Artist : Tenniscoats
Title : Tokinouta
Genre : Folk
Year : 2011
Date : 10/2011
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 15
Label : Majikick
Source : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.98.4
Length : 65:04 min
Size : 87,5 MB
Tracklist:
----------
01.Temporacha 03:37
02.Amepara 03:08
03.Oide No Umi 06:02
04.Doun Doun Doun 03:24
05.Sabaku 04:52
06.Kuki No Soko 05:34
07.Mori Wo Nukeru Mori No Umi Ga 02:48
08.SvS 02:31
09.SvS 2 02:58
10.Tamashi 04:26
11.Hikoki 08:02
12.Sappolondon 04:20
13.Ento 2 05:27
14.Kazana 02:53
15.Ento 05:02
-------
65:04 min
Between 2007-2009, Tokyo-based duo
Tenniscoats worked at a frantic pace.
Pumping out no less than five full
albums, as well as a handful of solo
projects under different names, anyone
would think their lives depended on it.
In truth, they probably did. Tenniscoats
û Takashi and Saya û wouldn't be
Tenniscoats if they weren't living and
breathing their 'DIY music' (Saya's
words, not ours) from morning to night.
Spend any time with either of them and
you realise the life of a Tenniscoat
requires the ability to spin multiple
plates, maintaining the constant
creative energy that their ongoing
projects demand. The key ingredient,
according to Takashi, is coffee.
They've obviously been brewing a fresh
pot in recent months, as they return
this week with Tokinouta, a 15-track
collection with two important
distinctions: this is the first
Tenniscoats album since We Are Everyone
(2005) not to have been part of a
collaboration, and it was recorded live
in front of an audience of four
microphones, with no overdubs, and only
one session musician (the sound
engineer, who occasionally contributes
backing vocals). The sparsity makes for
a delicious aural experience - warm,
enveloping, unfettered - while the lack
of outside input has resulted in an
introspective album, darker than
anything you might have thought
Tenniscoats capable of.
In the past, followers of the band have
been attracted to their inability to
play things straight. Even their best
known song, the delicate, folky 'Baibaba
Bimba' (from Tan-Tan Therapy), comes
with a percussion track made up of heavy
breathing. On the rare occasions that
they incorporate a more traditional
'rock' approach (take, for example,
'Sodane', from 2009's Two Sunsets), it's
always undermined by a childlike
tweeness that warns listeners away from
taking things too seriously.
None of this can be said about
Tokinouta. It's an album full of melodic
adventure, though the melodies seem
poignant, aching with loneliness.
Lyrically, the usually breathless Saya
seems more measured. It's an album of
ending summers, nights falling,
footprints receding. 'I was saving the
best for last,' she sings on
'Sappolondon'; 'I turned away and it was
no longer there.'
Could this be the album where
Tenniscoats lose their enduring
innocence? 'Tamashi', a song pitched so
high that the eternally youthful singer
has to strain above her range, sounds
like the work of a songwriter in pain,
as she describes being given permission
to 'grow up' by an internal spirit.
Lyrically, it's a song of vague thanks;
musically, it's anything but.
For fans, these songs may be
surprisingly yearning, but they are no
less rewarding for it, and from time to
time the familiar playfulness breaks
through. 'Doun Doun Doun' is the kind of
quirky instrumental that made Tan-Tan
Therapy a real eye-opener, though the
doubt is there in Takashi's diminished
chords, and the uncertainty played out
in Saya's stumbling, uncorrected notes.
Suffice to say, this thoughtful,
considered album feels like largely
unchartered waters for the duo, and it's
well worth an exploration. A mature
album in many ways, our only concern
must be for their personal happiness.
http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/3
014/Tenniscoats-Tokinouta