Kobe’s Tofubeats has always been a bit scatterbrained — dig in to any of his pre-majors albums on Bandcamp or even his DJ Newtown work and you’ll find him going off in a billion directions, jumping from rap to acid-house to slow ballads on each song. Yet since gaining access to a major-label and being able to bring in more singers, he’s become pretty consistent at at least one thing — making perky, hooky pop songs. Whether with idols, old comedians or others, he’s pretty solid at making a big pop song, the sort that gets the YouTube clicks.
“Positive,” off the forthcoming album of the same name, features his biggest feature yet — Dream Ami, of E-Girls (and, uh, Dream), a solo artist aiming to be huge in her own right following the massive success of her group. It’s an interesting counter-balance to something like “Stakeholder,” also set to appear on Positive and to now the Tofubeat’s best song, as it packs his Internet-addled approach into one song. “Positive” is more straight forward, an obvious pop bid (for Tofubeats and Dream Ami) anchored by that chorus. Tofubeats still imprints some of the best elements of his pop songcraft into it, though — the cascade of Auto-tuned Ami’s (and Tofubeats), the shifty verse music — but it’s ultimately further proof dude can construct a solid pop song while also zipping off in a thousand other directions. Watch the video above.