Port Of Notes - Evening Glow

Crue-L Records - LP
Japan, 2004
Indie / Pop / Balearic 

Mid 2000’s Japanese Indie pop on Crue-L Recordings with some amazing tracks that have that distinctive breezy Crue-L sound (Kahimi Karie, Tomoki Kanda, etc.). Sound of late summer. Not on Discogs.

The kind of records I would have totally ignored on my first digging trip to Japan (almost 10 years ago now); everything  from the 21st Century was of barely no interest to me then. What a fool… I now know that it was a booming time for all kind of indie pop productions, emancipated from big labels. Crue-L is a relatively "big" tiny indie label, that offered a distinctive lush and warm Shibuya kei sound, championed within the label by Kahimi Karie and often crafted by in-house producer genius Tomoki Kanda.

Port of Notes was a much less commercially succesful band within the Crue-L stable, but they still had access to the same studio and equipments than the household names. A tune like Woodnotes is a pure studio jam that ended on a record as a nice balearic instrumental. The rest is bittersweet light and breezy Japanese pop led by the suave voice of Miyuki Hatakeyama. Most songs have that "end of summer" feel: some relies on minimal guitar & voice arrangements (the stunning 森は出かける), others make use of the signature drum machine and warm synths from Crue-L studio, like the opening track Walk Through Happiness. Reminds me of evening bike rides in Tokyo in late August... Please, take me back. (NM / VG+)

Tracklist

1. Walk Through Happiness (Short)
2. それぞれの海の色
3. Dead Angel
4. Trace of Dream (Album Mix)
5. Woodnote
6. Sunshine In The Rain (feat Yumi Matsutoya)
7. わたしのいちばん好きな色
8. まなざし
9. 森は出かける
10. Talk to Me, Baby