Asobi Seksu
LABEL: Polyvinyl  |||  PHOTOGRAPHY: Rohdewald

Asobi Seksu (colloquial Japanese for "playful sex") released its self-titled debut album in 2004 to significant critical acclaim, winning rave reviews from the New York Times, among others, and becoming an instant favorite in the New York City scene.

For its second album, Citrus (released in 2006), the band headed into Gigantic Studios in New York City to record with producer Chris Zane (Les Savy Fav, Tokyo Police Club, Shy Child). The result was tremendous: a powerful, sweeping album, sung in both English and Japanese. Citrus received worldwide acclaim and expanded Asobi Seksu's fan base all over the United States, and also into Europe, Japan, Australia, Korea and Mexico.

When the time came to begin work on their third LP, James and Yuki once again enlisted the skills of producer Chris Zane. Asobi Seksu have always been masters at creating musical textures; gauzy, cloudy dreamscapes for their slower songs and squalls of guitar and daisy-chained effect pedals for their barnstormers. On the third album, titled Hush, the band married this ability to a finely-honed pop sensibility. Hush was released in February 2009—and was constantly playing in the Groovemine.com headquarters for much of the spring that followed.

In November of 2009, Asobi Seksu released Rewolf , a new album on which the band reworks songs from its three previous albums. One of the last albums recorded at London's renowned Olympic Studios, the texturized dream-pop of Asobi Seksu's three prior full-lengths is replaced with beautiful arrangements achieved through the use of mostly acoustic instruments.



PRESS

“This is electric music in every sense of the word—amplified, processed, and imbued with a neon glow. Comparisons to shoegazers of yore have their uses, as they're clearly influences, but I’d class Asobi Seksu nearer to Mahogany as a band that takes those influences and spins them into something special and unique.” —Pitchfork

“Anyone who says Hush, Asobi Seksu’s third record, isn’t a pleasant listen is either lying or deaf. It feels similar to the stereotypical calm of Eastern culture. As far as listening experiences go, you can certainly do a lot worse than sitting back in your chair, being consistently affected by Asobi Seksu's sunlit wandering.” —Prefix Magazine

“Chikudate’s voice floats like a paper airplane (on Hush) through beautifully constructed soundscapes, effortlessly blending into the musical milieu on tracks like ”˜Layers’ and ”˜Meh No Mae.’” —Synthesis



LINKS
Asobi Seksu’s Website
ӬAsobi Seksu on Myspace
ӬAsobi Seksu on Facebook