Something that has been on my mind recently is trying to remember how music sounded when I was younger, and how being a teenager I often felt like music was the only thing I ever needed — it was my safe space, and motivation, and the thing that made all the joys of life sweeter and cushioned all the bad parts. That’s a very teenage feeling, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a powerful truth to have experienced. There are instances on Osaka indie-pop quartet Whisper Voice Riot’s “Stargaze” — technically a re-recorded version of an older song, and much better — where that same youthful zest drips out of the distorted guitar and eyes-on-the-prize beat, when the male-female vocals overlap in this very sweet way and the intensity picks up ever so much, the band feeling like getting everything they need to into this song is vital. It is hardly daring musically — if anything, it shows that a band such as Ykiki Beat might be reaching a wider audience — but the passion comes through loud and clear. Listen above.
