Two different styles that everyone will love!

Many of you have heard of a really huge and widely popular music and arts festival over at Coachella, California. Thousands of people gather there to listen to really famous and not so famous artists and bands play throughout two weekends in April and have really great time (or so I’ve heard). Now, what does The Coachella Festival has to do with geeks this time around? Well, this year we have some representation over there with The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Unicorn Kid. 

TSPO or SkaPara started over 20 years ago and they are hugely popular Japan and recognized worldwide. They play Ska music (obviously) and they are quite fun to listen to. They have pretty energetic and upbeat songs, like most ska music you may hear from other bands. They do mostly instrumental stuff, though they do have songs with vocals but they are mostly in English, so do not worry about the language barrier. 

One of their most popular works is the one from the game Incredible Crisis; it is a really crazy, frustratingly hard yet very fun game. They have also worked on movies and anime and have lots of records in their history as a band. In short, there are WAY too many songs for me to choose from but I think I will go with one of their most recognized songs, “We are One”.

“We are One” is probably the best example I can give of TSPO’s style. This is ska in its most traditional sense. Upbeat, fast paced and makes you even want to get up and dance. And while it is a simple song but really manages to capture the energy ska has while combining with other genres, like Reggae in this case. 

I would also recommend checking out “Suikinkutsu”. It features a really great piano playing by Uehara Hiromi. It is another song that demonstrates well how TSPO manages to adapt to any style with theirs.

And now for a total 180! 

Let's talk about Oliver Sabin, a.k.a. Unicorn Kid. He is Scottish and he is fairly new to the music scene (he started in 2009). He does electronic music and chiptunes. He has grown quite popular, quite fast despite his young age, but he is making 8-bit really recognized worldwide. Lots of his early stuff is mostly chiptunes. He has released lots of albums in the past years but he now mostly does electronic music or mixes 8-bit stuff with electronic sounds, which are quite good too. 

Unicorn Kid has worked in many remixes and has played alongside with other popular chiptune artist and bands, like Anamanaguchi. He has also appeared on BBC Radio quite a few times. And now he has earned a spot in the Coachella music festival.

One my favorite pieces of his and the one that introduced me to his music is “Holding Hands”. It is another simple but quite lovely song. It has a strong beat behind it but the song has a fast rhythm to it. It also has a really great ambiance to it. You can sit and listen to this song and not get tired of it. That is probably what defines Unicorn Kid’s style as a chiptune composer.

Other recommendations I can suggest from him are his tracks “Animal City” and “Nuts n Milk”. They are somewhat similar to “Holding Hands” but are most fast paced than it.

So if by any chance you are heading to Coachella this year, be sure to check them out. But if not, you can check out their official websites. If you want more information on TSPO, head out to http://www.tokyoska.net/. Unicorn Kid’s website is http://www.unicornkidmusic.com/, you can listen to more of his stuff and check out the latest news on his stuff.

Well, that is all for now on ILTS. Opinions, like always, are welcome and of course suggestions for future articles. You can either leave a message in the comments section below or head out to the requests thread too.

Until next time, keep on playin’!