Soft As Snow But Warm Inside Break Up, Release Album, One Half Forms New Project Kuroguremore

The duo Soft As Snow But Warm Inside called it quits over the weekend. The pair, who have been around since July 2012, announced it on a Tumblr blog post. They didn’t release much music during their existence – two EPs and a track via Ano(t)raks – but what they did put out was very strong, far better and more energetic than most of the dreamy stuff coming out of Japan today (and they really don’t sound all that much like My Bloody Valentine).

However, they end the project with an exclamation point – they’ve also released their first (and final) full-length album, A Thaw for free on Bandcamp. It mainly serves as a compilation for what they already released, but gathers all their finest cuts into one very strong package. They’ve recorded a new mix for the driving, space-obsessed “Vogue,” their most driving song and one unafraid to play around with a soft/heavy disconnect (that beat that just charges in). The lurchier “Asymmetry” and the deceptively dreamy “When The Nightmare Ends” show off the bands ability to make good slow burners…not to mention the lyrics, readable on the Bandcamp page. They buff out A Thaw with remixes from some very talented producers. It’s a strong curtain call. Get it here, or listen below.

Yet one half of the project will carry on under the name Kuroguremore. Thus far, this new outfit has posted one new song, the intriguing “The Oregon Vortex.” Built around plucks, sampled dialogue, what sounds like bits of a Gold Panda song (“You”) and an absolute jackhammer of a beat that sideswipes into the song, it is a knotty affair moving in a slightly more maximal direction than Soft As Snow. Listen below.