When real-life composer Lawrence English travelled from Brisbane to perform in Tennoji, Japan, he shared a bill with the (coincidentally also real-life) experimental pop artist Ytamo. This real-life connection is one example of many in the historic lore of experimental music and serves as an apéritif to the wonderful world of real life that awaits you after you log off Tiny Mix Tapes. But while you’re here, it’s our pleasure to inform you about the release of Ytamo’s MI WO, which is out March 17 on Room40 imprint Someone Good.
MI WO was made to accompany an exhibition with the Argentinian artist Natali Katz, a plush sculptor of cute, oddly terrifying monsters and an interesting physical complement to the rowdy playfulness of the album. Ytamo’s creativity in flexing keyboard lullabies extends to apocalyptic SNES snares. The album is stunningly diverse in its instrumentation, with tracks like “100 Bird Stories” and “Hen” melding highly synthesized tones with more organic-sounding percussion. Ytamo’s voice and piano is a pleasant whisper throughout, cropping up in the ambience at just the right moments, as if to enliven a hustle between terminals in the Newark airport with a massive polar teddy bear in one hand and a suitcase with a broken wheel in the other.
A short film has been made to accompany the album, and Tiny Mix Tapes has the pleasure of premiering it below. While not nearly as elaborate or obtrusive as some of Japan’s game shows, the video for “Human Ocean” sees Ytamo interacting with an otherwise oblivious audience, who become part of the spectacle as they walk through the subway, unknowingly reversed, decoupled from their environment and from our normal experience of time.
Mi Wo tracklist:
01. Hamon
02. Autopoiesis
03. Colourful Waves
04. Human Ocean
05. Hen
06. You Me
07. 100 Bird Stories
08. Sensorial Are