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By Sarah Liss -But the set that really blew my mind came courtesy of NYC crew Asobi Seksu, whose gleaming girl-group-meets-shoegazer mashup was a revelation. Frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, clad in a smokin' Mary Quant-style minidress and white fuck-me go-go boots, channelled a whispery Ronnie Spector while coquettishly mugging behind her keyboard. But every time one of their tunes veered too far into cutesy pop territory, the band unleashed ear-blistering walls of distortion-heavy guitars. I was hooked from the first note.
We already know what happens when you cross Kevin Shields with Japan—a couple of going-through-the-motions tracks for the Coppolatastic Lost In Translation, which I believe was a film about the magnificent adventures of a twelve foot high arse. Or something like that. Oh yes, and cultural alienation. But what if Kevin Shields was a woman, spoke Japanese, and actually still released records? Well my friends, what truly magical times we would be living in then.
It’s not quite that simple, obviously. But anyone using delay pedals, shared male/female vocal parts and ...well...noisy bits (towering walls of sound, sonic audioscapes, waves of texture—whatever) is going to set off the My Bloody Valentine alarm in that journalistic part of the brain which deals with handy comparison. It’s just left of the part which deals with being a morally-impaired scumbag, and it works like the batphone. Feature of music attributable to someone else at the pinnacle of a pre-existing genre? Woop woop woop!
Asobi Seksu, happily, have less conventional aspects which enable them to stand out from the soupy mass of disenfranchised kids eyeing up those sexy Boss effects. Yuki Chikudate’s bilingualism shines brightly through the creme de gaze, with a number of her measured performances being delivered in Japanese. As well as this being excellent news for the gormless types who hang around the internet obsessively debating just how unbelievably kawaii everything is, it also provides an intriguing contrast to the English deliveries. Whilst those lay open the lovelorn scars of romance in plain view, the tracks presented in an unfamiliar tongue retain an added element of mystery. You can take the hint with bouncy opener "I’m Happy But You Don’t Like Me", but the semi-chanted "Asobi Masho" is rather more enigmatic. This guessing game, and even the simple charm of a different set of phonetics for a change, keeps the interest levels perky.
Occasional injections of pop magic also provide some pleasant surprises. "Umi De No Jisatsu" rushes out of its waspishly distorted beginning with infectious purpose and a mischievous agenda to get you bobbing around like some form of imbecile. Likewise the chirpy ‘doo doo de-doo doo’ ending emerging from "Taiyo." And when Asobi Seksu knuckle down to produce a classic piece of light/dark, quiet/loud, on/off shoegazing—it all comes together perfectly. "It’s Too Late" may never lay claim to the crown of originality in the land of spontaneous innovation (that’s a republic now anyway), but this plaintive lament, pierced only by the briefest of fretted wails before slowly igniting into a full-blown blazing electronic squall, is beautifully worked. In much the same way, although I’m sure they’d be desperate to avoid it, the band are inevitably left open to the aforementioned comparisons with similar artists—many of whom cast extremely lengthy shadows. The trick is not to worry—innovation is important, but it need not overwhelm. Asobi Seksu is comfortable enough to slip casually into the senses, yet fresh enough to warrant praise. Nothing lost in translation there.
- Peter Parrish
Female singers from Kylie Minogue to Deerhoof’s Satumi Matsuzaki have succumbed to the notion that the thinner the vocals, the better. Yuki Chikudate, who fronts the NYC band Asobi Seksu, would disagree. She has the type of voice that can bounce the needles on a soundboard if she needs it to, as on the brash "Umi De No Jisatsu." Even when she’s cooing on the wistful, heartbroken ballad "It’s Too Late," she doesn’t leave anything in the tank. It’s that voice and her urgent delivery that set this up-and-coming band apart from the other neo-new-wave, shoegazer-inspired bands that have begun to clutter the underground landscape.
This is a band who have found the right influences but are still building an identity: "Sooner" is a swirling guitar blast straight out of the My Bloody Valentine’s school of post–Sonic Youth rock, right down to the flanger effects; "Let Them Wait" careers closer to Thurston Moore’s favorite noise haunts; and "Taiyo" is a quality Stereolab cop. The band do get points for reaching back to both sides of the Atlantic for inspiration, and Chikudate’s charisma is undeniable on this promising debut.
