| Tokyo’s 4 bonjour’s parties is just starting to make a splash in the United States with their first LP release on Mush Records, so not much is known about the septet. But it doesn’t take an all-encompassing biography to know the group’s unique use of laptop electronics, wind instruments, classical elements, and studio production have made Pigments Drift Down to the Brook an album that should be making the world of pop music take notice. For the most part, guitar, vocals, bass, drums, and synths hold the songs together, but Pigments isn’t a bland pop album gaining its beauty from syrupy horn and string arrangements added by an eccentric studio producer. Most of the band’s members are multi-instrumentalists, so the band seems to come out armed with every instrument they could get their hands on: kalimba, theremin, accordion, cello, pianica, vibraphone, glockenspiel, and more. 4 Bonjour’s Parties takes an orchestral approach to the pop game with crescendos, heavy horn arrangements, and well-developed songs with lengths spanning up to nine minutes. The band makes full use of their seven members with a full sound that doesn't come off as too busy or overwhelming. Tracks like “Satellite,” “Magpie Will Peck a Hole in My Plaster Cast,” and “Otogima Horse” are where the group reaches some real zeniths when it comes to song structure and wind melodies. Tomomi Shikano shows her prowess as a flute player on these songs especially. “Ruins” and “Your Chill Long Hands” show the group is great at delivering some straight guitar-led songwriting as well. Despite the use of a theremin, “Crimson Sky After the Sunset” has a tinge of country balladry to it, and “Il Cortile Grigio” is just a solo or two away from a somber jazz number. Each song is really like a trip, and the band always brings everything they need and nothing they don’t. - Last.fm |
