Hindsight Sunglasses

Textual is the electronica side project of David LeBleu, one of the guys in excellent post-rock band Mercury Program. This is a Japan-only release.

Gorgeous glitch-hop beats with shimmering melodies and delicate “post-rock” sensibilities. Imagine Prefuse 73, Album Leaf, and Arovane fusing their musical DNA in the digital depths of Tokyo (much of the album has a “Japanese” aesthetic I can’t quite explain). Insanely infectious stuff. Definitely one of the stronger, more surprising electronica releases of 2004. Lovely!

Highly recommended, for both electronica and post-rock fans alike. Don’t sleep!!

Favorite tracks: 3, 5, 8

- Captain Dee, Feb. 2005

*1. Lovely ambience with cool stuttering clicks and rhythmic melody. Strong “Eastern” aesthetic. (2:30)
*2. Echoing, disarrayed piano riff in the back, scampering electronics, lazy day melody, tight rolling beat. Ends in ambient strings loop. Music for carefree Saturdays? (3:36)
**3. Soothing piano, then soaring & shimmering chime melody, underlying ambience, and dope head-nodding beat. Lovely! (4:30)
4. Messy sequence of tweaked electronic notes. No beat. (1:27)
**5. Warped “rewind motion” melody. Really fucking cool! (2:26)
*6. Clicking, wind chimes, warm electronic pulses, crystalline beauty, deliberate pace. Full beat is added later. I love the melody that develops at the end. (8:37)
*7. Fast smushed beat, ethereal melody and ambience. (2:11)
***8. Dirty, hard-hitting hip-hop beat, sparkling layers of chimes and bass. Muddled field recordings at beginning and end. Imagine that you’re in a cyberpunk novel and you just arrived in Neo-Tokyo. TIGHT!! (3:40)
9. More subdued, slightly melancholic (or nostalgic?) vibe. Slow beat. (5:24)
*10. Silly background, addictive glitch-hop beat, cheerful melodies, sunny ambience. (2:32)
*11. Short interlude. Interesting “half-beat,” cute melody. (1:02)
12. Mechanical beat evolves over quiet, sustained chord. (3:17)
13. Post-rock song gone a little haywire. Dreamy guitars, quiet ambience. (5:13)
14. Uptempo glitchy beats with happy music box-ish melody. (1:56)
15. Filtered, cut-up piano chords. Bizarre. No beat. (2:01)
*16. Celebratory melody, solid beat, beeps, deep bass. String quartet riff and nature samples fade in at end. (3:35)
17. Extremely deep, amorphous, frozen ambience. (5:05)