First off, a big ole thank you to "S" for letting me in on B'Rhythms.
I don't remember how I ran across Shugo Tokumaru, but he's one of those artists whose genre listings were enough introduction for me before I went ahead and got his most recent album, Port Entropy (2010). (I have a really bad habit of downloading entire albums from bands I've never heard of before without having heard any of their music; I just trust the reviews or blurbs or, in this case, genre listings. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.) Myspace Music page classifies Tokumaru as "Alternative/Pop/Experimental," while Wikipedia lumps him into "Indie folk, Indie pop," and the less-expected "Psych pop" (?).
After listening through Port Entropy, I realized that Shugo Tokumaru's music doesn't really fall into any one category. Definitely poppy, indie, folk in a more Eastern sense—but there's something more to it, with its happy-go-lucky feel, sweet and slightly washed-out vocals, and extensive range of instrumentation (don't quote me, but I swear I heard a theremin in there somewhere). I want to call it glo-fi—it has that same laid-back, slightly nostalgic, almost imperceptibly melancholy feel—but Shugo Tokumaru's on a label and I'm pretty sure he records in a studio, so he's not really lo-fi.
Give 'em a listen—really great for those lazy summer mornings.
"Parachute" by Shugo Tokumaru from EXIT (2007)
"Rum Hee" by Shugo Tokumaru from Port Entropy (2010)
-A
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