Creating music meant to purposely evoke the past can be tricky. Recreate the sounds of a specific decade too closely and the music becomes too nostalgic, pining for a time the artist never even knew existed. On the other hand, approach bygone times too cynically ¡ª as the Internet-born microgenre ¡°vaporwave¡± does by perverting old commercials and corporate sounds ¡ª and it starts to sound like a joke. Tokyo¡¯s Shortcake Collage Tape, the solo project of Azusa Suga (who also fronts indie-pop trio For Tracy Hyde,) takes an alternate route on the new album ¡°Spirited Summer.¡± Suga splices samples from various time periods to create original songs that radiate warmth and good times but also conceal a melancholy for lost moments.
Suga¡¯s approach to ¡°Spirited Summer¡± sounds divisive on paper ¡ª this is sample-powered music made on a modern computer but filtered to sound like it was recorded on analog tape. It¡¯s far from authentic, but the faded approach works wonders here. The woozy electronics and bell chimes of ¡°Summer School¡± become blurrier and better, while Suga¡¯s two seaside-themed songs (¡°Empire Beach¡± and ¡°Painted Ocean¡°) gain additional feeling from the aged-cassette vibe.
The fading effect also equalizes the samples present on ¡°Spirited Summer.¡± First track ¡°Good Mourning¡± builds itself around the opening notes to French composer Erik Satie¡¯s 1888 ¡°Gymnopedies No. 1,¡± yet the analog sound insures it sounds the same as the various snippets of dialogue lifted from ¡®90s anime dotting the rest of the album. Or, on album highlight ¡°Waiting in the Afterlife,¡± how Suga lifts the vocals from Yanagi Nagi¡¯s 2012 single ¡°Vidro Moyou¡± and transforms them into an angelic choir. It¡¯s an album about the past, but not a specific decade. Rather, it sounds more personal: Suga taking sounds important to him and creating his own art from them. ¡°Ideal for midsummer chillouts,¡± Suga writes on the album¡¯s Bandcamp page, but really it¡¯s the perfect album for feeling wistful about the past during a heatwave.
Get ¡°Spirited Summer¡± at .
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.