Fishmans - ゆらめき In The Air (Album Review)

 

Fishmans - ゆらめき In The Air

(1998)

My copy: 2007 Fishmans Rock Festival box set press by Universal Music and Polydor.

Translated as “Flickering In The Air,” this thirteen-minute longform single stands as the final studio release from Fishmans (barring live recordings). The vinyl copy includes their first and only instrumental mix on the B-side. Beginning far away, the music tramples the senses as tangles of psychedelic sound effects trickle and spiral around Shinji Sato’s euphoric falsetto. The rhythm section seems to be the last bastion tying their music to dub, sitting steadily as a blank canvas for dreamy melodic brushstrokes. Violin also rises into the mix, elevating the tone with added drama. 

This simple structure is what holds them back from reaching the height of something like Long Season: which similarly embraces repetition albeit in a rare, genre-defying style. This may, however, be Sato’s strangest vocal experiment yet as his lyrics later devolve into child-like babbling - gliding alongside bubbly keyboard effects. The sound palette is heavenly and ethereal, almost crossing over into electronic dance sounds in spite of the groovy bass and drums. 

With Sato’s odd and bewildered vocal performance, they perhaps sensed that some would prefer just the instrumental track - in actuality, his vocals are the most interesting aspect. While structurally typical, ゆらめき In The Air still succeeds at logically progressing from their final full-length.