to Soul Assassins Records. Muggs & Sean Bonner are set to executive produce 8tari’s upcoming debut EP “Lofi Punk”, which is set to surface on May 12. Under the new label deal, 8tari has released the first single “Neon Sunburn” online across digital music outlets. It’s a magical soundscape that takes you on a journey through the streets of Tokyo on a rainy day, on the way to the coffee shop.
Born in Tokyo, 8tari moved to New York as a child & began piano lessons before returning to Japan at age 12. A freak accident with a prototype blockchain connected gashapon machine outside of a keki shop near Takeshita Street resulted in 8tari being decentralized, becoming an NFT. Lost in the network & no longer able to physically touch a piano, she began making beats. Down-resizing them for transmission at human audible levels, they soon began to fill the back streets of Shibuya. Thanks to an R&D budget provided by DJ Muggs, Soul Assassins Records & next generation hologram tech, she’s able to be projected into the physical world for short periods of time (until the lasers overheat). No longer limited by time & space, she can simultaneously perform in locations around the globe.