- Ryan Stewart
There have been so many indie/alt bands from New York getting big breaks and big press over the past few years that you might not think that scene could harbor any more hidden gems. But you'd be wrong, and the eponymous debut from NYC quartet Asobi Seksu proves it. Start with guitars that sometimes swirl hypnotically and sometimes hammer and shimmy like mutated surf-rock and sometimes jangle and buzz like the best '90s college-radio show you ever heard. Add in some understated dance-worthy beats, and top it off with lead-singer Yuki's impossibly pretty vocals. The lyrics are in both Japanese and English, but sometimes the songs with English titles have Japanese lyrics and that confusion only adds to the dreamy mood. If you're a fan of My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, or Stereolab, then this band is for you.
- Chris Davis
In Asobi Seksu's press release, it says that the New York band’s name means "playful sex" in Japanese. And while sometimes sex may feel playful and casual, there's always something meaningful and more significant brewing just below the surface. as much as it is denied, it's always something more substantial. Sex is never just sex. And like that titular activity, Asobi Seksu's debut album functions in a very similar fashion. Upon first listen it seems to be just what it is- a rock album- but simultaneously hard to understand (half of the lyrics are in Japanese). Moreover the beginning "I'm Happy but You Don't Like Me," a jangle pop song, provides you with a false sense of comfort. But as the record progresses, it assumes a darker tone, a metropolitan-like shadow looming in the back alleys of dimly lit streets. With the alternating vocals of Yuki, the sultry-voiced import, and James Hanna, who duplicates the talky vocals of Dean Wareham, the album gradually gains poignant weight. "Walk on the Moon" even sounds like a Yeah Yeahs ballad rendering a likeness to the melancholia that is "Maps." Furthermore, throughout the release guitarist James Hanna paints a kaleidoscopic picture with his shoe gazing strokes, producing echoey---er, echoes of My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. While many New York groups are looking to their forefathers for a punk aesthetic, Asobi Seksu finds their inspiration from a cooler older brother like Luna, Blonde Redhead and Sonic Youth, all bands that have avoided the fleeting playfulness and devoted their careers to an enduring substance.
- Aye Dworkin
We love mush mouthed, misconstructed pop lyrics as much as the next club kid, especially when you can get friends to 'fess up to what they think they heard "We'll go out ridin' in your pink Cadillac, push down the seats" sound enticing, no? It ranks right up there with another musical malprop: "I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who milked the milk cow now?" When Asobi Seksu, a young clan of shoegazers from New York, plays tonight, we won't have a clue about the word half the time. But when a gal singer and band are this unspeakably adorable, does it really matter what they're singing? We'll be happy to lean back into the noisy, multi-layered wall of guitars and feel as lost and full of longing as they sound. Anyway we don't think we're overstating matters when we say that Yuki's bouncy lament on "I'm Happy but You Don't Like Me" in the band’s self-titled CD touches the ambivalence and ambiguity of a generation.
- Amy Graves
By Ben Sisario - Full article
"A dark undercurrent has always run through the new New York rock, in groups like Interpol, Elk City, the Walkmen and Calla. Recently it seems to be coming to the surface . . . Two groups with female singers, On!Air!Library! and Asobi Seksu, draw heavily from the British "dream pop" of groups like Lush and the Cocteau Twins, with glumly swaying rhythms, big storm clouds of guitar and spookily angelic voices . . . Asobi Seksu takes the late-80's British connection even further on its debut album ("Asobi Seksu," released on Friendly Fire), with songs like "Let Them Wait" and "Sooner" that borrow the grimly cinematic psychedelia of My Bloody Valentine. . ."
"Yuki Chikudate is a hopeless romantic, damaged and done wrong by the weird arc of love. The feelings that remain vital are unpredictable free radicals; they come out in couplets of both Japanese and English, glomming onto the spiny keels and shimmering dream-pop textures that wash over Asobi Seksu's self-titled Friendly Fire debut. . ."
