Gellers - Gellers (2007)

Maybe you've heard of Shugo Tokumaru. His unique, cutesy folk sound with atypical instruments and various toy sounds has been gaining attention since his debut in 2004, but most notably capturing listeners with 2007's Exit and more recently with his fantastic album from the present year, Port Entropy. Here, he performs with four others, including drummer Shingo Shinmachi, who creates a unique noise-pop sound under the moniker of Chanson Sigeru to make a very interesting sound, blending various style into a delicious pop/rock brew.

The album seems to be a bit split, however. The first two songs are these abrasive, thick sounds with only a slight resemblance of Shugo's folk leanings. Noise pop, shoegaze, math rock, folk rock, etc. etc. etc.; it's tough to get a perfect grasp when relegating to common music "genre"s. 9 Teeth Picahia starts us with these nice calm melodies, even with the distortion, with soothing male vocals floating above it, and then slams the drums and increases the feedback, keying to the vocalist that he should probably shout to be heard. He obliges. And it continues to flow between the two in the 7minute track, occasionally throwing some samples just to make sure we aren't settling into the sound. The next track, Buscape, starts with an oddly timed riff, a cowbell, and shouting far off into the distance before fading off only to come back to a much more dense form of the beginning riff, supported this time by drums and a synth composition with a sound somewhere between a car horn and the broken accordion. Intensity builds up and falls off until finally leading us into a cacophony of sound, stopping to reprise and then leading into the next.

And it's at this point that it seems that Shugo takes command. The album because much softer, those charming melodies that were there before become even more charming, but also a bit clearer (not necessarily cleaner, however) and I believe Shugo also handles more of the vocal work (not cited) . It really ends up becoming very reminiscent of 60's pop bands. A little Beach Boys here, a little The Zombies there, and then taking that sound on a tour through modern Tokyo.

Buy (this is about the only place I can find it, sorry)

Download

Official site (this is one of the coolest band pages I've seen in a long time. I can't really get past the language barrier, unfortunately)

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