• Maya Ongaku “Electronic Phantoms” LP

Following on from their 2023 debut album, Approach to Anima, the trio have mildly transformed their sound. As the album art for the EP hints, there is a vintage electronica texture that runs throughout the recent work. This dabbling with old 808s and oscillators provides a noir element to the band’s otherwise gentle acid folk. It creates a feeling of a quiet morning before the afternoon heist.

There might be retro equipment brought back to glory on Electronic Phantoms, but the album feels oddly like it could’ve been recorded in either 1964 or 2064. The whirling acid folk and new age mix is a spellbinding combination that proves subtly entrancing and acutely energising.

It’s an album for dreamers and yet it firmly defines what life in modern Enoshima is like in its own idiosyncratic way. The past and present are as palpable as the dissolution of time in a whirling sound that carries a haze of unknowable depth. Another gem from Maya Ongaku.