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ASOBI SEKSU
(Friendly Fire)
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Female singers from Kylie Minogue to Deerhoof’s Satumi Matsuzaki have succumbed to the notion that the thinner the vocals, the better. Yuki Chikudate, who fronts the NYC band Asobi Seksu, would disagree. She has the type of voice that can bounce the needles on a soundboard if she needs it to, as on the brash "Umi De No Jisatsu." Even when she’s cooing on the wistful, heartbroken ballad "It’s Too Late," she doesn’t leave anything in the tank. It’s that voice and her urgent delivery that set this up-and-coming band apart from the other neo-new-wave, shoegazer-inspired bands that have begun to clutter the underground landscape. This is a band who have found the right influences but are still building an identity: "Sooner" is a swirling guitar blast straight out of the My Bloody Valentine school of post–Sonic Youth rock, right down to the flanger effects; "Let Them Wait" careers closer to Thurston Moore’s favorite noise haunts; and "Taiyo" is a quality Stereolab cop. The band do get points for reaching back to both sides of the Atlantic for inspiration, and even if their overall sound is a work in progress, Chikudate’s charisma is undeniable on this promising debut.
