 Pop
always has to go somewhere. Musical genres tend to splinter as they
grow, but in recent years, the splinters themselves have splintered so
much that we're reverting to the simple tags just to maintain our
sanity. Shugo Tokumaru's "Exit" could be described as
whimsical-bedroom-electronica-innocent-chamber-pop, which would at
least give everyone an idea of what the record is made of, as well as a
vague sense of the sort of atmosphere Tokumaru is shooting for. Thing
is, while the niche within a niche within a niche would tell people
where to file the thing, it wouldn't touch on the kind of music it really is.
And what it really is, is pop.
Just...pop. For all the endless complexity, texture shifts and multi
instrumentation, it's just the newest iteration of Tin Pan Alley. Now,
we're going to discuss the deeper details below (wouldn't be much a
review if we didn't,) but all of this is in the context of pop: i.e,
sunny, sweet, goes down easy, and actual enjoyment doesn't require a
bunch of thinking or analysis.
If it sounds like I'm belaboring this point, I apologize. It's just
that when you DO delve into what makes this album tick, it's easy to
lose sight of its simple appeal. For Shugo Tokumaru, like the similarly
minded Cornelius, takes
the most basic of pop appeals and builds them from the ground up with a
billion interlocked sonic details, so much so that it's quite easy to
get lost in the physical sound space of the thing. Acoustic guitar,
flute, pots and pans, xylophone, ukulele, theremin, wood blocks, bucket
of water, Hammond B3, toy piano...sounds like they're all in there, and
they're all fighting for space. It's quite an accomplishment to keep
stuff like this together and coherent, and much like this Shéna Ringo album, the emotional weight gets deeper as the assorted sounds sink in to your subconscious.
The sonic palates are dizzying, and they're always in service of the song. Single "Parachute"
is is just this side of overstuffed, filling your ears with so many
things doing so many things that it's initially disorienting.
Fortunately, Tokumaru's pop skills jump in almost immediately, turning
the blizzard of individual sounds into...well into a Beach Boys song.
Granted, Tokumaru's self harmonies don't quite reach the soaring
heights that made Brian Wilson and company famous, but the
similarities: vocally, melodically, atmospherically, are undeniable.
Same goes for "Button:"
a million details (harmonium, banjo, acoustic guitar, and who knows
what else) combine and coalesce into Summertime pop. But it's not just
the laundry list of instruments that flood the landscape: even the lone
squeezebox that opens "Green Rain" is busy to a fault, naturally leading into another orgy of precisely engineered clutter.
All this in your face detail can admittedly come off as somewhat
airless. Every individual sound is reduced to it's most elemental
ambiance: no echo, reverb, processing, or even room sound (save for
Tokumaru's vocals) seems to have been applied. This is most likely a
practical necessity (adding layers of depth to an already crowded
soundscape would be practically begging for sonic mush,) but it can
make the album feel a bit hermetic at times. Tokumaru may well be aware
of this, as the sudden expansiveness halfway through "Hidamari" comes
just as ear fatigue sets in, and the remainder of the album tones down
the intricacy a bit, letting a little air into the playroom.
All told, "Exit" is an achievement, both technically and aesthetically,
that borders on the unbelievable. There's enough happening in this
album alone to justify a good set of headphones. And it all happens
within the simplest, most direct and immediate musical form available:
pop. Like a whole album of "Good Vibrations" (that reference up there
wasn't a one off: Tokumaru clearly has spent a lot of time with the
Beach Boys catalog,) "Exit" is good for a fun first listen, and for
impressed repeat plays. Where does he go next? He could just repeat his
formula of stuffing everything on hand into three minute ditties, but
unless he starts expanding outside pop, that's just going to be more of
the same. Which, I hesitate to add, would not be a bad thing. One to
watch.
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Available from Amazon US as a CD and a download.
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