Album Review: Kishi Bashi - 151a

151a is the debut offering from Japanese violinist/indie-pop extraordinaire, Kishi Bashi. Following on from the grand sound of breakthrough EP, Room For Dream, he continues with the electro-pop vibes, venturing from upbeat to the depressing. It's grandeur from the start as opener, Intro/Pathos, Pathos' soaring violins take you to a better place before being traded in for a driving drum machine loop and patchy guitars. Manchester and Bright Lights pop up as reinterpreted versions of the EP that don't necessarily stray too far away from their original form, but still feel to be strengths on the record.

The influences at times seem to consume whole pieces on the record, such as Wonder Woman, Wonder Me (Andrew Bird) and Chesters Burst Over The Hamptons (Animal Collective), and while they aren't bad, it just feels that moments of originality are lost. Thankfully the quirk pop of It All Began With A Burst and the falsetto charm of I Am The Antichrist To You save the album from being a karaoke compilation. Also included on the record are a number of bonus tracks that prove to be the real highlights. At The End Of The World is a tender track with strings synching perfectly with the nature of the lyrics. Final track, Unicorns Die When You Leave, is by far the oddest one on there, sounding like feel-good Kid Rock combined with Sufjan Stevens and Hanson – which is actually kinda cool.

151a is not necessarily a bad record, but with Kishi's contemporaries having released records in the past year it just doesn't feel essential, which is really all that's asked for.