Melodica Storm: Herajika’s “Hurricane”
With just a glance, it seems like Herajika exists to be just another Tokyo band filling in the cracks in a slowly blooming scene. Mental flares went off when I stumbled across the band’s latest EP Test 02 on the Violet And Claire web shop, the digital incarnation of a physical joint associated with Merpeoples, HNC and Miila and the Geeks among others. And to some degree, Herajika do. Yet their song “Hurricane” off of Test 02 sounds more indie-pop than any of the previously mentioned artists, who might veer towards twee but always avoid cliche with a few clever turns. “Hurricane” seems destined for quirky territory, with it’s twinkling touches and general cuteness, but it’s oddly an instrument that should make this even more cuddly that pushes it into a stranger place. A melodica, or at least something that sounds like a melodica, enters early on not as fuzzy backup but as a new idea bolting in, one slightly more downcast than the other sounds around it. The melodica breezes in and out, but its presence makes everything around it whirlpool together, the once earnest simplicity of “Hurricane” that threatened to break out in a picnic suddenly seems like it’s being pulled into a sinkhole. Listen here.
