I can feel the same grooves as in recent works by Thom Yorke, and early Four Tet’s landscape. You may love them if your father used to listen to Simon & Garfunkel when you were in a cradle. It’s a Japanese counterpart to Sufjan Stevens’s new album.
tigerMos consists of Yuske Ikeda (イケダユウスケ) and Masahiro Araki (荒木正比呂), along with supporting musicians. Araki is a track maker for commercial films, and a producer who remixes music of other artists.
His approach is characterized by almost magical or religious loop sounds, as in, for example, his remix for the female trio CRUNCH. Yusuke Ikeda, on the other hand, is a singer-songwriter who studied at the University of Georgia in United States, and loves American traditional folk.
When Yusuke returned to Japan, he joined various musical projects, and finally met with Araki to form tigerMos. Together they create an exciting collision: quiet folk rock and passionate electronica. It is not a fusion but a collision. Yes. It’s a Japanese take on folktronica.
We also asked Yusuke about his musical endeavours and this is what he told us.
About “HolyRover”:
“This song is about human race.
This species know that we are close to the end.
This song is the question for ourselves how we gonna survive at this twilight”.
About his album:
“The album is founded upon our base sound, which is composed of Araki’s electronical taste, and my folky taste. We believe that all tunes on this album have a fresh, ‘Japanesy’ balance. Also, we believe that these songs had to be made for our generation, and for the next generation to come”.
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