Topshelf US 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Subsonic Eye are enthralled by nature. On their 2021 album, Nature of Things, the Singaporean five-piece explored the tolls of human indulgence through raw tonality and zippy jangle pop, poignantly celebrating the spirits of a natural world fast disappearing. But on their fourth full-length All Around You, Subsonic Eye expand this relationship to nature with a renewed appreciation for its coexistence with urban cities. The hectic character of urban life refracts through snappy, invigorating hooks, prisms of entrancing tone layered with singer Nur Wahidah's restless, velvety lilt. All Around You's lead track 'Yearning' unravels the band's religious dedication to the idea that nature is all around us, that we are whole with it. Sung over a nimble guitar melody and tension-building rhythm, 'dunk my head into waters/wake me up fully new now' arrives in direct reference to Wahidah's newfound perspective that we over indulgent humans can still find a harmonious balance with nature. The ten songs that comprise All Around You also comprise a space to sit with the complex feelings inspired by this intense world we inhabit. Rather than succumb to doom, Subsonic Eye relish the opportunity to meditate on these uncomfortable emotions to find their way to the ultimate realisation that beauty is all around us.

Review: Anyone familiar with Tokyo, Japan's predominantly instrumental math-rock prodigies Toe, should already be clued into the fact that the member's prolific nature prevents them from resting on their creative laurels for long, with each full-length they drop bookended by an EP. 2005's debut LP The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety was followed by the 2006 EP New Sentimentality, while after 2009's outstanding For Long Tomorrow came The Future Is Now in 2012. At the time of writing, 2018's aptly titled Our Latest Number currently sits as the group's most recent EP; sandwiched in between 2015's sonically transformative Hear You and 2021's latest output DOKU-EN-KAI. Furthering the experimentation of its preceding full-length, the EP strays from their signature twinkling, mathy noodles and emotive shoegazing, and instead embraces elements of minimalism and trip-hop, whilst expanding their acoustic-driven nu-jazz flourishes, and even sprinkling some ethereal vocals into the mix.

Review: Japanese math/post-rock outfit Toe have become renowned for their virtuosic blend of jazzy, hyper-technical math-rock blended with emo shoegazing and tropical Balearic vibes. Originally released in 2006 as follow up to the band's 2005 debut full-length The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety, and beginning their trend of intersplicing each album cycle with an EP, New Sentimentality offers up four lengthy cuts running the sonic gamut of almost every water they wade within. Trading off noodling twinkles with acoustic pluckings, while abrasive jazz drum-fills clatter over the weaving gentle cacophonies, this is what happens when the emo kids become the new prog nerds.

Review: Tokyo-based post/math-rock noodlers Toe have a habit of cleansing the palette of each subsequent full-length they release with a follow up EP. Just like 2005's debut album The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety was followed up with 2006's New Sentimentality EP, the group would return three years on from their stellar 2009 sophomore effort For Long Tomorrow with 2012's The Future Is Now. From the twinkling emo-inflected shoegazing noodles of 'Run For Word' to the more acoustic-driven psych-jazz of 'Ordinary Days', the four cuts purposefully meander and fuse differing elements from the band's arsenal whilst somehow increasing the dense technicality to absurd, near impenetrable levels.

Review: Japanese math rock band Tricot hailed from Kyoto and formed back in 2010. The trio featured vocalist and guitarist Ikumi "Ikkyu" Nakajima, guitarist Motoko "Motifour" Kida, and bassist Hiromi "Hirohiro" Sagane and they soon became synonymous with intricately constructed rhythms. They are prolific, too, having put out seven albums so far and A N D is their second from March 2015. It came on their own label Bakuretsu Records and now gets reissued on black and pink vinyl. Its meticulously and tightly woven grooves still stand up almost a decade on.

Review: Kyoto four-piece Tricot deliver an extremely pleasing album in the form of T H E, their debut studio album and an incendiary, wayward project in the realm of sugary math rock via pop. The band have remained hard at this formula for years, but it's T H E that really cements their sound, thanks to time ensuring the polishing of its constituent parts - be it the breathy, knife-edge vocals of singer Ikkyu Nakajima; stop-start counterpoints, rhythms and harmonies; and themes of struggle relating to instant gratification, projection and the creative process.