Sapphire Slows - True Breath

Sapphire Slows is a girl from Tokyo. I bet Sapphire Slows isn't even her real name, but then I thought that about Lady Gaga too so what do I know? This EP on the consistently wonderful Not Not Fun contains five longish tracks of her dreamy shoegaze-meets-Italo stylings. Thoughtful laid-back disco that should make your rough Sunday mornings seem that bit smoother. Basically we've got slow house beats with cheeky electronic flourishes, and then swathes of indecipherably smudged vocals (although they're probably in Japanese anyway...) smothered liberally on top. The tunes are really simple and hypnotic and pretty catchy in their own unobtrusive way, with the electronics and synth tones complementing each other very smoothly. To be honest this girl's a bit of a revelation...shoegaze, house, goth, disco influences all thrown together to make something that sounds totally natural and unforced throughout. This doesn't sound unlike something you'd expect to be put out on NNF's similarly consistent 100% Silk imprint right now, which is to say that it's forward-thinking-yet-retro dreamy house music with a very human pulse behind it. I had no expectations either way before I spun this and it's the surprise gem of the day for me. Closer 'You Got True Breath' especially is an inspired glacial sheet of stoic synth dreaminess that's worth the price of admission alone, but there's not a weak track on here. This is well worth investigating. Can't wait to hear the full-length that's apparently due some time next year!