#Yuki Chikudate

[michellezagenda]

Yuki Chikudate, my beloved <3

[lovejustforaday]

Album Review - Citrus by Asobi Seksu

Citrus - Asobi Seksu

Main Genres: Shoegaze, Dream Pop, Indie Pop

A decent sampling of: Twee Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Noise Pop

In the conversation of greatest shoegaze and dream pop bands of all time, you usually hear a lot of the same names: My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Ride, Slowdive, Beach House, or maybe even Mazzy Star. But one name that doesn’t get mentioned nearly as often as it should is Asobi Seksu.

Asobi Seksu were an American indie rock band consisting of songwriting duo Yuki Chikudate on vocals and keyboards, and James Hanna as lead guitarist, with a rotating rhythm section that changed from LP to LP. Critics never really gave them a fair chance, but to me they are the finest band to lead the wave of “nu-gaze” that took place over the mid-to-late 2000s.

While a lot of new shoegaze bands today are made up of younger millennials and zoomers who are very traditionalist in recreating the sounds of the original scene, the 2000s “nu-gaze” “““revival””” saw a lot of bands who wanted to expand the genre’s scope. “Nu-Gaze” bands usually fell into one of two cluster groups:

Cluster A was made up of bands incorporating prominent electronic elements to expand on the soundscapes of the original scene. Cluster B bands were making riff-heavy alternative rock that blended shoegaze guitar tones and walls of sound with clearer vocals and more distinct melodic structures, building more on the foundations of bands like Ride or Lush than the likes of MBV.

Asobi Seksu’s self-titled debut falls into the latter category, with a college-radio-esque record of mostly no-nonsense shoegaze and indie pop. It’s a pretty great record itself, but it wasn’t exactly career defining, and if it had ended there, I would say they were another above-average shoegaze band that I listen to mostly just cause they happen to make my favourite subgenre of music.

Something truly brilliant came after though. The band decided to embrace the more immersive dream pop + heavy shoegaze hybrid sound that defined most of the greatest bands of the original movement. But beyond that, the band retained their indie pop melodies and developed a vivacious, sanguine, high-energy formula that set them apart from a scene that had always mostly been defined by subtlety, introspection, and bittersweetness. The resulting album was Citrus.

True to its name, Citrus is a viscous smoothie concoction of saccharine and tangy flavours, expressed in the form of Yuki Chikudate’s frolicking vocal melodies and bright keyboard notes mixed with James Hanna’s roaring walls of sound. True to its cover art, the sonic colours of this record consist of vibrant shades of vermilion, tangerine, and daffodil. This LP is the sonic equivalent of the feeling you get from that first refreshing taste of ice cream on a hot summer’s day. A magnificently vivid experience all around.

A lot of shoegaze bands stick to very strict conventional rock instrumentation - drumkit, bass, and lots of guitars. Maybe an added string section on a song here or there for dramatic effect. But on Citrus, I hear not only the addition of Yuki’s keyboard leads, but also organs, xylophones, sleigh bells, and even toy pianos.

Citrus fades into view with “Everything Is On”, a 17 second ambient intro that sounds something like an arcade submerged in a swimming pool. Normally, I’m not particularly drawn to the trend of albums opening with these odd micro-tracks. This one instance really works however, because it contrasts ever so nicely with the bright, jangly opening guitars of “Strawberries“, the album’s proper introduction.

Speaking of, “Strawberries” is the sound of summer in full bloom, with a splendid pseudo-call-and-response riff that bounces like a yo-yo in between several intermissions of crushed shoegaze drone that feel not unlike dunking your head in a bucket of ice water. I love hearing what sounds like a rotary organ buried deep into the mix of those intermissions. The track ends brilliantly with a major tempo and rhythm shift into a rampant breakdown of manic rock instruments and festive celebration.

