New Lemon’s Chair…Or Is It New Lemona/Masashi Imanishi?

All the names flying around Lemon’s Chair’s MySpace at the moment leave cartoon cuckoo-cuckoo clocks orbiting my skull. The two new songs featured in the player on Lemon’s Chair site credit “Lemona/Masashi Imanishi.” I know Imanishi’s a proper member of LC, but what’s Lemona? Like a low-calorie alternative?

The two recent additions definitely strike a different vibe then Lemon’s Chair played-straight shoegaze. This duo of tracks focuses on deconstruction, never approaching the fuzzy-freakouts LC usually venture to. Rather, the noise often filling the spaces of those songs get cut out, leaving only space for whatever is left to drift over. The meandering “Sonar,” a take on a 12-minute-long bruiser from the Lemon’s Chair catalog, removes all that made the original so great, replacing with ho-hum acoustic strumming that never goes anywhere of note. “Brilliant,” meanwhile, triumphs using the same formula – a thin layer of haze floats underneath the seemingly suspended noises making up the rest of the track. Whereas LC can pummel, “Brilliant” blankets. I just wish I knew who Lemona was.