Asobi Seksu // Layers EP // 07.12.09 // One Little Indian
Now here’s a surprise. I’ve got one of Asobi Seksu’s albums and it doesn’t sound a lot like this. Basically their Japanese name means ‘playful sex’ and they hail from New York, play shoe-gazey / indie music and just finished a UK tour. Their self-titled debut doesn’t sound like this at all……..and I’m rather glad it doesn’t.
Asobi have a new album out as well as this pretty sound 4-track download package. It’s called ‘Acoustic At Olympic Studios’ but you will have to read that review elsewhere. To these ears, and comparing this to that messy debut, this EP is also reasonably acoustic and very well thought-out.
The opening song, ‘Layers’, has been lifted from their recent ‘Hush’ album and is a rather appealing wander through the meadows of Robin Guthrie’s estate and Cocteau Twins’ garden, replete with cooing and trilling courtesy of vocalist Yuki Chikudate. It’s like 1986 all over again. And your problem is?……
The rest of the EP is more of the same with our heroine veering rather close to Liz Fraser territory, especially on the anthemic epic, ‘Miniature Cities’, a song that also has more than a passing resemblance to Lush. Proof then that Asobi Seksu should be on 4AD records rather than One Little Indian. Anyway, it’s rather good and has served its purpose – I now want to hear more from this sparkly duo.
7 /10
By Paul Pledger
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