Kept Close: Family Basik’s “Music For Absentees” And “Unattractive World”

Siblings Yu and Rima Kato comprise Family Basik, a project offering up intricate chamber pop. It’s far busier than Rima Kato’s sparse solo work, and often features lyrics with a slightly darker bend (see 2014’s A False Dawn And Posthumous Notoriety, a generally chipper collection speckled with lyrics about death). The duo have a new album out later this week, but you can hear two songs from it now. “Music For Absentees” hints at a dreamier turn for Family Basik, merging electronic touches, strings and xylophone cascades with Rima Kato’s repeated vocals. Yet this passage — inviting but melancholy — gives way to an extended jam, pushing the number in new directions and adding some force to this vision. Listen above. “Unattractive World” is closer to what Family Basik did on their first release, pairing skippy music with far more downtrodden lyrics, though the highlight comes when the song just starts fluttering off. Listen to that below.