There’ll always be a place in my heart for the music of Japan’s Shugo Tokumaru. If a man was to toil at making the cutest, brightest, sharpest collection of woodwind and string-based songs to soundtrack the happiest TV show around, it would be Shugo who would be responsible.
He has a clutch of great albums under his belt, Night Piece (2004), L.S.T (2005), Exit (2007) and Port Entropy (2010) are all considerably worth your time (and all streaming on Deezer). Tokumaru’s latest album In Focus? is out next week on Polyvinyl – it’s another whimsical collection of uplifting songs and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You can hear In Focus? below and watch the brilliant stop-motion video for ‘Katachi’ by Kijek/Adamski.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
