New NITES: “Carcass Of The Sun”

“Carcass Of The Sun” marks a big turning point for Tokyo bedroom mysterian NITES. His previous releases have always been intriguing and highly listenable, but you also wouldn’t be faulted for sometimes feeling like all those songs sorta blend together, forming a lo-fi muck screaming “buy a better microphone.” With this, his latest offering, NITES ups his game big time. The first portion of the track sounds exciting enough…instead of minor-fuzz, he instead plops down some colorful circus-worthy sounds that recall a more relaxed Merriweather Post Pavilion-era Animal Collective. It’s oddly inviting – naive, childlike noises burbling around with very minimal percussion- that would have made for a solid two-minute number.

But at the two-minute mark, “Carcass Of The Sun” flares up. In comes a strong beat and a twinkling groove, and suddenly NITES has crafted an extremely sexy bedroom instrumental. He adds tiny additions as the song sparkles ahead, each new piece making the whole thing a bit more hypnotic. “Carcass” comes off as much bigger than anything else NITES…or nearly anyone in the CUZ ME PAIN camp…has done in the past, despite being built out of so many small parts. It’s an absolute triumph you should listen to here.