Katachi translated from Japanese to English means; ‘shape’ – the video’s directors; Kasia Kijek and Przemek Adamski taking this definition beyond the literal to another plane altogether. Using approximately two-thousand PVC cuttings, each individually painted and lined-up to make a stop-motion animation of sculptural proportions befitting Shugo Tokumaru’s addictive music. What’s more is that the directors were also the animators for this living artwork, its final form being close to ten metres in length.
Shugo Tokumaru’s electronic-pop beats are mirrored by the synchronicity of the animation, his video made all the more vivid for it. The abstract patterns shifting from inspirations of nature, to a silhouette of the artist himself as Tokumaru makes his way through a rainbow-coloured world. Eagles, sunrises, flowers and dolphins splash by in a second. But it’s only if you look really closely (and I must strain the really, at 12,5 frames per second) that you’ll see Tokumaru’s figure merge with the shapes; a circle head, a square body, to even a star and more, which is in line with his lyrics about keeping his shape.
From one shape comes another – their form and message relating to our memories, their amalgamation disjointed, incomplete and in effect having just a shape to them. No image in the video is more powerful than when Tokumaru’s figure produce these shapes – is he making new memories? Or when his outstretched arms enwrap a circle, does its disappearance signal that the memory is being absorbed? While the explosive amalgamation at the end is simply fantastic.
Shugo Tokumaru, like the ending to his pop-electronic Katachi, seeks to always redefine himself. His experimental electronics and use of multiple instruments changing a pop scene and forming an off-shoot that keeps growing – as does his exploration of sounds, such as a toy piano, clapping to water droplets. That’s not to say there’s not a recognisable sound to some of Tokumaru’s music, with the ending of Katachi having a similar starting rhythm to the 2010 album tracks of Lahaha, and Rum Hee (both from Port Entropy) – in a signature sound like that a bird call.
Tokumaru’s talent as a composer is once in a generation, while his singular notes of an instrument such as finger-picking guitar strings or the beats of a xylophone, to that of a recorder, that are most addictive. A collector of music, Shugo Tokumaru places original sound scores one on top of the other, while some of his albums have used music only he’s produced – effectively being a one-man band of orchestral proportions and unique soundbites, while retaining a sense of pop with his gentle and upbeat voice.
Other songs by Shugo Tokumaru we love:
- Hora (2020 – single)
- Sakiyo No Furiko (2020 – single)
- Dody (2016 – TOSS)
- Decorate (2013 – In Focus?)
- Such a Color (2004 – Night Piece)
Other artists you might like:
- Detektivbyrån
- I Am Robot And Proud
- Jim Guthrie
- Miyauchi Yuri
- OGRE YOU ASSHOLE
