Sweet and Serene
Scottish indie band The Pastels combined forces with Japanese duo The Tenniscoats at the end of the latter’s Scottish tour in 2008, since then a disarmingly charming album has been born. ‘Two Sunsets’ is full of tender, trippy tunes that have the innocent delights of folk music, with a more hypnotic backing that flaunts some psychedelic overtones.
Opener ‘Tokyo Glasgow’ is a delicate, serene tune sprinkled with airy woodwind sighs and about as distant from urban Glasgow and Tokyo as you could imagine. Tenniscoats and The Pastels reinvent their roots and give a natural and fresh take on their environment. ‘Two Sunsets’, one of the first tracks written by Tenniscoats for the collaboration, is a dreamy little indie number with a smattering of quirky percussion over a fairly simplistic folk melody.
There are some interesting instruments sewn into the tunes, alongside the usual cute indie staples with soft percussion and rippling backing. Everything seems to flow serenely into one pretty tune, rather than give individual instruments the chance to make or break a piece. However, if you’ve never heard experimental flute before, then be sure to check out ‘Yomigaeru’, a fun and flighty number full of sweet charm. The Japanese vocals also have a certain unusual and somewhat soporific edge to them, whisking the listener away to a mystical place of calm and bliss. The only downside to this is that occasionally you find your mind drifting just a little too far from the music and two or three tracks have passed by during your reveries, but if you like your music ethereal and easygoing, then you probably won’t mind a bit.
For the most part, ‘Two Sunsets’ sounds like a sleepy, slightly twee version of Sigur Ros with introspective cute twinkling tunes emerging from the multi-instrumental pieces, rather than the Icelandic band’s expansive epics. Dreamy and radiant, Tenniscoats’ Saya described the music as Pastels underneath with Tenniscoats flying over, which is a great way of conveying the flawless union of the two bands’ music.