With Latin rhythms, breakbeat or acid house tracks, Tomoyuki Natsume’s solo project Summer Eye expresses something strange in our ordinary life.
One and a half year after the band Siamese Cats broke up in June 2020, vocalist Natsume (“Summer Eye” in English) shared his solo debut single “Jinsei” (人生, or “Life”, which he described as “bossa nova meets acid house”.
Next year, on the second single “Kyukon” (求婚), or “Propose”, with reggaeton rhythms, he sang about people who are facing problems in their marriage.
Finally this month, he released his first full-length album named “Daikichi” (大吉), which means “Excellent Luck”).
As the title suggests, this album is full of happy feelings. We could enjoy it as if we were on summer vacations in some southern islands while listning Summer Eye’s fake Latin music.
But on the other hand, breakbeats or acid house tracks might indicate some moments when we failed to communicate with partner or someone important for us.
For example, on the song “Sugoroku” (双六, or “Dice Game”, he sings: “Listen seriously. Why are you laughing?” (Nande Waratteruno?)
Maybe he heard this line once from his girlfriend? He might have laughed to give an intimate signal for her, but she mistook that he is teasing her? Such slight differences in our communication gradually accumlate, and finally might lead to unforeseen catastrophe.
These thoughts might be my delusion, at least I might think too much. But his songs have some kind of emotional tensions as well as happy feelings in our city life, so I think his music could be the latest form of Japanese “city pop” or global standard J-pop.
Stream “大吉 Daikichi” LP on Spotify.
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