Shugo Tokumaru - Rum Hee

01. Rum Hee
02. Alaska
03. Inatemessa
04. Vista (Alt Version)
05. Typewriter (Alt Version)
06. Parachute (Alt Version)
07. Rum Hee (Oorutaichi Remix)
08. Rum Hee (Deerhoof Remix)

Last year was a good one stateside for Japanese experimental folk-pop maestro Shugo Tokumaru. Exit, his latest full-length and one of my favorite albums of 2007, was officially issued in the U.S. on Almost Gold Recordings and he even put together a short tour here with support from members of Beirut (which included a performance at the CMJ Festival as well as a quick East Coast run with The Magnetic Fields). It was enough to make me forget that we could probably expect to hear some new music from him pretty soon… and lo and behold, today Shugo released a single with three brand new tracks, three alternate takes of previously recorded songs, and a couple remixes.
The A-side, “Rum Hee”, is rich, triumphant, and anthemic, awash in an abundance of bright hues and sunny textures. Opening with driving guitar strums, sleigh bell shakes, and a background of light bird chirps, the song plays out like the soundtrack for a frolic through a magical forest, its layers of smile-inducing sounds swelling and subsiding, cascading over the listener in exhilarating waves. “Rum Hee” is also given the remix treatment by noise-pop mainstays Deerhoof and Osakan electro-weirdo Oorutaichi. Both are really good, but I figured I’d post the one that I find the most interesting… and to my surprise, it isn’t Deerhoof’s subtle, percussive reworking. Oorutaichi manages to outdo them by reimagining “Rum Hee” as a piece of glitch-laden, beat-driven electronica, all the while maintaining the wide-eyed wonder of the original