Label: ETORANZE (via nagoya) – ERZ-001 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Country: Japan Released: 20 Sept 2015 Genre: Electronic, Rock, Non-Music, Folk, World, & Country Style: Ambient, Abstract, J-Rock, Sound Art
Impossibly sentimental home-recording gem of softer-than-soft rock and dewy-eyed piano pieces self-released by Nagoya-based artist Yodo.
There’s no better feeling than finding a new record you know is going to stick with you forever. Sometimes when you’ve spent what feels like a lifetime digging / searching and listening to music in a certain world a niggling feeling creeps in, with the enormous power of the collective internet, surely all the truly good stuff has been turned up now. Well turns out it hasn’t and Yodo is one of those records you really have to pitch yourself on first listen to confirm that it really exists. Released in 2015 to local praise, mild attention domestically and seemingly none outside their home country, Memories is that kind of album you want to burrow yourself away with and shut out the outside world. It has the feeling of really letting you in, from the diaristic domestic clatter and nostalgic organ that opens the record, gradually giving way to an almost unbearably sweet private ballad laced with tinkering piano notes and warbling organ vibrato that’ll really get the bottom lip wobbling.
Our good friend and breakfast radio host Jack Rollo recently touched upon just the tip of the iceberg of the seemingly infinite Japanese indie scene on an amazing show called Further Songs For Nao (findable on NTS), condensing many highlights and offering a perfect introduction to this world that continues to offer so much. Yodo fits in perfectly, containing much of the same homey and endearing DNA found in the likes of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, the Natsu No Zenbu LP we released from Aki & Ippei and the soppier moments the ORG records catalogue (Nagisa Nite, Hallelujahs, Zushi ++).
Looking at the cover and pictures on the back, Yodo shares a blurred sketch of a family gathered around an everyday dining table, alongside a generic rural house, pictures of friends at karaoke and simple home recording. It’s a fitting accompaniment for what feels like one of the most sincere and personal records we’ve ever come across. (Mint / New - with booklet)
