You’ll have seen those videos, no doubt, where some cheeky fun-filled scoundrel drops a mint into a bottle of diet coke and then stands back bursting with glee as the contents erupt into a ridiculous torrenting geyser of foaming cola excess (and if not, get thee to You Tube). You’ll also be familiar with the standard can of whoop-ass we presume? Here’s one with a ‘Citrus’ shoegaze twist shaken firmly between the legs for an extended period of time, at the point of breaking the ring pull’s seal and marvelling at the ensuing display. Asobi Seksu are the exact audio equivalent of those spectacles. There’s a gushing sense of brightness pervading every fraction of every second on this record, it’s heaped on, ladle after ladle of twinkling awe, overflowing like champagne does on one of those fancy fountain arrangements you find at weddings where the price per head is more than your monthly rent.
As with any shoegaze record, particularly those heavily influenced by the Cocteau Twins, there is a degree of intricate delicacy, orbiting psychedelic strands, but this is delivered with such purposeful certainty, lust and weight that it makes for an altogether more thumping experience. So we’re talking Cocteau Twins, we’re talking Lush (at both ends of their existence – both the dreamy and the determined), we’re talking Madder Rose, My Bloody Valentine and Belly. We’re talking all of those influences delivered with scorching aplomb, sounding anything but dated.
We’re talking, on ‘Red Sea’, of the abstract sound of a distant sound system, ethereal vocals floating on sonic ripples, an explosive chorus and eventually acres of shifting white noise. We’re talking, on ‘Thursday’, of beautiful chiming indie pop gaining spinning momentum as it goes in a weightless expanse, and an explosive chorus, and on ‘New Years’ of all that jazz but with their foot firmly to the floor in an attempt to wrestle control of your pulse away from you, explosive from beginning to end. It’s music designed to consume you whole, but the real key to the hypnosis that holds you in their tractor beam is pocket-sized sounding vocalist Yuki Chikudate who perches atop these grand compositions like an angel, singing in both English and Japanese. Less plink plink fizz and more plink plink MEGA-FUZZ. Delightful.