BABY SHUG SAYS:

Our Japanese jangle-pop Jesus has at last arrived with a U.S. version of his 3rd studio album, Love If Possible, just in the nick o' time on the cusp of America's love affair between the sheets of jazz and pleasantly regurgitated jaboogie disco of groovy proportions. Tossing just about every octave of shakers and every locker combination of high-string ear candy into an eclectic psych blender of straight up, top-button-unbuttoned, buttery pop, Shintaro Sakamoto makes no mistake that it's he, himself, and your two lil eardrums. Grasping ahold of what feels like a certain ambience found in mind-loungers, Stereolab, Cortex, Mild High Club, or Tortoise, and wrapping it into a much more generally-approachable 4/4 time signature like newbie indie giants Mac Demarco or Real Estate. Though feeling like a plethora of known sound mixed into one, there still is a devious dash of Sakamoto lightly (and sometimes heavily) whisked into the the hearty mix, and that's what really sets this artist apart from the rest muscially. Is love truly possible? Who f*ckin knows. What IS possible is throwin this funky piece of wax on your turntable and gettin down to some Sakamoto jammies. Dig.

FFO: Mac Demarco, Yura Yura Teikoku, Mild High Club, easy weed, hard weed, veteran weed, that bubbling sound when you hit a righteous bong, Funkadelic, deep groove, youtube-recommended Japanese fusion artists of the 70s/80s