Short and Quick - June 2025 - Summer Special

It's the end of June which means two things 1) the summer is finally here and 2) it's time for a new short and quick with some records for those hot summer days. Big Thief, Fishmans and Lamp bring the soundtrack for this summer. Enjoy !

Lamp - 東京ユウトピア通信 (Tokyo Utopia Communications)

Shibuya-kei Jazz Pop

Lounge Progressive Pop

If you're looking for something even more relaxing than Big Thief, you might find it with this Lamp record. In my opinion this is Lamp's secret masterpiece. While For Lovers is probably their most acclaimed and well-known record, and is certainly a great record, for me Tokyo Utopia Communications takes the cake as my favourite Lamp record. It strikes the perfect balance between being catchy and feeling like a breeze going right past you. It embodies the lightness of Lamp's music ,which sometimes makes you forget you're even listening to music, with an incredible ear for catchiness and is honestly just a whole lot of fun. If this record and especially the first song, doesn't make you feel like walking down a busy street on a sunny day, then nothing will.

Fishmans - 宇宙 日本 世田谷 (Uchu Nippon Setagaya)

Dream Pop Downtempo Ambient Pop Neo-Psychedelia

Dub

Uchu Nippon Setagaya, the Fishman's final studio album before the tragic death of  their frontman, Shinji Sato, is a slow and ethereal affair. Following the release of their 1996 record LONG SEASON, the band once again invite us into their world of dub-inspired dream pop and psychedelia. The songs mostly follow steady rhythms and are often feature heavy repetition. This gives the record a sort of hypnotic quality usually found in something like ambient techno. If I had to paint a picture of how this record makes the listener feel, I would tell you to imagine yourself floating on the surface of a lake in 30-degree weather while someone sings to you very softly from the water's edge. Sometimes you may forget about the music or the singing, but that feeling of warmth and comfort will stay with you for as long as you let yourself go with the flow.

 Big thief - New Warm Mountain Dragon I Believe In You

Indie Folk Folk Rock Americana
Indie Rock Singer-Songwriter

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is like a meeting with some friends on a summer day and sitting around a campfire, exchanging stories until late into the night. The next day seems far away as it feels like this night might just continue forever. Each story told feels significant, as if nothing else in the world could have that same significance at this specific moment. Many decisions may be made that night, some of which will be discarded when the morning comes, but something may still  have changed in you. 

It's a record that you can have conversations with, that puts you in a mood to let your thoughts drift off and re-evaluate the things that have happened around you and that you are planning to do. But it does so, at least for me, in a soft way that makes you want to return to it whenever you feel like letting your mind wander while gazing out over a lake on a sunny afternoon.

Big Thief - Incomprehensible

Neo-Psychedelia Indie Rock

When I first listened to Incomprehensible, Big Thief's first single from their upcoming record Double Infinity, it felt like receiving a hug by an old friend. The band's sound from their masterpiece, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, is still fully intact: you are greeted by lush guitars and Adrianne Lenker's ethereal voice, which floats and tells you of lost love, the fleeting nature of time, and accepting and embracing getting older. If you've enjoyed any of Big Thief's music up to this point, you'll certainly enjoy this one as well. 

𝑺𝑬𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑺𝑷𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑾𝑩𝑶𝒀...