“Thursday” is the single greatest song of the 2000s “nu-gaze” revival, and indeed one of the very greatest indie rock songs of all time. A brief ghostly prelude foreshadows a blurry four minute burst of love and ecstasy, with one of the most pleasing choruses I’ve ever heard where Yuki offers the kindest words of concern “it seems you’ve lost your way, you’ve let it all fall apart”. This is the feeling of waking up at the end of a depressive episode and crying tears of joy as you gaze up at the sunny sky and realize that you're happy just to be alive. By the end of "Thursday”, I am completely smitten with the very notion of life itself.

The gentle strums of “Strings” open up into a sun-soaked daydream. Like on several other tracks here, Yuki uses English and Japanese interchangeably, allowing the sounds of her syllables to convey the necessary emotional imagery to non-bilingual listeners as she practically skips and hops her way through the song in an impressive display of vocal gymnastics. The wall of sound orchestrated at the end of this track is one of my all time favourites in the history of shoegaze and noise pop, like an enormous heatwave that hits you all at once.

The glorious midpoint and climax of Citrus is the seven and a half minute wonder “Red Sea”, a vision of a world that lies beyond the horizon while surfing the waves of a vast and foamy ocean. This track reaches monumental heights that I find particularly hard to put into words. What I will say is that this is second place to “Thursday” only by a small fraction, and it contains around the three minute mark one of the most captivatingly nostalgic melodies I’ve ever heard.

“Goodbye” is the sole occasion of a mostly straightforward indie pop song on this record, and its one of the sweetest breakup songs you’ll probably ever hear. “Lions and Tigers” is a distant meadow of dream pop that makes me feel like I’m a kid and I’m hugging my friend one last time before they move to another city. “Nefi + Girly” is like a follow-up to “Strawberries”, with another playful lead guitar riff and a dreamy keyboard lead that sounds like its splattering an empty canvas of indie rock with lively paint colours.

“Exotic Animal Parade” slows the record down for a brief melancholy ballad before exploding in a dream like it never even existed. “Mizu Asobi” emerges from the aftermath to finish off the record with one last beam of radiant joy before the festivities end with a bang.

As a footnote, I would like to add that, although they never count towards my final rating of a record, the bonus tracks/b-sides/etc. from the Citrus era are some of the best deep cuts ever released. Likewise, here’s some quick thoughts on those:

The band recorded two covers of two mid-20th century classics during this album cycle, including a twinkling, wistful haze rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “All Through The Day” as well as a giddy, fleeting noise pop cover of The Crystal’s “Then He Kissed Me”. Both are excellent examples of how to expand on their respective originals, reviving vintage pop classics with gorgeous soundscapes. There’s also the stand alone single “Stay Awake”, a sweeping end-of-chapter moment with some of the most excellent indie rock dynamics I’ve ever heard.

Like most people these days, Loveless was my first shoegaze record and my formal introduction to one of indie rock’s most elusive subgenres. It was good enough at the time to make me listen to a few more shoegaze bands, but Citrus was the record that made me fall in love with the genre medium. It was Citrus that allowed me to go back and fully appreciate Loveless as the masterpiece that it is, and later fall in love with other brilliant shoegaze records like Souvlaki and Ceres & Calypso In The Deep Time.

This album was also the unofficial soundtrack to most of my time as an undergrad. It played on my bus rides into the city and during walks around campus downtown on those last few days of exams before the summer. It helped me more than any other record to get through the worst year of mental health in my life. I am endlessly fond of this beautiful work of art, and I am truly grateful for how Asobi Seksu managed to expand my horizons. This will forever be one of my favourite records. Happy 15th anniversary Citrus.

10/10

highlights: “Thursday”, “Red Sea”, “Strawberries”, “Lions and Tigers”, “Strings”, “Goodbye”, “Nefi + Girly”, “Mizu Asobi”, “New Years”, “Everything Is On”, “Exotic Animal Parade”

[fangomusic]

Asobi Seksu, Citrus (2006)

Classic Albums

Keeping shoegaze alive through a major league record by an absolutely great band, their music influences are noticeable on the first listen but the energy, the new ideas, and the heart and soul, along with screens of guitar buzz, loud and soft drifts, a lot of reverb and echo on the vocals make a good, daring, and memorable pop album. The cover art design is gorgeous.

