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| Sachiko Miwa - Beautiful Place |
| Although
Sachiko Miwa's band's lineage connects her to Nagisa Ni Te (bassist
Tashiro Takayuki is a previous NNT member,) her album "Beautiful Place"
is closer to the spirit of mid 80s UK bedroom pop like Felt, The
Revolving Paint Dream, and The Loft. Gentle, fragile, and with a light
touch of reverb, "Beautiful Place" is the kind of album that is
generally called a "grower." With a voice like a less aggressive Liz Frasier in the early Cocteau Twins days, Miwa's clear and unassuming delivery offers a focal point for the gentle, mildly psychedelic wisps that float around her. When she pushes, like in the climax of "Watch The Sun," it comes off less like a self conscious display of power than a casual peak, the kind of simple beauty that the quietly talented seem to summon at will. The 80s pop comparison is most obvious in "見たらほら" ("You Know Him.") While Miwa tends to play chords where Felt's Maurice Deebank would play clean notes, the vibes are strikingly similar: the simultaneous feeling of a small, comfortable room that somehow still manages to convey epic landscapes (although Miwa's vocals tend more towards traditionalism than Lawrence's Lou Reedisms.) C86 reference points aside, the Nagisa Ni Te connection is still appropriate. Both are gentle, stately psych pop with occasional swells of power that don't disturb the overall buzz. But where the NNT aesthetic is sundrenched and breezy, "Beautiful Place" is the stuff of Autumn, sitting quietly and watching the leaves fall (it's telling that Miwa is wrapped up in a muffler on the CD's artwork.) As hinted at above, quiet, rainy day psych pop is not always the most immediate of music, and it does take some time for Miwa's idiom to emerge from the pleasant, low fi haze. But once it does, it's compelling stuff. |