American artist Teams is the sort of artist one could (unfairly) write off quickly just by glancing at his song titles. “Mile High,” “Based Love” and especially “Seven Daze A Weed” either paint him as a herb-obsessed dude who probably makes the sort of floating tunes everyone loved in 2009 and got sick of in 2010…or it’s a big joke which is even more annoying. Yet recall that “(unfairly)” – turns out Teams is a bit more capable, his music certainly earning the “hazy” description but also being deeper than that, full of shape-shifting samples and constantly being very danceable. Dude also teamed up with Star Slinger to record a pretty great EP last year, so he’s definitely not one to ignore.
Teams is touring Japan this weekend, playing three gigs: Friday night he teams up with White Lily Records (along with help from CUZ ME PAIN) to play Shibuya’s Lush, then the next night he will appear at the release party for Orland’s new album, which is at this place. He then goes to Osaka to play at the latest installment of INNIT. White Lily have put together a special album featuring a few Teams’ tracks along with some remixes of said numbers by Japanese musicians, including the rock outfit Nag Ar Juna, CUZ ME PAIN project White Wear and producer The Pegasuss. Solid stuff, which you can hear below (or buy, physically, around Tokyo).