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Shugo Tokumaru was born in Tokyo in 1980. His debut album, Night Piece (released on New-York based Music Related) was recorded over a period of two weeks. A singular miniature of bizarre folk pop, this first record, which was elaborated as an experiment, assembling ukulele, guitar, musical saw and a whole range of unexpected effects, immediately made his reputation as a major miracle, by all those who, in the world, spontaneously began to champion him (especially Pitchfork, which fell in love with the record and grated him with an exceptional 8.6 mark). What better way to begin one’s career but with an accidental masterpiece? His first concert, for a Map Magazine evening, was done on the later’s request, and with similar accidental purpose – which didn’t prevent Shugo's brilliant constructions of loops, delay and toy instruments, to provoke nothing but awe and admiration. So what: a Tokyoite folk singer singing in Japanese, and who manages to convince everybody with a simple thirty minute affair? This was just the beginning.
L.S.T., its follower, renews the miracle, with the further will to accomplish a real album as additional baggage. Guitar sorcerer, discreet virtuoso, mutant songwriter who seems to experiment like he breathes, nothing was missing but Shugo's will to convince all and blow your mind. This second album thus shares with its predecessor the love for intimate atmospheres, elegant melodies, chamber music-like harmonies. But, more self-confident, it is also less discreet, rougher, less blithe and happy-go-lucky. A dazzling explosion of inventiveness, swarming with details as subdued as they are conclusive, L.S.T. is dense like a masterpiece, mixing a few decades of pop music and crazy folk music, but never compels, never obliges the listener, a bit in the way his Tokumaru’s voice itself goes it's way, soft and discreet too, almost feminine, always buried yet never hidden in the bodies of guitars, or in the way of his songs, weirdly blurry, yet the melodies of which print in your mind and never go away.
Released in Japan on the Compare Notes label, and thus really hard to find elsewhere, L.S.T is now available through Lil' Chief Records.
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