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Sugi.wa is a producer who caught the lo-fi wave at the right time and place. His place of birth being the cloudy and hazy United Kingdom, Sugi.wa implements bebop jazz samples with soft MPC peddling and drum patterns to make the perfect tune to study or drink black coffee to.
Video from College Music’s YouTube channel
His tunes are simplistic by nature, but are a necessary add-on to purging through mid-term season or getting hindered by traffic.
After a handful of years releasing singles and small projects, Sugi.wa finally introduces his twenty-track record, Romantic. The album features twenty tracks of VCR-encoded filter sounds that add haziness to his signature sound. Each track has its own distinctive sample and instrument choices. The track “I Was Up” involves sunny guitar strings that ride along freely with an auto-tuned voice sample, giving off an almost disorienting yet relaxing feeling.
The track “Remember Me” has tranquil chords leap over harmonic brass samples that feel airy and ethereal. The track “Oooyh” is right after, but increases the energy to a bouncy play between seething chords and a samba-like drum pattern.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day week, Sugi.wa’s first album proves that, once again, his craft serves a subtle but honorable purpose.
Image from radiojuicy.bandcamp.com