Bloom

Three-song Cassette

Self-released

Genres: indie pop, shoegazer, dream pop

Feb 10 - 16 2003

It came in a little package containing a Japanese-edition Carpenters cassette case with a little homemade tape inside it.  From Japan.  Along with the cassette came a sheet with lyrics and a small blurb just notifying me that the singer's name is Bloom.  Aside from that, I can't really find anymore information on the guy.  Mysterious.

The first track on the cassette is "Tokyo Trial," a little pop number with simple train-of-thought lyrics ("My love/Your/Love/Facing/The world").  It's basically a guitar-and-vocals singer/songwriter type song, with a rhythm section that sounds as if somebody was hitting the microphone against their knee in time with the music.  It has a simple, understated charm to it, sounding kind of like a lo-fi/indie pop/shoegazer hybrid.

The second track is "Dragons," which is slightly more complex than the first. It's got some really neat chords going on in its second half - they work well to build the track's nice atmosphere.

The third track, "Star," then finishes things off in a much more powerful, emotional manner.  It's a nice track that will appeal to most shoegazer fans (who will dig its airy, majestic catchiness.)  Very well done.

Altogether, this is a very nice artifact that will appeal to fans of Japanese indie pop and shoegazer music.  It's considerably better than most little hometapes.  So now, what label's going to get to Bloom first?

83%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 3 songs, not distributed [e-mail here to ask for a copy], released 2002]