Elevated Return: Pika’s “Riyuu No Sumika”

1. Keeping with a theme developed via Buddy Guy And Mechanic (though not quite as bad), here’s another song from another album that came out last year (December…glad the list-industry doesn’t really exist in Japan, people might push for November releases) getting a video in January. Works for me.

2. Afriampo were a noise-rock duo from Osaka who had a solid decade of chaos behind them. They called it quits in 2010, and we really liked their final album, enough to put it in our top 20 of that year. Drummer Pikachu is back as a solo artist (Pika, sorry star symbol), and she just released her first solo album last month. And now…the video for title track “Riyuu No Sumika,” a slow-build song that starts off spare enough but turns hectic soon enough, as she transforms the track into a smashing number accented by her whoops and hollers. Watch above.