[spicytunez]

Asobi Seksu | Umi De No Jisatsu

It’s another hot summer morning

Sun’s out again

Everybody, let’s all go meet by the sea

Let’s all go kill ourselves in the sea

[vulnicura]

i love when people get explicit permission from artists to get a tattoo. like go all out of their way & shit even if its common knowledge that they could just get it without permission. my love goes especially hard for ppl who track down the actual artists when they want to get album art tattooed on them

[tasksweekly]

[TASK 199: RYUKYUAN]

In celebration of May being Asian American Heritage Month, there’s a masterlist below compiled of over 80+ Ryukyuan faceclaims categorised by gender with their occupation and ethnicity denoted if there was a reliable source. If you want an extra challenge use random.org to pick a random number! Of course everything listed below are just suggestions and you can pick whichever faceclaim or whichever project you desire.

Any questions can be sent here and all tutorials have been linked below the cut for ease of access! REMEMBER to tag your resources with #TASKSWEEKLY and we will reblog them onto the main! This task can be tagged with whatever you want but if you want us to see it please be sure that our tag is the first five tags, @ mention us or send us a messaging linking us to your post!

THE TASK - scroll down for FC’s!

STEP 1: Decide on a FC you wish to create resources for! You can always do more than one but who are you starting with? There are links to masterlists you can use in order to find them and if you want help, just send us a message and we can pick one for you at random!

STEP 2: Pick what you want to create! You can obviously do more than one thing, but what do you want to start off with? Screencaps, RP icons, GIF packs, masterlists, PNG’s, fancasts, alternative FC’s - LITERALLY anything you desire!

STEP 3: Look back on tasks that we have created previously for tutorials on the thing you are creating unless you have whatever it is you are doing mastered - then of course feel free to just get on and do it. :)

STEP 4: Upload and tag with #TASKSWEEKLY! If you didn’t use your own screencaps/images make sure to credit where you got them from as we will not reblog packs which do not credit caps or original gifs from the original maker.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE FOR THIS TASK -  examples are linked!

Stumped for ideas? Maybe make a masterlist or graphic of your favourite faceclaims. A masterlist of names. Plot ideas or screencaps from a music video preformed by an artist. Masterlist of quotes and lyrics that can be used for starters, thread titles or tags. Guides on culture and customs.

Screencaps

RP icons [of all sizes]

Gif Pack [maybe gif icons if you wish]

PNG packs

Manips

Dash Icons

Character Aesthetics

PSD’s

XCF’s

Graphic Templates - can be chara header, promo, border or background PSD’s!

FC Masterlists - underused, with resources, without resources!

FC Help - could be related, family templates, alternatives.

Written Guides.

and whatever else you can think of / make!

MASTERLIST!

F:

Ikue Asazaki (1935) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Misako Koja (1954) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Tamlyn Tomita (1966) Japanese Ryukyuan / Filipino - actress and singer.

Brenda Shaughnessy (1970) Japanese Ryukyuan / Unspecified White - poet.

Naoko Mori (1971) Japanese Ryukyuan / Japanese - actress and singer.

Rimi Natsukawa (1973) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Laura Kina (1973) Japanese Ryukyuan / Basque, Spanish, Irish, French, Dutch, English - artist and writer.

Lisa Marie Scott (1974) Japanese Ryukyuan / Scottish, Swiss - actress and model.

Traci Toguchi (1974) Japanese Ryukyuan / Japanese - actress and model.

Satoko Ishimine (1975) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer. 

Merle Dandridge (1975) Japanese Ryukyuan, Korean / African-American - actress and singer.

Rikki / Ritsuki Nakano (1975) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Namie Amuro (1977) 3/4 Japanese Ryukyuan, 1/4 Italian - recording artist, producer, songwriter, dancer, model, actress and entrepreneur.

