New Half Mile Beach Club: “Bee Line”

Zushi outfit Half Mile Beach Club has always let a certain darkness creep into their music — distorted vocals turned a tropical breezer like “Yankee” into something alien, while numbers like the still-spell-binding “Twilight” sounded lonely thanks to a late-fall-at-a-resort feel. “Bee Line” finds them getting a bit more direct with their grittiness. It opens with a famous bit of dialogue from Taxi Driver — “You talking to me?” — which immediately establishes a setting. This is a New York song, or at least a crew living by the ocean a couple hours outside of Tokyo imagining a quick-moving and slightly worn down city that possibly doesn’t exist anymore. Yet this potentially dream version of the city sure sounds nice in their hands, the band laying down a swift groove accented by saxophone blurts and upright bass notes. It’s appropriately cinematic in scope, and inviting in its far-off image. Listen above.