- Johnny Loftus - Full Review
What do you get when you cross breathy Japanese vocals, Daniel Johnston-style percussion, and prototypical 80s guitar jangle? Two things: Asobi Seksu's "I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me" and a nominee for Happiest Fucking Song Ever. Fortunately, Asobi Seksu know from cloying, and they balance their bubbly vocalist with hyper-distorted guitars buzzsawing straight through a cacophonous chorus that features a melody as irresistibly charming as the song's fragmented title. If this is just one pocket of sugary genius, give me more; if it reflects a greater phenomena of musical trends being distilled through other cultures decades after the fact, then let's lock the last 15 years in a closet and move the hell to Japan. I mean, New York.
- Jason Crock - Full Review
While Asobi Seksu is frequently compared to My Bloody Valentine, the quartet is too tricky an animal to be easily pigeonholed. Guitarist James Hanna's judiciously harnessed and unleashed squalls of noise do recall MBV, and the band further articulates its influences in the title of the thunderous, lovely, "Sooner," an homage to its forebears' classic "Soon." But that move, like the one of Japanese-American singer Yuki singing in her nonnative Japanese on a few songs, is simply a matter of carefully crafted aesthetics.
Such a thoughtful approach sets Asobi Seksu apart from other shoegaze-inspired upstarts. Perhaps due in part to Yuki's training as a classical pianist, the band can't help but err on the side of refinement. The elegance that halos even the group's bubbly forays into J-pop, such as the sprightly "I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me" and a buoyant cover of the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)," shines over their stormy live sets as well. In lieu of the studio effects utilized on its polished self-titled debut (released this past April on local indie Friendly Fire), Asobi Seksu patches any holes in its wall of sound by playing harder and more aggressively, without losing the delicacy of its finely crafted songs.
-Kevin Wolf
- Venuszine
There are three big reasons to like – if not love – NYC foursome Asobi Seksu. For one, their name means “playful sex” in Japanese. For another, they’ve worked their butts off, playing New York’s dingiest dives for two years in the hopes of attracting a semblance of the appreciation they’re finally getting (and which they’ve probably deserved all along). The final, and most important, reason is simple: Their new record – a re-release of their self titled 2002 debut – is really, really good.
Asobi Seksu takes some time to grow on you. It took three listens before the songs began to haunt my head – now, call me addicted. The album is a mishmash of sounds and influences. In “Stay” and “It’s Too Late,” the group evokes the hazy dreampop of Lush and Cocteau Twins. The joyful noise and quirky, repeated mantra in “Asobi Masho” bring to mind old-school Cibo Matto. “Walk on the Moon” has a heart-tugging feel, a là Ida and Rainer Maria; the lyrics, too, paint a picture of emo-lite angst: “I’m swimming in grey / Let them all walk away / I’ll be left with the shame.” And at other times, the foursome fall headfirst into the agonized dissonance of My Bloody Valentine.
Like Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino, Seksu’s singer-keyboardist Yuki has a gentle, swirly voice that jumps easily from Japanese to English. Her delivery is enchanting, transforming from sigh to whisper to pained groan without missing a beat. It’s obvious that she feels every word she sings. Overall, Asobi Seksu has created a lovely record, both driving and dreamy – call it elegant noise.
- Laura Barcella
Asobi Seksu is a local quartet that plays a delicious blend of J-pop and noisy blaring guitar rock. Distorted guitars roughhouse with peppy synth melodies, and lead singer Yuki's dreamy, swanlike voice brings the beautiful mess together as delicately as a sucker punch.
- Jay Ruttenberg
- xlr8r
First Dykehouse, now Asobi Seksu - is shoegazer back? God, we hope so. Asobi Seksu, a New York quartet headed by misty damsel Yuki, gets guitars growling like Slowdive on a good day and Sonic Youth on a better day on this self-titled album. Moods vary between disposable plastic pop ("I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me"), noise bantering with sunny vocal treatments ("Sooner") and dour introspective indie rock ("It's Too Late"). Yet this album, originally released in limited numbers two years ago, feels more like a whole than anything My Bloody Valentine or Lush ever released. Moptops will relish its "complexity."
