In the past, Azusa Suga’s Shortcake Collage Tape project has drawn a feeling of longing for the past…whether experienced or nostalgia for an idea of older times…from samples. His still-absorbing Spirited Summer used clips from an array of sources (anime, YouTube pre-roll ads, classical music) to build an out-of-time listen, more or less a vaporwave album eschewing irony in favor of honest-to-goodness emotion. It also all sounded like it was recorded to a VHS tape (in a good way).
“In Your Gentle Rain,” his latest, shows Shortcake Collage Tape doesn’t have to sound like a tape found in your parent’s attic to hit a nostalgic sweet spot. It is a very clear recording…it is piano, guitar touches and (most vital to the sense of this being disrupted in time and space) electric sounds gurgling beneath it all. It is a straightforward song, but emotionally evocative all the same. Listen above.