Shugo Tokumaru:Port Entropy

Tags: Almost Gold Recordings, japan, Japanese, Port Entropy, Shugo Tokumaru

7.9/10 dropps
Record Label: Almost Gold Recordings

I’m certain that if Sufjan Stevens and Jonsi Birgisson (Sigur Ros) had a Japanese lovechild it would undoubtedly be Shugo Tokumaru. Tokumaru is a 31-year-old Japanese multi-intsrumentalist that is, for a lack of better words, quite brilliant. To not notice the Western influences in Tokumaru’s work would be to turn a blind eye to the world of music. Port Entropy abounds with sounds and instrumentation that swim throughout the indie music vein.

Album opener “Platform” contains a frolicking banjo line that is soon met with a family of instrumentation to lead into the early era Rogue Wave-meets-early era Badly Drawn Boy song “Tracking Elevator.” To try and pick out and articulate individual instruments would be nearly impossible as Shogu attempts to use as many diverse instruments per track as possible. He creates his music through lucid dreaming: keeping a dream diary and tracking each dream, Shogu attempts to recreate in his music the feeling and expansiveness of those vivid dreams through the use of multi-instrumentation layering, with so many unique sounds and emotions to one song you can’t help but feel you are experiencing one with him.

Not only does Shogu play each of the instruments he also mixes, records, and produces all of his own music. While it is all sung in his native tongue of Japanese, the language rift does not hinder the listening experience. One thing that is beautiful about music is it has no bounds; its ability to cross cultures and oceans is something unique to its art form. You do not need to understand what Shogu Tokumaru is directly verbalizing throughout Port Entropy. Opening your ears, listening, and feeling the sounds are adequate enough to capture the moods and emotions behind each song.

Tracks like “Lahaha” are whimsical and have a lighthearted sense of play to them, bouncing, glowing, and glistening in bright sunlight. “Rum Hee,” which sounds like it could of been easily and comfortable squeezed into Jonsi Birgisson’s solo debut Go, is one of the stand-out tracks that you can’t listen to and not help but feel full of radiance and glee. The composition of Port Entropy is simply beautiful. Cadences are where they belong. Harmonic rhythm and melodic progressions lift the songs mightily above their shoulders. There is a sense of sophistication in Port Entropy that is rarely found in music nowadays and with each more of the album’s delightful beauties and gems will be revealed through its unexpected twists and turns, like a dream you had at night that you continue to remember and piece together as the next day unfolds.

-PMP

Fri Mar 11

DROPPS

LOCALDROPPS

ARTICLES / INTERVIEWS

NEWS

EVENTS

Shugo Tokumaru:Port Entropy

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The Dropp is: