Label: Incidental Music – INC004, conatala – conatala-001 Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album Country: Japan Released: 15 May 2020 Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop Style: Experimental, Minimal, Ambient, Post-Punk
Bombs Away!Partnering up with Portland’s Incidental Music, the promising new Conatala label from Tokyo’s Pianola Records gets off the mark with a painstaking reissue of the long-lost cassette only debut release ‘Mayu’ from Pale Cocoon.Incubated through a batch of early flexi / pictures discs via the obscure Pafe imprint in the early 80s, PC’s sound occupies that uniquely Japanese sweet-spot between the fields of avant-garde DIY, minimalism and post-punk akin to increasingly fetishised Vanity Records, or lesser known DD. and Pinakotheca labels.But despite the obvious obscurity, there’s something more approachable about ‘Mayu’, grounded in shimmering, skeletal guitar noise, childlike melodies and toy-box rhythms.The vocals remain distant and fully out of reach, whilst the mood threatens to shift from playful and upbeat to oppressively eerie in the most subtle shifts in melody or phrase.There’s obvious comparisons to Woo in the innocent stay-at-home folk / mighty max song construction, as well as the snowflake fragility found Vini Reilly’s guitar sketches (who interestingly shared a stage with Pale Cocoon in an early Japanese tour), yet ultimately it’s a work that truly stands out on it’s own island as a snapshot in a time, place and aesthetic.Beautifully presented 2LP manufactured by Pallas, restored and remastered by Makoto Oshiro.First in a batch of seriously exciting stuff incoming from this new Tokyo outpost!(NM).
