Tokyo's Biollante has found a clever way of standing out among the ever-crowded field of Japanese bedroom music producers — get melancholic.
The creator's debut album "Alone In This World" (feel the sadness already?) fits like a glove among the works of at-home producers and netlabel enthusiasts. However, "Alone In This World" is different thanks to Biollante's decision to compose the bulk of it in a minor key and from there incorporate instruments such as guitar and piano into the electronics in order to drive home the emotional aspect.
"Alone In This World" doesn't just succeed on it's ability to make you want to drink red wine and gaze out the window on a rainy day. Biollante (named after one of Godzilla's monster foes) has a strong grasp on electronic music production and, over the 11 songs on the album, the album's beats successfully mimic hip-hop (opener "Azure Skies," whirring late cut "Swish") and U.K.-style dubstep ("(Steps)"). Biollante has also tagged these Bandcamp tracks as "trip-hop" and "chillwave" — the prior ringing true on the sparse "Skeletal," the latter not really coming through beyond Biollante's constant use of synthesizers. Save for a few moments where everything become too muddled, the songs here are well put together.