DONGURIZU

Released: 22.06.01 / Label: CONNECTONE

I’ve been hearing this group’s name for awhile now, but with this weird art I’m not sure what to expect.

DONGURIZU are a rapper and producer duo in their mid 20s who have been making waves in Japan for the past few years. While touring was likely stunted by the corona lockdowns, now that festival season is back I’m sure they’ll be making the rounds.

This is a great dance track, and I would love to hear it at a club or DJ event. The music is really well done, with the opening slow jam feeling smoothly transitioning into a killer drum and bass track about 40 seconds in. Interesting it never goes back, so it feels a little like they abandoned some great material. The track does start to feel a bit long at the 4 minute mark and then just keeps going. I’m sure it works well when it’s background or dance music, so genre matters a lot here.

The rap is the sticky point, because on the surface it sounds great, really cool rhythm and vocals, but in terms of content there’s just nothing there. It sounds like they got music advice from Outkast but never figured out that songs are actually about something. The song’s title is Oto (Noise/music) Mafia, but that doesn’t really seem to have any significance. Best not to think about it too much and just dance I guess. It’s super fun as a workout song as well.

Stream or download the track