Nagisa Ni Te

Just as the beautifully coloured artwork suggests, Nagisa Ni te’s third North American release is heavily inspired by two people existing in a natural world. Much like the band’s previous records, The Same As A Flower is a warm amalgamation of vintage pop, psychedelic, prog and folk that thankfully never strays into pretentious or mind-numbing experiments. Heavily influenced by Neil Young (the band’s name translates as "On the beach”), songwriter Shinji Shibayama uses very simple song structures to introduce his musical ideas. "River,” for instance, features only a faint electric guitar, and instead, relies on the harmonies of himself and band-mate, Masako Takeda, to give the song life. "A Light” follows suit with a barren Galaxie 500 backdrop of hushed drums, vibes and guitars that leaves the spotlight to shine on Takeda’s lovely voice. The gentle dynamics of Nagisa Ni Te’s music is largely due to Shibayama’s grasp of both pop and the avant-garde. His unmistakable knack for melody is as defined as his interests to veer left into obscurity when composing a song. The Same As A Flower is a brilliantly naked piece of music that benefit’s from both Shibayama’s obvious influences and his ability to think outside of the box.