Cocco / Makishi Satoko (1977) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer-songwriter.

Reina Miyauchi (1978) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Chitose Hajime (1979) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Yukie Nakama (1979) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress and jpop idol.

Ryōko Kuninaka (1979) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress and singer. 

Olivia Lufkin (1979) Japanese Ryukyuan / Unspecified White - singer-songwriter.

Rino Nakasone (1979) Japanese Ryukyuan - dancer, choreographer, and actress.

Caroline Lufkin (1979) Japanese Ryukyuan / Unspecified White - singer-songwriter.

Mika Uchizato (1980) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Rina Chinen (1981) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress and jpop idol.

Hitoe Arakaki (1981) Japanese Ryukyuan - jpop idol.

Uehara Takako (1983) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress and jpop idol.

Eriko Imai (1983) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress and singer-songwriter.

Kazuha Sakiyama (1984) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress.

Aya Ueto (1985) Japanese Ryukyuan / Ainu - actress, singer, and tv personality.

Louisa Krause (1986) 1/4 Japanese Ryukyuan, 3/4 German, English - actress.

BENI / Beni Arashiro (1986) Japanese Ryukyuan / Unspecified White - actress, singer, model, and tv personality.

Manami Higa (1986) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress.

Natasha Allegri (1986) Japanese Ryukyuan / Bolivian [Unspecified Indigenous, Italian, French] - writer and artist.

Seina Shimabukuro (1987) Japanese Ryukyuan - model and reality television star.

Siori / Kinjou Shiori (1987) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer-songwriter.

Meisa Kuroki (1988) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress, model and singer.

Yui Aragaki (1988) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress, singer, model, and radio host.

Risa Niigaki (1988) Japanese Ryukyuan - actress and jpop idol.

AKINO / Akino Kawamitsu (1989) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Minami Kizuki (1989) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Fumi Nikaidô (1994) Japanese Ryukyuan / Japanese - actress and model.

Yuina Kuroshima (1997) Japanese Ryukyuan - model, actress, and tarento.

Kimiko Yeni Rojas (?) Japanese Ryukyuan / Costa Rican - actress.

Yu Yamada (?) Japanese Ryukyuan - model, actress, and singer.

Chihiro Kamiya (?) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Yuki Chikudate (?) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer and keyboardist.

Ako Castuera (?) Japanese Ryukyuan / Mexican [Spanish, Possibly Other] - writer and artist.

F - Athletes:

Ai Miyazato (1985) Japanese Ryukyuan - golfer.

Mika Miyazato (1989) Japanese Ryukyuan - golfer.

Ayaka Ikehara (1990) Japanese Ryukyuan - handball player. 

M:

Tatsuhiro Ōshiro (1925) Japanese Ryukyuan - writer.

Tadashi Yamashita (1942) Japanese Ryukyuan - actor and martial artist.

Shoukichi Kina (1948) Japanese Ryukyuan - musician.

Norihiro Yagi (1968) Japanese Ryukyuan - writer and artist.

James Iha (1968) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer.

Gackt / Gakuto Oshiro (1973) Japanese Ryukyuan - musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor.

Takeshi Kaneshiro (1973) Japanese Ryukyuan / Taiwanese - actor, singer, and guitarist.

Kishi Bashi / Kaoru Ishibashi (1975) Japanese Ryukyuan / Unspecified White - singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and violinist.

Jake Shimabukuro (1976) Japanese Ryukyuan - ukulele player and composer.

Akira Hiramoto (1976) Japanese Ryukyuan - artist. 

Brian Tee (1977) Japanese Ryukyuan / Korean - actor.

Yoshio Kojima (1980) Japanese Ryukyuan - comedian. 

Kousuke Atari (1980) Japanese Ryukyuan - singer.

Tokido / Hajime Taniguchi (1985)  Japanese Ryukyuan - professional gamer. 

Shintaro Yamada (1986) Japanese Ryukyuan - model, actor, and singer.

