posted Dec 18, 2008, 11:08 AM by Vu Nguyen
From Tell All Your Friends 
Asobi Seksu
Perform On "Bandstand Busking" In The Streets Of
London
Bringing Harmony To The Holiday Season With Three Exclusive
Performances
Featuring “Walk On The
Moon”, “Gliss” &
“Merry Christmas- I Don’t Want To Fight
Tonight” (Ramones Cover)
Third LP
“Hush” Out February 17th On Polyvinyl
Records
Click Here To View “Bandstand
Busking”
Pitchfork
Media Premieres “Me & Mary”
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/146330-premiere-asobi-seksu-me-mary-stream
While Asobi
Seksu's creative core explored music at an early age (lead
vocalist/keyboardist Yuki Chikudate got standing ovations at child prodigy
recitals when she was just 8; guitarist/vocalist James Hanna bounced
between sludgy hardcore and Mogwai-schooled post-rock in his teens), their
potential 'career' wasn't put into perspective until a stint at the
Manhattan School of Music. And by put into perspective, we mean finding out
what they didn't want to do.
"It was good to have
something musical to do all day, since most of my bands were like, 'Yeah,
maybe we'll practice on Saturday or something,'" explains Hanna. "Playing
someone else's music all the time seemed robotic after a while, though."
"It was a miracle I graduated at all," adds Yuki. "I love
playing the piano, but three hours of it—breaking it down, measure by
measure, note by note—makes my mind go numb."
Soon
after escaping the joyless world of sheet music and classical composition,
Hanna began tackling dreamy-but-disorienting soundscapes for the first
time. He quickly shifted his focus from singing to starry-eyed chords,
however, with Yuki falling into the frontwoman position without missing a
beat. The problem was trying to be an actual band, as in a fully
functioning quartet that tours and records together. Asobi Seksu 1.0 lasted
between 2004's self-titled, learn-as-we-go-along debut and the spring of
2005. Hanna and Chikudate gave it a go with another bassist and drummer for
their critically-acclaimed breakthrough, 2006's Citrus LP, but it didn't
take long to realize that lineup was doomed as well.
Which leads us to the frustration that fueled the making of Hush, the
group's third LP and Polyvinyl debut. As Hanna admits, Asobi
Seksu "was starting to get somewhere" post-Citrus, but they couldn't
ride a cresting wave of hype after a debilitating cycle of touring and
personnel changes.
"Hush was written
while we felt destroyed," explains Hanna, quite simply. Which is funny,
because the entire record has a phoenix rising vibe to it—a clear
sense of shimmering, dew-draped riffs and spiral staircase melodies that
are occasionally blurred by bits of guitar violence and sputtering drums
(see the firework finale climax of "Me & Mary" and the liftoff portions
of "Sing Tomorrows Praise" and "Glacially").
"We knew we didn't want to do 7,000 reverb guitars this time," says
Hanna, "So we stripped the sound down and built it back up from there."
Another thing Asobi Seksu's avoided is
sheer shoegaze-pop revivalism. While they listen to a lot of into-the-ether
music—hence their tickets to both of My Bloody Valentine's reunion
gigs—Hanna and Chikudate are too obsessed with the expansive
possibilities of sound to explore one well-treaded path.
"Every shoegaze song is the same rhythmically," says Hanna, explaining
that he'd be terribly bored if he followed that template.
"Their parts don't propel into other parts," adds Chikudate. "Us, we
meander a little more, so it's not just one big wall of noise."
Wall of noise? "Layers," for one, is downright gorgeous,
suggesting an afternoon spent in a gently-shaken snow globe. And then there
are the clusters of ambient Eno effects that close Hush's Technicolor
curtain. That's what happens when you learn how to use space and dynamics
to your advantage, skirting what some might refer to as "Kevin Shields
syndrome."
"I've realized that while something might sound
awesome in my head," explains Hanna, "Adding 50 layers to it might make it
sound like shit because you lose a lot of the details. Some parts have only
one guitar this time.
He pauses and adds with a smile,
"We agonized over that guitar, though."
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Tracklisting
1. Layers
2. Familiar
Light
3. Sing Tomorrow's Praise
4. Gliss
5. Transparence
6. Risky and Pretty
7. In The Sky
8. Meh No Mae
9.
Glacially
10. I Can't See
11. Me & Mary
12. Blind Little
Rain |
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