LP Towa Tei Artist

On 2010s albums like Sunny, {|Lucky|}, and Emo, {|Towa Tei|} simplified his music's titles and concepts, as though he was boiling his art down to its essence. The process continues on {|LP|}, {|Tei|}'s inspired love letter to music and sound itself. Even within his playful body of work, {|LP|} is remarkably charming. Unlike some of his previous cameo-laden releases, there are relatively few vocals this time around, leaving {|Tei|} plenty of room to revel in synths, beats, and samples. DJ DJ, a bouncy, buoyant self-portrait, makes spinning, chopping, and mashing songs sound like it's the most fun it's possible to have. {|LP|}'s vibrant wit is far from unexpected: {|Tei|}'s gift for creating songs that are so vivid that they're practically visible stretches back to his time with {|Deee-Lite|} (and, one could argue, his roots as a graphic designer and art director). However, there's something special about the way {|Tei|} bridges past, present, and future on this album. The pop star {|Hana|} and {|Yellow Magic Orchestra|}'s {|Haruomi Hosono|} lend their voices to Birthday, and the juxtaposition of her brighter tones and his gruffer ones over {|Tei|}'s bubbly backdrop suggests it's an all-ages celebration. The producer also touches on generations' worth of witty, sophisticated sounds like the Shibuya-kei and city pop homages on the sleekly funky Rendezvous and Magic, or Consumer Electronics, a glowing vision of technology that feels nostalgic. Fortunately, {|LP|}'s ties to the past aren't so much dated as they are a summation of all the tricks and techniques {|Tei|} perfected over the years. Fabulous is a meticulous confection of chopped-up slap bass, staccato trumpets, and vocal harmonies in search of the nearest catwalk, but on Ringwear, it feels like {|Tei|} is physically grabbing his samples and pulling them like taffy. Similarly, he expertly navigates the extremes of Mind Power's buzzing sonic overload and the drifting finale Nomadologie, where a trumpet wanders through a fluttering ambience that's just as intricate but much less hectic than what came before it. Though the likes of the {|PC Music|} collective made stylish, proudly artificial pop in vogue at the time of {|LP|}'s release, these amuse-bouches for the ears prove that {|Tei|}'s excellence at his craft transcends trends. ~ Heather Phares