Norman Black (?) Japanese Ryukyuan / Irish, German - actor.

Johnnie M. Purvis (?) Japanese Ryukyuan / Italian, Scottish, French - actor and filmmaker.

Rob Kajiwara (?) Ryukyuan, Ainu, Native Hawaiian, Mexican [Nahua] - writer, actor, musician, and activist.

M - Athletes:

Yoshi Oyakawa (1933) Japanese Ryukyuan - swimmer.

Yoko Gushiken (1955) Japanese Ryukyuan - boxer.

Keith Nakasone (1956) Japanese Ryukyuan - judoka.

Katsuo Tokashiki (1960) Japanese Ryukyuan - boxer.

Akinobu Hiranaka (1963) Japanese Ryukyuan - boxer.

Edwin Uehara (1969) Peruvian [Japanese Ryukyuan] - footballer.

Dave Roberts (1972) Japanese Ryukyuan / African-American - baseball player.

Kazuki Ganaha (1980) Japanese Ryukyuan - footballer.

Shane Victorino (1980) Japanese Ryukyuan, Native Hawaiian, Portuguese, English - baseball player.

Nagisa Arakaki (1980) Japanese Ryukyuan - baseball player.

Yukiya Arashiro (1984) Japanese Ryukyuan - road bicycle racer.

Ken Gushi (1986) Japanese Ryukyuan - drifter.

Daigo Higa (1995) Japanese Ryukyuan - boxer.

Problematic:

Ryan Higa (1990) Japanese Ryukyuan - youtuber, actor, comedian, and musician. - Racist “jokes”.

[magdalenagay]

Yuki: Did you and Rachel have any problems hearing vocals onstage?

Neil: Yeah, we always had problems like that. We just sort of lived with it, and I think that the reason the vocals are always so quiet on the records is because we were used to the way it would be onstage–you’d never really hear a lot of the vocals [laughs].

Yuki: We have the same problem. People always complain and say ‘We can’t hear the vocals.’ Did you hear that a lot [playing] live?

Neil: Well, we definitely hid behind the guitars and stuff, vocals-wise… [But] it was more about the noise of the whole band, and the guitars were almost more important than what was happening lyrically.

Yuki: I feel like we have to explain that to people, because they don’t seem to understand that that’s the point–not to hear every single note and word that I sing.

Neil: Everyone’s kind of trained to pick the vocals out, because that’s how records sound, you know? In the ’60s, it was always just the drums and the vocals that would be loud. That’s the way people hear music.

Yuki: Our guitarist read somewhere that you guys used solid-state amps. Was that to distinguish your sound from conventional rock guitar, and let the liquidy reverb become the focal point of the sound?

Neil: I’m not really sure how that happened. When we got our first advance, we just went out and bought a whole bunch of stuff, but up to that point we just had these little amps that we just turned up as loud as we could. I think Christian used Marshalls and I use Rolands a lot of the time, just because they seem to be able to deal with all the frequencies a lot better than other amps. I’ve never been too techy about stuff like that. It’s kind of like, what you do is always dictated by your limitations, you know?

Yuki Chikudate (Asobi Seksu) and Neil Halstead (Slowdive)

https://xlr8r.com/features/yuki-chikudate-and-neil-halstead/

[mudpuddling-moved]

when yuki chikudate said there’s pills, straws, & bottles for all our bruised feelings, they mixed well in person but sting when they’re leaving

[hadrians-view]

[mamo-naku]

Yuki Chikudate on Asobi Seksu’s cover for Stay Awake / Then He Kissed Me single, 2007.

[888butter-blog]

Yuki Asobi Seksu

[vulnicura]

ok i think my main girls r björk, yuki chikudate (asobi seksu), buffy sainte-marie, M.I.A., devendra banhart, & chan marshall (cat power)

[mudpuddling-moved]

i cannot love yuki chikudate enough.

[yourneighborsatan-blog]

[crimesagainstcreations]

This is on of the saddest things

[asianamsmakingmusic]