Shugo Tokumaru – Rum Hee

Shugo Tokumaru is an artist who’s been very successful at breaking into the West. His first album was released on New York label, Music Related and received acclaim from prominent music reviews like Pitchfork. His most recent full length album, Exit, was released through Almost Gold (who have done a great job promoting the album – as would be expected from the company that put out Peter Bjorn and John’s breakthrough record, Writer’s Block), and his new EP features a contribution from American indie stalwarts Deerhoof.

Rum Hee is longer than some of Tokumaru’s albums, but less hefty in terms of original content. The EP consists of three new songs, three alternate versions of previously released songs, and two remixes of the title track.

The EP’s title track is probably the most pop-oriented song in Tokumaru’s catalogue. It’s heavy on jangley acoustic guitar, bird-sounding flute, glockenspiel and rich vocal harmonies. Much of the song is punctuated by a driving rhythm that reminds me of Sigur Ros’t single, Gobbledigook.

The second original song, Alaska, is another accessible track, focusing again on acoustic guitar and a memorable vocal melody, while the third original song, Inatemessa, is much more experimental, consisting entirely of chromatic percussion and digitally manipulated vocals building towards a chaotic ending

Three older songs are rerecorded, and these rerecordings sound much more live and energetic than the previously released versions. The trade-off for this extra energy is less detail in the mixes. I’m partial to the fine-tuned nature of the originals – these versions sound less discinct – but the differences are fairly minor and I really only notice them when listening quite closely.

Rounding off the release are two remixes of Rum Hee. One by Oorutaichi, which is much more frantic and dissonant than the original and one by Deerhoof, who take the opposite approach – starting out calm and keeping the mix relatively uncluttered.

Overall I dig this EP, I’d certainly start with one of Tokumaru’s full-length albums instead, but if you’re a big fan of Tokumaru this is a great recording.