Review Summary: Drowning here in summer’s cauldron
Garrett Yim (aka Meishi Smile) has kept himself busy the past couple of years. He is the founder of his own label Zoom Lens, which hosts a series of enigmatic bedroom auteurs creating synth-laced dream pop, spiked by the occasional experimental/harsh noise project (one project that Yim records under, Yūko Imada, falls under the latter). It’s interesting to hear Yim embracing such a wide array of sound, clearly possessing an acute ear for both extremes. Far beyond the abrasive harsh noise of his Yūko Imada project, resting somewhere off the coast of a small, desolate island inside the pages of a wild and colorful manga is Meishi Smile, who lives off the code “
the eternal feeling of summer and youth taken by 2D form”.
Taking his own description into account,
mYSTERIOUS sUMMER vACTION marks the first new material from Meishi’s tropical Japanese paradise since 2012’s
Lust.
vACATION is a remix EP of sorts, but what exactly it’s “remixing” I know not, so we’ll use the term loosely. Right away we’re met with an ocean-soaked house thump on “放課後の約束 (☼ SUMMER BREEZE ☼ RMX.)”, opening the EP with a wondrously inviting launch party of seaside brass and cascading vocals. It’s the kind of up-tempo blue-skied charm you’d find scoring the fast-paced eternal dreamscapes of the Emerald Coast in Sonic Adventure. Cleaning up the fetti is “L/M/B/W/Y (*** REAL LIFE ANIME IS REAL LIFE™ RMX.)” a similarly club-ready celebration of glitchy Japanese kawaii vocals, ultimately making for a more aggressive mix as thick red strobe lights drench the straw and tiki walls.
The party quiets down a bit on “zZz (LULLABYE RMX.)”, opting for a glitchier set of dreamy repetition, something that this bold world of infinite tropical optimism would call a “ballad” of sorts. A slight stylistic shift is found following this on “FOR U (♂ INNOCENCE RMX. ♀)”, an even more stripped down and emotional mix than its predecessor, ideal for reflection by the shore while starring out into an immensity of blue water and sky. After this reflection we’re met with the most gorgeous mix of all on “バーモント・*ッス (DREAM POP RMX.)”, a lavish hallucination of aural cumulus clouds drenched in light-as-air femme fatale. It’s an opus of imagination and daydreams on the wing, like starring out the plane window and reflecting on your tropical fantasy vacation to foreign nebulous realms. And that’s what
mYSTERIOUS sUMMER vACTION is all about, taking us somewhere far beyond our perception of reality, to a place where optimism and tropical grandeur reigns in a hazy artificial world known as consciousness.
