Pitchfork

There's not much information available about Shugo Tokumaru. Music Related, the small Japan-via-NYC label responsible for the release, says Shugo is from Tokyo and in his twenties and, perhaps inadvertently, suggests that the Beach Boys are his only influence. If anything, the two artists do share an affinity for bright, beautiful melodies: Shugo's hushed tenor and sparse acoustic guitar arrangements will also remind American indie-pop audiences of Sufjan Stevens, and the songs' unintrusive electronic embellishments recall Nobukazu Takemura and recent Fly Records releases from OMB and Tatsuya Yamada.

Beyond that, there's not much of a gimmick to the songs on his debut album, Night Piece. Shugo doesn't seem to fit into the glut of bedroom IDMers and their sound-alike electro-acoustic alchemy, and in addition to an obvious geographical contradiction, Shugo is just way too melodic for the stateside free-folk scene. Really, Night Piece is "just" a pop album, short but dense and infinitely considered: No note seems unnecessary, and everything is in its right place.

Fittingly, Night Piece starts at dusk. A million crickets drown out the night of "Such a Color" with sex-charged bug-buzz, when a sheepish Shugo begins to pluck out an equally fragile melody. The melody bursts. Shugo strums in resignation, and turns to a distant accordion for last-ditch support. The song congeals unexpectedly but beautifully, and Shugo quickly reclaims the melody for his voice, buttressing it with stringed confidence and, by the song's outro, a little bit of bravado.

Other songs on Night Piece bear the same high degree of craftsmanship, but as the album presses on, we learn that Shugo has aspirations much larger than a string of catchy ditties. Through his prudent use of electronics, he begins to develop a strikingly unified worldview that Night Piece ultimately wills upon its listener. On "Light Chair", Shugo's guitar plucking stomps to a contrasting, docile woodblock melody before losing itself in winding arpeggios. "Lantern on the Water" shimmers as broad cello strokes are fed through a lo-fi sampler and percussive bell sounds try their best to harness the spectacle's majesty with an incidental beat.

Shugo's sense of humor rears its head midway through Night Piece: The songs, which at times border on pastiche, somehow never undermine the album's cohesion. Taken together, these highly stylized compositions form something of a dream sequence: "Sleet" throws us into an 8-bit Dragon Warrior village, while the goofy "The Mop" drags our sudden spurs through the golden dust of the American West. Then, a chase scene: "Paparazzi" is Shugo's virtuosic take on the theme from "The Benny Hill Show", a cartoonish one-man mummer's parade that doesn't strut so much as run for its life, with an unexpected hammock-swaying break here and there between the ensuing fretted mischief.

After covering so much musical terrain in only 23 minutes, Shugo finishes slowly and quietly with his unadorned lullaby, "A Kite of Night". The song doesn't take part in the world of Night Piece so much as consider it in retrospect-- it's the least evocative track on the album, but its most tender for that very reason. From its nakedness we realize just how rich a world Shugo has designed with Night Piece, and just how subtle his musical gestures are. So Night Piece is "just" pop music, but it manages to point well beyond itself, and regardless of who didn't influence it or what scenes it doesn't fit into, albums like this are always relevant, and always welcome.