Yamamoto - summer songs for winter people (2010, Poni Republic)

Inconsolable we are, of the disappearance of Komeït, and very rare are those likely to take up the torch. We had Anois, now we have Yamamoto too, and both are rare, discreet and infinitely precious. 

The duo comes from Tijuana, Mexico, yes, not the place where you would expect such oversensitive and subtle bedroom pop, mixing perfectly electronics, male/female vocals and guitars.

Well, Komeït is not enough as reference and I would gladly evoke others tutelary figures too such as The Softies, Empress or Aden to draw a circle around the happiness down below.

Yamamoto are Mario Supereit (vocals, guitars, programming, bass, moog & casiotones) and Brenda J. (vocals, melodica, glockenspiel, harmonica & shakers), they co-wrote the seven songs between 2006-2009, and this EP, their second in fact has been released on the netlabel Poni Republic.

"Summer songs for winter people" is just deliciously unimportant, beautifully imperfect, the kind of record you could disregard easily but also cherish intently, successful because falsely trivial.

Past the instrumental intro, you're directly in the heart of their expression with "Sound Asleep", an afternoon lullaby for drinking tea and eating biscuits while half napping. But soon enough melancholy is knocking on the door. The guitar and whispers of "Slide", and Brenda sings just like I wish Jodi would have sung on her Secret Stars songs. She goes on with the mechanic beats of "Race Car", acidulated indie pop song, vaguely echoing the first steps of The Magnetic Fields.

Right time for the highlight, "Since you went away", sunlight for winter times, delicate and soothing while deeply sad and nostalgic. And I still wonder how they are able to capture this northern autumnal melancholy so perfectly. It goes on with the vaporous dreampop of "Life like Math" before reaching an end with the melancholic instrumental "Rolling down the hill" scented with an atmosphere of summer end.

A recommended (and free) release.

http://www.myspace.com/yamamoto
http://ponirepublic.blogspot.com/