SUBBACULTCHA: Aya Gloomy (JP) + Mahne Frame (AUS/JP)

Subbacultcha presents Tokyo’s electronic indie-pop musician Aya Gloomy and Yung Lean’s former drummer gone solo Mahne Frame. Aya Gloomy, self-produced from Shinagawa, Tokyo, has been conspicuously world-building since 2018 with her wildly hooky pop melodies and distinctive fashion. She has performed alongside Mykki Blanco, Yves Tumor, and Kedr Livanskiy in Asia and Australia. Aya’s debut album was released on Japanese tastemaker label, Big Love. Since then she has self-released 2 LPs, Tokyo Hakai and Riku No Kotōu. Her most recent singles are on Australian imprint 21 N FUN, a label run by Aya’s perennial collaborator, artist Mahne Frame. Currently split between the isolated Australian bush, where he grew up, and the urban sprawl of Tokyo, Mahne Frame is an artist with multiple truths. On drums, he has played with artists such as Jonatan Leandoer96 (Yung Lean), Aya Gloomy, and Kirin J Callinan, but his recent focus has been on his solo music—branded with ambiguity, cynicism, and an impossible cohesiveness. Inspired by Goldie, Valentino Rossi, and Max Rockatansky, his “baritone-monotone” voice, dragged over a backbone of 808s, has led him to perform at Dark Mofo festival and Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park, as well as collaborate with Australia’s Buzz Kull and Japanese rapper Tohji. Coming from a place of self-sufficiency, Frame’s diverse creative output across mediums like fashion, design, and construction, gather under the banner of 21 N FUN, a label and creative practice he launched in 2021.