灯の名残り Remains Of The Light, by Usurabi

灯の名残り Remains Of The Light

by Usurabi

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Lars Gotrich A new Japanese psych trio featuring ’90s vets led by the (relatively) new Toshimitsu Akiko. The music moves with a stumbling grace, as if unfolding a folktale through flower pedals and knives. Toshimitsu sings softly with an unkempt twee-pop wonder in songs that undulate from regal singer-songwriter fare to little explosions of fuzz guitar, crashing cymbals and droning accordion. www.vikingschoice.org/archive/peruvian-punk-swedish-heavy-metal-japanese-psych/ Favorite track: 星座 Constellation.

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of 水鏡 Suikyō, 昼花火（Sun and Fireworks）, 血と雫 je prie pour que la goutte ne tombe pas, The wind is spring - there is a rainbow in the sky - love is hiding in the waves, Outside of the world, Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages, Tsilla, You don' t need magic, and 27 more. , and , .

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Limited Edition 12 " Vinyl
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Edition of 285, comes in a silk-screened (2 colors with metallic ink) 3 panels foldout jacket with obi (red or black), inserts and a postcard

Liner notes by Michel Henritzi

Includes unlimited streaming of 灯の名残り Remains Of The Light via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	ラジアルループ Radial Loop 05:04	info
2.	ブルネラ Brunnera 05:15	info
3.	声が Until Your Voice Disappears 07:36	info
4.	秋の雨 Autumn Rain 05:35	info
5.	ずっとそう Always 04:42	info
6.	星座 Constellation 09:43	info

about

Remains Of The Light, the debut album by Japanese trio Usurabi, is a gorgeous thing – six generous, deftly melodic songs that stretch out slowly, breathing deeply, yet never outstaying their welcome. The members of Usurabi started playing together in 2017, but they’d known each other for several decades, meeting via their involvement in a music club at university. Led by songwriter, singer and guitarist, Toshimitsu Akiko, previously of psych-pop duos Doodles and Aminome, the trio is completed by Kawaguchi Masami (New Rock Syndicate, Hardy Rocks, Miminokoto) on bass and guitar, and Morohashi Shigeki (Majutsu no Niwa, Uchu Engine, peaflan, Alraune) on drums.
Kawaguchi and Morohashi had already played together in the legendary Broomdusters, a group they formed when they were both university students. Toshimitsu, long a fan of Broomdusters, formed Usurabi to explore what she describes as “rock music that features vocal mainly and floating sound like waves.” It’s a clear, simple and apt description of what they do. Toshimitsu’s songs are graceful, each having a dynamic arc to their construction, while allowing for all kinds of subtle inflection from her guitar, sometimes tussling with Kawaguchi’s flinty, overloaded blues; Toshimitsu drives the songs with subtletly and wit, sculpting waves of energy from his kit.
Throughout, Toshimitu’s songs hint at questions, complexities, metaphors: allusions and illusions. Songs like “Brunnera” and the closing “Constellation” are adrift, beamed out on rays of light, the trio’s empathic playing harnessing a subtle kind of psychedelia. “Constellation” explores Toshimitsu’s thought, “Am I allowed to turn the feeling I can nothing to do into a constellation, like ancestors did?” The lovely, shaded pop of “Autumn Rain” translates a Toshimitsu solo arrangement into a stripped-back, delightful slice of happy-sad nostalgia; “The rain is always sweet to me,” Toshimitsu says of the song.
Ask the trio what other music informs Usurabi, and they share names, some expected, some surprising: Kaneko Jutok, Les Rallizes Denudes, The Doors (“The first real rock experience to me,” Toshimitsu recalls), Captain Beefheart, The Rolling Stones. You can hear elements of all of this music in their songs, but mostly it’s more a hint, or a tint, than an obvious acknowledgment; the playing certainly shares the hopeful freedom of Kaneko, and the stridency and sensitivity of the Stones at their best. It also recalls the independent music of groups like The Pastels; like that outfit, Usurabi have absolute integrity in their sound. It’s quietly ambitious, and quite beautiful.

credits

released April 29, 2021

All songs :
Music & lyrics by Toshimitsu Akiko
Arranged by USURABI

Recorded in Tokyo, 2019
Engineered by Kawaguchi Masami

Mixed by Kawaguchi Masami in Tokyo, 2020

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