2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Charming, disarming chamberpieces from Japan, December 4, 2004
This review is from: Tomorrow World (Audio CD)
Atypically for me, I picked up Slowly Minute's debut record "Tomorrow World" entirely on the merits of its cover; a simple line drawing from the '50s of a girl smelling a flower. I'm certainly glad I judged this one by its cover, because Tomorrow World is an utterly enchanting collection of chamber-music pieces--all apparently the work of one Japanese fellow--Nobukazu Takemura. The songs (with delightful Engrish song titles like "If you hand icecream, a girl's excitement will stop") are almost entirely instrumental--with layers of low-key percussion and old-school synthesizers--and at times verge on being tone poems. But unlike many of today's retro-focused keyboardists, "Tomorrow World's" sound is entirely organic. Sweet, but never saccharine. Imagine the keyboardists from the High Llamas, Air and Broadcast getting together, drinking a bunch of hard cider and having a jam session. While the instrumentation is simple (punctuated here and there by vocoders or la-la-las), the simplicity is belied by the rich textures Slowly Minute is able to produce. "Tomorrow World" evokes the 1960s animated films of John & Faith Hubley, as well as a little of Brian Eno's ambient music, The Free Design, and even Tortoise. Highly recomended!
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