Customer Reviews

Yosuga

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Japanese indie pop band Nagisa Ni Te have long been tiptoeing along on the cusp of crossover lake, just waiting to fall in to all the stateside hugs and stereos they deserve. The facts prefacing this band are both simple and surprising: Nagisa Ni Te like nature and sing about it on almost every song, offering a very delicate, genuine treatment not common in U.S. bands; Nagisa Ni Te like American post-shoegazer indie rock and know how to play it as well as anyone since Ride (though they sound nothing like Ride); Nagisa Ni Te sing in Japanese **and** English, sometimes with both languages being sung **at the same time** on two separate vocal tracks; and, finally, just about any song on Nagisa Ni Te's new album, Yosuga, would've sounded just fine in Garden State or Winter Passing or a Wes Anderson flick. Sure, there's more to tell, but that's the gist - an introduction. Not sold? Listen to the first 30 seconds of the album and see for yourself; there isn't another band like this right now. Theirs is an odd and simple beauty that takes no more than an open ear to appreciate.

Centering around the duo of Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda - who are almost always joined by a cast of other players who seem to share the duo's admiration for self-effacing indie pop - Nagisa Ni Te have paid their dues, releasing six albums previous to Yosuga, running their own overseas label, Org Records, along the way. That said, most folks don't know these always-sweet popsters just yet. The name has popped up here and there since their signing with the Bloomington, Indiana imprint Jagjaguwar a few years back, but Yosuga will mark their first real push into major U.S. indie markets (assuming such things exist). As consistent as the other Nagisa Ni Te albums are, Yosuga is a real sucker punch - so full of memorable melodies and warm, welcoming vocals and lyrics that it'll have the right listeners running out to learn Japanese (one of the best cuts on the record, "The Next Day," is sung only in Japanese - though it sounds amazing, and the translated lyrics are included in the accompanying liner notes).

As high-concept as this whole bit sounds thus far, it isn't. Yosuga is a mostly straightforward album that sounds familiar enough that well used ears will enjoy it instantly enjoy. Well, okay, "familiar" might not be the right word. I hear some Galaxie 500 in the arrangements, some Robert Wyatt in the spirit, a slice of Nick Drake's fragileness in the mood and some Moses Leroy quirkiness in the cracks, but the overall kick is nothing obvious enough to trigger an everyday listener's flag. Most songs are modestly crafted, utilizing drone-heavy, sometimes pulsing keys, soft acoustic strums that swim in and out, faint jazz drumming, the occasional electric guitar burst or obscure instrument flourish and, at the center, the always-soft vocal trade-offs of Shibayama and Takeda, whose natural chemistry make Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell sound more like two crossing trains than the retro sting they attempt to put off. In it's subtlety, everything about the music and vocals on Yosuga is enjoyable, not to mention very fitting to the band's organic mantra and unpretentious vibe.

If you can listen to Sigur Ros sing in Icelandic (let's face it, not a pretty language for the singing), then you'll have no problem with Nagisa Ni Te's Japanese vocals (again, all the lyrics are included in both English and Japanese, and there is some English language vocals throughout). This writer isn't too familiar with the Japanese language, but Shibayama and Takeda sing it in a way that makes it very elegant, sweet and, in a way, warmly campy. Camp gets a bad wrap. All those Kinks songs in those Wes Anderson flicks? Face it: that's camp. Those shameful Shins plugs in Garden State? Ick! Put just about any song from Yosuga in the next Adam Rapp, Isabel Coixet or even Jared Hess or Anderson flick and we'll have the next great imported sound sensation on our hands. In the meantime, with no radio or even Internet support for a band like Nagisa Ni Te, we have Yosuga, one of the best pop surprises of 2008. (Greg Locke)

Nagisa Ni te, one of my favourite Japanese bands, has released their fifth album. With 13 relatively short songs (although several hit seven minutes, the band's epic 15-minute songs are among its career finest), the album is dreamy, folky, soft and mellow for the most part. It starts off at a relatively fast pace with Premonition, which has the awkward English refrain "take me to za heaven," before getting into one of the best song on the album Seven Seas. The tune is sprawling and has the odd guitar work of Shibayama on top of the slow drum beat of Masako. Great searing guitar solo right in the middle of it to blast the blues away. It is followed by another very strong number, "Seeing the Sea," a gorgeous duet between Shibayama and Masako, probably the album's strongest track. "Reaction in G" sounds like a million Nagisa Ni te songs, with a cool guitar solo, ditto for "Secrets" and "Midsummer Overheard," making them pleasant to listen to, if not a little boring. Then there are strange compositions like "Ishi River" which almost sound like a spooky Nico number, or maybe a weird Sonic Youth song done by Kim Gordon minus the weird guitars. There is a nice song, "Kumao," sung by Shibayama-san, for the couples' dog, who seems to have died (they had two dogs, Malo and Kumao, that they sang about in "Wonder" on the 1999 release "The True World," and it seems that Malo died a few years ago). The rest of the album passes without any real standout tracks, although it does leave a pleasant, lingering feeling provided by the two pretty album-closers, the long title track "Yosuga" and the brief "Dewdrops from Heaven," both sung by Masako. One complaint overall is that this is the first album by the group to NOT feature a beautiful photograph of one of the band members on the cover, rather there is a cryptic illustration that looks like "6d" or something, on a yellow background. But this is a quibble, I still really love Nagisa Ni te.