Mamitori hides a form of twee pop unwittingly battered by no wave, and whose every chord could be a blank bullet. You could be mistaken for thinking you were hearing My Bloody Valentine pranged by the Shaggs, the Pastels bullyraged by Mars, Pere Ubu holding paws with Swell Maps. Is a new No Tokyo emerging 35 years after No New York ? This live set in front of a ghost-like public serves as a hint of this Japanese band’s profound peculiarity. “The six songs here speak to the mysticism of another Japanese ensemble with as large a reputation as a body of work, Les Rallizes Denudes, but while that group built themselves up over long tracks, Mamitori (the preferred abbreviation) confines itself mostly to 4-5 minute stretches, quickly establishing a melody and a beat, and getting colorful over top.” (Still SIngle)

Soft, caressing and subtly disturbing, Frightening Lights’ songs move like menace through fog. Singer Elizabeth Downey says she first envisioned the songs as a kind of deathbed confession, their violence is carefully suppressed, modulated perhaps through long penitence. Shreds of instrumental sound – a funeral organ, an offkilter accordion, discordant bowing on a borrowed danbo – flit in and out of the peripheries, creating eerie, flickery landscapes around Downey’s sleepy murmurs. “It’s a strong mix of a contemporary sound offset in traces of the avant-garde, and though the comparisons to Mazzy Star and Opal are strong, they don’t detract from what this duo has to offer.” (Still Single)