It’s been four years since the release of Nagisa Ni Te’s previous album Dream Sounds, and now – after much work – their seventh album Yosuga has been completed. Jagjaguwar is once again very proud to deliver the band’s most recent work to North America and Europe. Yosuga also marks the first time that Jagjaguwar has released a Nagisa Ni Te title on vinyl (not to mention the still popular compact disc format!).The Japanese duo of Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda deliver an album that consists of both beautiful arrangements and soft melodies. Having perfected a certain simplicity with regard to songwriting, Nagisa Ni Te’s subtle instrumental variations range from folky acoustic strumming to psychedelic guitar riffs, resulting in an amazing cross between progressive and folk rock. But once again it’s both the simplicity of the music and the confidence with which the duo delivers these finely crafted compositions that are most compelling. Yosuga – the meaning of which refers to the source or grounds upon which the body and mind rely – is one of Nagisa Ni Te’s finest efforts.In the early 1980s, Shinji Shibayama performed “hyped up dada-psych” as part of Idiot O’Clock and then the more toned-down Hallelujahs. He also founded and still runs Org Records, the label responsible for bringing Eastern psych powers Maher Shalal Hash Baz to the world. With Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s help, with the musical contributions of many of their collective friends, and with the assistance of Shibayma’s now full-fledged cohort Masako Takeda in all things Nagisa Ni te, Shibayama recorded and released On The Love Beach (also available through Jagjaguwar), a beautiful, slow and entrancing work pulling equally from American and British rock traditions. Thus was born Nagisa Ni te, which means “on the beach” in Japanese, an homage of sorts to Neil Young’s 1975 masterpiece. Their psych folk tendencies notwithstanding, Nagisa Ni te have also done well throughout all of their records to take cues from the avant rock world around them, comfortably implementing the minimalist credo “less is more” throughout their body of work.