- Heath K. Hignight
- giantrobot
Asobi Seksu means something like "playful sex." The playful descriptiion works nice since the New York band's music is so upbeat that it will make you fart Cool Whip. The sexy part? That's got to be lead singer Yuki Chikudate, although she's more cute than sexy. The first song reminds me of cheesy happy 80's teen movies (the ones without Asians) even though it has Japanese lyrics! James Hanna sings a few songs, which have sort of a Kevin Shields vibe. Asobi Seksu has elements of Shields' band, My Bloody Valentine, as well as the Swirlies and some indie pop, but I think the best songs are the ones sung in Japanese.
- resonancemag
If ‘80s teen-drama auteur John Hughes were still making movies, he’d be all over Asobi Seksu for soundtrack contributions. A suburban wallflower could craft her way right into the heart of a cute rich boy to the bubbly longing of “Sooner,” as singer Yuki croons, “I almost woke up in your arms.” And surely Hughes might employ the sobbing organ lead from “Walk On The Moon” to color the second-act setback of a ten romance that will come round right in time for the denouement. Yuki even declares that she’s “swimming in gray” during the chorus. C’mon, John! None of this is a slight against Asobi Seksu. James Hanna’s guitar squall noises up these songs, and the rhythm section works solidly as the Smiths’ own bass drum backing. Yuki’s birch-bark voice and keyboard work emote just the right kind of longing. Hughes may never climb back into the director’s chair, but if he does, he’d better be listening to Asobi Seksu first.
-Kris Kendall
Under the Radar Magazine
Take everything you know about the New York music scene, put it in a box, lock the box and throw it in the ocean. No Strokes, no Yeah Yeah Yeahs, no hipster fashion idolatry. Throw all that shit away. Now open your mind to Asobi Seksu, a different bread of New York band…finally. Yes, Asobi Seksu hail from the Big Apple and, no, they don’t sound like Interpol. This band is on a mission to put the art back in art-rock.
As you may have guessed, the Japanese language plays an important role in this band’s grand design. Their name is Japanese for “playful sex” and lead singer/keyboard player Yuki sings in both English and Japanese. This makes for an interesting amalgam. If you only speak English, then obviously you will have no idea what she is singing about on buzzing pop gem “Umi De No Jisatsu.” But in the case of Asobi Seksu that’s a great thing. Now you can finally get down and listen to the music. Yuki’s voice acts as just another instrument anyway. Musically this band pushes and pulls into a lot of different directions. “I’m Happy But You Don’t Like Me” is actually sung in Japanese and is akin to a quirky Stereolab with louder guitars and stronger melodies. “Sooner” is a classic shoegazer track with Yuki and guitarist James Hanna intertwining their breathy vocals over soft drums and artillery guitar effects.
Now I would bet money that Asobi Seksu could write ten albums of Japanese pop songs in their sleep. What sets them apart is their darker material, like the ambient keyboard droning guitar laden “Walk On The Moon.” The track slowly builds upon its parts, then in the last minute it rockets off in the stratosphere. The breathtaking seven minutes of “It’s Too Late” is slowcore at its most elegant with Yuki barely breathing her vocals over Hanna’s minimalist jangly guitar strums, then the whole thing erupts in a shower of shoegazer noise.
Asobi Seksu possesses a musical diversity sorely lacking in the NY scene today. None of the songs on their debut record sound exactly alike, and it’s a welcome reprieve. A breath of fresh air in an increasingly stagnate musical climate.
-Marcus Kagler
An amazing debut album from this dream-pop, shoegaze band. While singing catchy melodies over an overheated fuzz box certainly isn’t new, the band bring a lot more than a watered down Loveless to the table. Asobi Seksu contains elements of early ‘90s Sonic Youth guitar freak-out, as well as some of the jangled guitars and irresistible vocals that made Lush’s Lovelife so successful. Lead singer Yuki pulls a Stereolab (of sorts) by switching from English to Japanese on different tracks. The Japanese tracks (particularly “Umi de no Jisatsu”) are so catchy and melodic they should be used as motivational tapes for American high school Japanese courses. The album is rich in texture; drummer Keith Hopkin, provides a fine framework for Glenn Waldman’s intoxication bass. Asobi Seksu is a stellar debut that should not be passed up.
