Japancakes - The Sleepy Strange
(Kindercore)
Japancakes is a small orchestra from Athens, Georgia led by Eric Berg.
The project started rather infamously when Berg and a bunch of other
musicians took the stage and played one D chord simultaneously for about one
hour. As the project evolved, the one note was allowed to expand into
short phrases and simple melodies, but the band's emphasis on repetition
remained--find something short and sweet to play and play it over and
over again exactly the same way.
Many bands use repetition, but Japancakes' method is to the extreme,
making the musician act like an automaton using no planned change in pitch,
tone, volume, or any other aspect of sound, as if created on a computer using
a cut-and-paste routine. Since humans are fallible, errors are
not only allowed in the music but celebrated by the musicians, basically
the only way to break the monotony and lead to tangents. These errors,
however, are rare.
There is a certain pleasure to monotony though, and in Japancakes music,
if the short repeated phrases are effective, the music has a very calming,
peaceful effect on the listener, well suited to both quiet mornings spent
deep in thought or busy Mondays with no time to think. However, if these
repeated phrases are dull to begin with, the results can be unbearable, each
repetition acting like a drop in Chinese water torture, compounding the boredom.
The band, however, continue to pick a decent hook most of the time.
The Sleepy Strange, Japancakes' second album and third major release,
differs greatly in palette from the band's previous work. The same colors
are available, however whereas earlier Japancakes featured analog
synthesizers and bass, creating music similar to The Sea and Cake, Tristeza,
or To Rococo Rot, now in the forefront are lap steel, guitar, and cello. This
change gives the group a very organic, country sound quite different from the
cosmopolitan bent of their previous work.
The exception is the album-closing epic "Vinyl Fever" which uses a slow, graceful
electric guitar along with a prominent drum beat and organ-sounding
synthesizers to create something very much like the band's previous releases.
The rest of the album is quite country-sounding though. "This Year's Beat"
makes the lap steel the lead instrument as cello gives the song a very
heavenly atmosphere. "Disconnect the Cables" centers on a chugging guitar
with atmosphere created from cello, lap steel, keyboards, and another
guitar for a very layered sound. "The Waiting" alternates between focusing
on the cello and the lap steel with prominent guitar and other string background
parts.
The Sleepy Strange's short, repetitive phrases are pleasant and rather hypnotic.
Their de-emphasis of bass guitar on this record makes it a bit less driving and
less pop than their earlier work, but the elements that took the bass' place,
like lap steel and cello, make The Sleepy Strange Japancakes' prettiest and
most soothing album yet. However, that does not necessarily make it their best
overall.
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