Clams
Sakura River

The shoe-gazers, the alienated, people capable of thoughts as petty as they are of soaring heights, reaching the bottom to gain more momentum for the ascent.

Japan, the '80s, the japanoise remnants, then the peak of the shoegaze scene in the 2000s, which in recent years is gaining a following even outside the Land of the Rising Sun.

Japan, the permanent home of the greatest artists, aesthetes, and visionaries of the most refined and connoisseur-favored psychedelia; a guarantee that those who wish to muse and delirium seem to have it embedded in their DNA merely by being born and making music there.

The Clams, a band from OSAKA, released this five-track extended play in CD format with Finder Pop in 2003.

Osaka as the last Thule, Shangri-La, the Mecca of dreamers.

Osaka in the sky as the highest point of "contact" with the eternal sun and the promise of paradise.

Osaka detaches from the earth, in a soap bubble, glass sphere, dandelion seed in the wind, floats in the sky.

The takeoff with "Sundae Bird," the most shoegaze of the batch, followed by "See the Brightest Star," "Applecider," "Sunlight Yellow," increasingly earthly and in Shibuya-style. Finally "Circulation," less successful, the guitars regain control, their "Soon," the landing.

The tension diminishes track by track.

More than songs, it's about atmosphere, the aesthetics of light, reflections, surface, transparency, emptiness. And on a note less tied to the Clams and more broad... the search for sound for the sake of sound itself.

I highly recommend reading the other review of the Clams written by Core-a-core, much more inspired. Mine is more of a mention.

The Clams re-released the EP in 2015 with a bonus track, a remix of a song that appeared on the eponymous 2003 album.

5 songs: 4 valid, 1 less valid... rating 4.

A taste on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STRYOZp2c3g