-RL - punkplanet
"The French can pack up Lady Liberty and head home. After sending over Asobi Seksu’s bilingual frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, Japan is NYC’s new best bud. . .beneath the tortured innocence, Chikudate’s acumen for calculation and modulation renders her perfect for this sort of distorto-pop. Her voice shifts in sync with the quiet/loud, shadowy/searing dynamic. When “Walk On the Moon” is still lurking in its verse, she glides between Julee Cruise-ish high notes; when it trudges into the minefield for its chorus (“Let them all walk away. . .So there’s no one to blame”), she adopts a wrenching matter-of-fact belt. . ."
-Emerson Dameron - Full Review
/ July 2004 - Click Here
/ June 2004 - By Lindsay Robertson - Click Here
"A track like "I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me" is a perfect respite from the ice cold wind that's been blowing out of New York lately . . . They've dispensed with the by-the-numbers posturing that's eating away at the soul of the New York music scene. Instead they've created an exciting and often touching reminder of why music compels us to create monuments to our heroes. . ."
-Jon Goff - Full Review
". . . it's only taken [Asobi Seksu] one album to accomplish what every other rock and roll band in their city is struggling to achieve: they have seamlessly assimilated a platter of obvious influences into a credible and cohesive set of genuinely human pop songs. . . Asobi Seksu demonstrate a veteran understanding of both how to get precisely the sounds they want out of their instruments as well as how to assemble those sounds into a memorable gestalt. . . As the title of "Sooner" implies, they're picking up right where Loveless left off, with torrents of blissed-out jangle and cyclones of breathy vocals flying at you every which way, and when they aim for it, they approximate Kevin Shields' guitar tone with alarming accuracy. . . you will indeed miss out if you ignore this record, because the standout songs are easily the most exquisitely crafted pieces to come out of the Big Apple since Interpol released a similarly astonishing debut. . ."Walk on the Moon" is an obvious pick, an MTV2-ready slow rocker in which Chikudate asserts herself as a truly captivating musical personality. She absolutely nails the song's ringing chorus, belting out wrenching lyrics ("Let them all walk away/ I'll be left with the shame") while maintaining her composure and ultimately triumphing over her shame to deliver a sublime, aching melody. A definite A+."
-Phillip Buchan - Full Review
". . . "I`m Happy But You Don`t Like Me" opens the album like a sweet J-pop track, until they plug in their effects pedals and the guitars segue into a dream pop fog. "Walk On The Moon" is an epic tour-de-force, it seems to glide into your hear and lift you with it. It`s hard not to namedrop, but for the sake of having a point of reference, fans of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine would probably adore this disc . . ."
- Mickey Mao - Full Review
". . .if their self-titled debut is any measure, [Asobi Seksu will] be Nationwide faster than you can say “effects pedal.” Pairing the sonic walls and wash of My Bloody Valentine with the melodic moments of Mazzy Star and Slowdive, Asobi Seksu do wonders at playing with emotion. . . the melodies are otherworldly, and guitars crash in, and Chikudate's breathy utterances help to take you on a ride through the ether. Playful sex hawkers or new-school dream-pop merchants – either way Asobi Seksu are keepers, for sure."
-Jeremy P. Goldstein - www.thetripwire.com
" The genre’s trademark fragmented lyrics, swirls of white noise, and critical moments when the distortion kicks in are all present; thankfully, they’re pulled off well and with a certain charisma throughout..."
- Toby Carroll - www.copperpress.com
Australian interactive online magazine features Asobi Seksu in this article.
" ...Asobi Seksu tear off their pop masks, revealing a frighteningly competent rock band lurking beneath...it's the delicate balance of [noise and songwriting] that leaves listeners stunned and speechless...Asobi Seksu has few flaws -- forty-minutes of unmistakable melodies, delicate guitar interplay and Chikudate and Hanna's tag-team vocals leading the whole show...It's not traditional pop in the vein of the Kinks or the Beatles, but Asobi Seksu's new-pop mold seems to be where the artform is heading -- a more complex brand of pop, rooted in the grand tradition, but taking its cues from both the avant-garde and mainstream zeitgeists."
- Jason Jackowiak - Full Review
"What was once called shoegazer rock — blaring, shimmering, multilayered guitars enfolding confessions of longing and ambiguity — is back in Asobi Seksu, a New York band that wraps its guitars and keyboard around well-made pop melodies and the girlish ache of Yuki's voices. . . "
-Jon Pareles
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