My December is filled with Shugo Tokumarus’s music and I can’t get enough of it! What I like about his music is the layering of sounds he went beyond the regular 4-5 piece instruments. Tokumaru’s music is dreamy, artsy, whimsical and ambitious that’s how I would like to describe his music. It’s fresh and adventurous and honestly his music opens my heart to toy instruments like toy piano, xylophone, toy ukulele, steel drums, glockenspiel, accordions, bird whistle and others. He has this freakish ability to control those instruments to make it sound like it was naturally put there like pieces of a puzzle.
It was mentioned that Shugo has 100 toy instruments and most of his music are created after his dreams inside his bedroom (yes, he’s one of those indie bedroom musician) and he then adds every layer of sounds to convey the emotions or interpretation of his daily dreams.
Shugo took only less than 10 minutes to capture my attention and since then I can't stop listening to his music. His voice is dreamy and laid back just enough to sway me. Shogu was born and raised at Tokyo and his songs are mainly in Japanese and a little of bit English from time to time, I’ve search for the Romanized lyrics and interpretation of his song and there are some that are available in the internet although very limited. I agree that sometimes his songs or lyrics or the thoughts in each songs gallops in all direction then leaving his listener or at least those who can understand the words of his song more curious and confuse but once you get to understand his writing style all that will be left is amazement. I personally (while reading a few of his songs) felt like reading an abstract painting, the interpretation differs upon each observer and that for me is astonishing. Aside from his music one thing that struck my interest are his Music Videos mostly cartoonized and abstract. It could be his dreams put in words, action and interpreted with melody and for me it’s beautiful and right now with all honesty I’m running out of good words to describe his music. At his age of 30 I think he looks very young and I can incorporate that with his attitude the way I see how he performs freely yet quiet and reserve, It would be a pleasure to watch him perform live I think that would be like a moment in wonderland (yes, I’m all praises) I can only wish that his music won’t be tainted like others who sellout.
As I read one article about him, an interview during his performance in Iceland, when he was asked what Rum Hee was all about he said you know the Rum…rum…hee! I guess that’s how it is when you get drunk from rum you’ll go hee! Hahaha very 4D! And my favorite among his songs are of course Rum Hee it’s like a dose of anti depressant, Green Rain for the little glimpse of electronic and folkish feeling if you listen carefully you’ll hear a lot of great sounds, Lahaha for the great song arrangement and festive feeling you get from it, Paparazzi for the comical feeling. Parachute for the amazing happty melody. His song defied language barrier and makes you appreciate music as it is.
I’ve always been fascinated with artist who uses various instruments to make their music and I guess you can blame that on my musical orientation growing up I’ve learn to play xylophone and lyre first before playing bass and guitars. Musicians like Shugo inspires me to appreciate and learn more about music.
Listen to Rum Hee Here <------Click
Credits to those who owns the photos
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