Yuta Matsumura (M.O.B., Oily Boys, Low Life) solo debut Red Ribbons is on one hand a pleasant surprise, but from following his output, especially Th' Blisks LP from earlier this year, you could feel this collection of "dubwise avant-pop structures" was somewhere within him.Need to scratch that Flaming Tunes itch? Got a hankering for another YL Hooi record? Wish Drunk Elk made a Wyatt produced Digital Reggae album? Then grab this undeniably great album. - Nic
From Low Company...
Low Company begins its final descent with Yuta Matsumura’s Red Ribbon, a sequence of introspective, lavishly melodic dream-songs and amphibian atmospheres recorded in scattered periods over 2018-21.
Having played in bands like Low Life, M.O.B. and Orion, and the duo Jay & Yuta (with Jay Cruikshank), Red Ribbon is Matsumura’s first solo outing, and represents a conscious effort to move away from guitar-based songwriting. He composed its nine tracks mostly on piano - layering vocals, bass, keyboards, flute (courtesy of Maeve Parker), violin/cello (Laurence Quinn) and clacking drumbox rhythms into dynamic, dubwise avant-pop structures which are supple and spacious but fizzing with detail and ultra-vivid inner life.