especia: GUSTO

http://www.cdjournal.com/image/jacket/big/Z324006765.jpg

from the j-pop thread! i love this album. j-pop group that very specifically reanimates '80s boogie, freestyle, a variety of other genres in the same vein that i can't unscramble. nothing but lush, iridescent textures. making this not especially dissimilar from a lot of the records i've been enjoying this year. i thought at a point that the limitations of their voices would wear, but as in the case of a lot of freestyle singers, their revolutions around one or two notes allow them to thread seamlessly into the rhythms, investing the songs with very specific tensions, like hearing a precise curve of desire.

video aesthetic also very molten vhs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfjFKL2fbz4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e089x6ba1Zo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQz4GIOB8gg

Wow! A lot to take in here--this is great.

^^^^^^^^^^^

kinda listening to this daily. poolside shimmer on this record even attaches nicely to summer downpours

I didn't know this album had its own thread, it's been the sunbathing album of the summer for sure. Also didn't know Sawa wrote Midnight Confusion (above).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLsQnV7jg8I

this album is still fantastic, but I don't think anything since then has been quite as good which is a shame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-LrKfc_Z8

i'm glad monari is still at it. i hadn't realised she had a new album out so i'm checking it out now

yeah monari's AHEAD! is a super solid city pop/sophisti-pop album, glad to have it to fill the void that Especia's disbandment has left even if it doesn't come close to the heights of GUSTO

better than her album last year too i think