The Chicago-based Japanese singer, rapper and jazz multi-instrumentalist’s new LP comprises a richly eclectic, dynamic selection of songs with an overriding theme of seeking the right direction in life. Each song battles with problems through an internal dialogue. The title track tries to dissect consumer capitalism’s dilemmas with slick rapping and musicianship. Opening track If The Answer Isn’t Love has a woozy guitar chord progression and a soulful, wistful vocal style. Bad State is an engaging jazzy melody but is is more psychological diagnosis: “Can you teach me how to climb? I keep on falling down to find I’m in a bad, bad state … I was all shook up again I had to put the puzzle together in my head / But I was missing a piece at the end.” There’s a stripped back style of the serene feel of indie-pop acoustic guitar of Pain (“We all deserve / A place to feel safe enough / To stare at each sunset”), or the jazz of Forsythia. But the central standout, mixing jazz sax and almost a sense of a soulful show mixed with hip-hop is perhaps Pressure On The Pulse: “I can’t allow what I can’t predict To let me down again To let me down again I believe we are the source / Keep pressure on the pulse”. The musical diagnosis? A dynamic fusion of many genres, it’s a restless, fascinatingly unusual release. Out on City Slang / Sooper Records
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