Issue 281 July 2007
Andersens - Gzi Gzi Gzeo (Switchico Records)
"Like their compatriots Maher Shalal Hash Baz or Belle And Sebastian in their pre-Trevor Horn days, Japanese group Andersens delight in ramshackle, multilayered folk pop performed with a numerous and shifting line-up. Their second album (the first released outside Japan) clanks along with the cheerful enthusiasm of a school ensemble, an image evoked by the primary-colour melodies played in unison by xylophone, guitarist and trombone, the rhythm guitar clinging to a 4/4 downbeat, and Kiyokazu Onozaki's husky, half-spoken vocals, recalling less a limelight hogging frontman than a teacher conducting with his voice.
However, when they stop imitating a troupe of tin robots rattling themselves to pieces, Andersens draw towards a kind of naive psychedelia. "Tear" drifts away on a cloud of J-pop sugar, as second vocalist Yoshiko Iguchi breathes heavy-hearted longing over a backdrop of chirping crickets. Switching the leaden rhythmic chugging for a more jazz-influenced sensibility creates some of the album's most effective moments, letting the brass roam free: the horns on "I Am So Tired" display a cartoonish Dixieland droop, while the shimmering chimes and tremelo guitar of "Trombone Sounds Good In Summer" enhance its langourous brassy haze. By the time Andersens close the album with some piano/double bass improvisation on the stop-start "Margaret", they appear an altogether more subtle and sustained group than the first few tracks of twee shambling suggested."
- Abi Bliss
