UPDATE: BEST CONCERT EVAH!
People have been saying that I missed out on an excellent show by St. Vincent early this week. But I’m glad I didn’t miss Shugo Tokumaru’s set tonight, which to my mind ranks as one of the best concerts to have come out of the entire Mosaic series.
It was so good I had to relish the moment and give Vashti Bunyan, whom I had planned to see right after, a miss.
In two days time, I’ll probably regret not seeing the godmother of freak folk in action but tonight at least, I’ll let the wonderful aftertaste of Shugo Tokumaru’s set linger a wee bit longer.
The Japanese dude and his merry back-up band of four didn’t have to resort to dancing or even banter (given the whole language barrier thing) and instead connected with the audience in this sold-out intimate show at the Esplanade Recital Studio through sheer talent and gorgeous songs.
If it isn’t reggae or anything groovy (or erm, opera), it’s hard to hold an audience’s attention when you’re singing in a language no one understands. But in the same way that Tokumaru “pictures” his music, he was gracious enough to let us “picture” it as well by packaging the set that night as one cohesive musical experience that had a beginning, a middle, and an end. You didn’t understand what he was singing, but you felt it was going somewhere.
And he made sure it was experienced as such by playing something that was completely the opposite for the first song of the encore to let us know that hey, this is not part of it, okay. It’s an extra treat.
The treat? An English pop song. Video Killed The Radio Star. On a toy ukulele.
And what of the main show?
There was mix of both youthful, bouyant exuberance and a kind of raw energy bordering on grit in the renditions of the songs from Tokumaru’s three albums, a surprising thing since most of his songs are lush, lo-fi, dreamy recordings he did all by himself.
Tokumaru and his gang played as if they had just come home. Or in his case, had just come from school, taken his shoes off, unbuttoned his shirt, and proceeded to play music in his bedroom.
Indeed, for all its power (which I’ll be going into later on), it also felt intimate. As if you were invited to hear your schoolmates play. Or something like that la.
In my regular arts blog, I regularly bring up how good plays or exhibits often have many layers that keep you hooked one way or another.
It’s the same for the show – the obvious one being how exceptionally melodic his well-constructed songs were.
But mind you, they weren’t just cutesy pop songs – they were cutesy pop songs arranged in a very complicated way. Odd time signatures? There were lots of those. Breaks? Ditto.
For those with ADD, you could just watch the band toy around with such a wide and amusing range of instruments and “instruments” that were used to fluff up the arrangements – from melodicas to accordions to an entire box of toy instruments, including this kid’s toy that had those little pecking chickens that was used as a kind of subtle rhythmic bed.
And finally, I bet even math or prog-rock afficionados would have been wowed by Tokumaru’s mindblowing technical virtuosity.
Whenever he shredded or simply created those weird complex chord shapes on his guitar, I was tempted to do the whole Bill and Ted “We’re not worthy!” gesture.
But we were all sitting down and it was an unplugged set so that would’ve been weird.
Plus, in a show centred around songs done on an acoustic guitar, his drummer played like a maniac.
So yes, I may have missed out on St Vincent and yes, I’ll beat myself for missing Vashti Bunyan, but goddamnit, Shugo Tokumaru and gang, you all blew my mind.
Arigato.
***
That’s Japanese indie folkster Shugo Tokumaru holding one of his musical instruments.
No really. He said he occasionally uses half-empty plastic water bottles when he’s recording songs.
As you can see, he still looks like a teenager at the age of 30. Dressed very casually for the interview, you could easily picture him as someone who holes up in his room playing Wii or Xbox video games.
Well, he does hole up in his room – but most likely it’s to create music. I had a quick chat with him prior to soundcheck for the sold-out show later tonight at the Esplanade. (The organizers apparently asked if he could play another show but he declined – we’re guessing in that typically polite Japanese way.)
I’m quite excited to see him perform later. It’s going to be a five-man band setup, which should result in a totally different sound from the lush, low-fi dreamy pastoral sounds of his Pro Tools-by-way-of-his-Mac studio albums Night Piece, L.s.t. and his most recent, and international breakthrough hit Exit.
Incidentally, his latest album will be released in Japan in late April. It’s to be called Port Entropy, a title taking off from the late electronica music pioneer Bruce Haack’s 1973 album Captain Entropy.
He’s a man of few words though. And with the whole language barrier thing going on, it was a bit difficult to squeeze out more than one-liners from the reserved dude. But we tried. Here’s what we got – via his manager-cum-impromptu translator.
***
Do you prefer performing onstage or staying at home writing or listening to music?
Shugo: (says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: Actually he used to prefer recording from performing live. Now he likes both equally.
What high do you get recording in a studio as compared to the high from performing in front of a crowd?
Shugo: Uhm… Ano… (says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: To play in front of people, he always rearranges his songs for that purpose. Which makes him discover his music by himself once again.
It’s going to be a five piece band tonight. Will this be a heavier sounding show compared to your albums?
Shugo: Uhhh (er, ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: First of all, he always, when he arranges songs, he arranges it only for the guitar and vocals. Then he tries to add other instruments on top of that. So it’s basically different from how he composes those songs in the first place originally.
So it’s a layering kind of songwriting process then?
Shugo: Mmm.
Shugo’s Manager: But it’s not necessarily just guitar or vocals, obviously he has the whole picture of sounds he wants to make.
So you literally picture a sound? I read somewhere you look at music in terms of colours?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: For him it’s like watching the music… The whole mixture of the sound and the visual images, at times colour and everything.
How old were you when your debut Night Piece came out and were surprised by the eventual reception you had in the US, becoming a Pitchfork darling and all that?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: 23. He wasn’t expecting that at all.
When I first listened to Night Piece and L.s.t., I thought of other singer-songwriters who did that whole bit where they’d layer their music with unusual instruments. Like Sufjan Stevens or maybe even early Beck. Do you listen to these guys?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: Obviously, he had already listened to Beck’s music before. But for Sufjan, actually, he discovered his music after he put out L.s.t., because people started comparing his music to Sufjan’s music. He now likes him.
Are there a lot of musicians in Japan who do this whole lo-fi folk kind of thing that you do?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: He’s not sure if it’s a real trend or something, but there are many artists doing this, but it doesn’t necessarily means it’s interesting. There are many people who are trying to do interesting things, but it’s not necessarily a trend.
The whole DIY process of creating your albums — was it because of necessity?
Shugo: (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: Originally he tried to do songs in a band setting, like a guitar-bass-drum kind of style, but while he was working on it, it turned out that something was missing and he started to add other instruments. In the end he thought that the bass and drum sound is not necessary and so took out some of it. It all came out very naturally in the creative process.
What’s the strangest or most unusual instrument you’ve used in a song?
Shugo: (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: (Points to the half-full plastic water bottle) for instance. He thinks that he doesn’t really use something in that unexpected a way. But he uses all of the things that are not considered to be an instrument. Glasses or pans, he uses almost anything lying around in the kitchen.
What to you is good or bad music?
Shugo: Uhmmm (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: The judgement of what is good music, what is bad music, that always changes from time to time for him. For the new album which he just finished, he’s always thinking what could be good music for him and he tries to get close enough. So he wants to make something enduring, something that will continue and not affected by a trend.
Any particular moment when you went, okay I want to be a musician?
Shugo: (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: It’s not really a particular moment or song, but a certain period of his life, he felt like he was kind of saved by listening to music. It’s a vague feeling, but he thought he wanted to offer something in return by making his own music. He was going through some kind of hardship and only music made him happy.
Just like everyone.
Shugo: Yeah.
