From its nakedness we realize just how rich a world Shugo has designed with Night Piece, and just how subtle his musical gestures are.
The song doesn't take part in the world of Night Piece so much as consider it in retrospect- it's the least evocative track on the album, but its most tender for that very reason.
Then, a chase scene: "Paparazzi" is Shugo's virtuosic take on the theme from "The Benny Hill Show", a cartoonish one-man mummer's parade that doesn't strut so much as run for its life, with an unexpected hammock-swaying break here and there between the ensuing fretted mischief.Īfter covering so much musical terrain in only 23 minutes, Shugo finishes slowly and quietly with his unadorned lullaby, "A Kite of Night". Taken together, these highly stylized compositions form something of a dream sequence: "Sleet" throws us into an 8-bit Dragon Warrior village, while the goofy "The Mop" drags our sudden spurs through the golden dust of the American West. Shugo's sense of humor rears its head midway through Night Piece: The songs, which at times border on pastiche, somehow never undermine the album's cohesion. "Lantern on the Water" shimmers as broad cello strokes are fed through a lo-fi sampler and percussive bell sounds try their best to harness the spectacle's majesty with an incidental beat. On "Light Chair", Shugo's guitar plucking stomps to a contrasting, docile woodblock melody before losing itself in winding arpeggios. Through his prudent use of electronics, he begins to develop a strikingly unified worldview that Night Piece ultimately wills upon its listener. Other songs on Night Piece bear the same high degree of craftsmanship, but as the album presses on, we learn that Shugo has aspirations much larger than a string of catchy ditties. The song congeals unexpectedly but beautifully, and Shugo quickly reclaims the melody for his voice, buttressing it with stringed confidence and, by the song's outro, a little bit of bravado. Shugo strums in resignation, and turns to a distant accordion for last-ditch support. A million crickets drown out the night of "Such a Color" with sex-charged bug-buzz, when a sheepish Shugo begins to pluck out an equally fragile melody. Really, Night Piece is "just" a pop album, short but dense and infinitely considered: No note seems unnecessary, and everything is in its right place.įittingly, Night Piece starts at dusk. Shugo doesn't seem to fit into the glut of bedroom IDMers and their sound-alike electro-acoustic alchemy, and in addition to an obvious geographical contradiction, Shugo is just way too melodic for the stateside free-folk scene. Beyond that, there's not much of a gimmick to the songs on his debut album, Night Piece.
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