Shugo Tokumaru - Port Entropy

P-Vine Records - LP
Japan, 2010
Electronic / IDM / Ambient

Cute summery indie pop from Japan. Playful, Hosono-esque music. What I imagine Summer holidays feel like for Japanese schoolkids.

Shugo Tokumaru releases music that belongs to the big corpus of Japanese sunshine pop crafted by Beach Boy-obsessed arrangers. On Port Entropy, he endorses a rather maximalist approach to his gentle and naive sound, but in my opinion, he is at his best on quieter and more bittersweet songs like Linne, Suisha or Orange, a song in which toy sounds and music boxes morph into what sounds like cries of fear, suddenly departing from the apparent kawai-ness of the record.

Tracklist

1. Platform
2. Tracking Elevator
3. Linne
4. Lahaha
5. Rum Hee
6. Laminate
7. River Low
8. Straw
9. Drive-Thru
10. Suisha
11. Orange
12. Malerina