パジャマで海なんかいかない - Trip
Trip is the long-awaited highly anticipated first full length album from transcontinental experimental/neo-soul band パジャマで海なんかいかない (pajama de umi nanka ikanai, usually shortened to Paja Umi). While it’s a long ranging journey that spans multiple continents and musical genres, it revolves around a very human core of love, confusion, joy, and insecurity in a search for connection and meaning in modern life.
Paja Umi is a five piece band led by keyboardist Kazuhiro Bessho with its roots in neo-soul and jazz. The band started as an instrumental trio with bassist Haruna and drummer Seiya, and a couple of their first few singles are included on this album such as SOMI, HARU, and Dream Journey. These are your introduction to the Paja Umi sound in its purest form. The players all get to have some fun riffing around, there’s a few breakdowns, a change in pace, some wild distortion and reverb on the keys, and it certainly puts you in the mood for a journey, whether that’s flying on the wind or heading into the infinite. There’s a strong feeling of movement, even if it is just meandering around in the melody.
But the group truly finds its groove with the addition of vocalists Fija and Chloe Kibble. Blue was the first single with this full lineup, and the song refers to the blue light emitted from our various devices and how it takes us away from the world of the living and breathing. The music is thus given more substance and meaning, here we are in the 2020s, consciously choosing the artificial over the real. It climaxes in furious drumming with the voices soaring and crying out, ending in static and leaving the listener with an odd uncertain feeling.
The longing for connection and anxiety about feelings seem to be themes for this album. On Let Me Know and Between the Lines it’s expressed directly, wanting an object of affection to settle the confusion and tell how they feel. Similarly on Another Way, there’s a plea for help and to be able to love someone. On Trip the feelings are out of control, just wanting to run with it to the ends of the universe. And on Rain there’s a feeling of helplessness as they sing “why aren’t you here with me? How’d we end up here?” The flipside of this is that there’s a lot of noise and difficulty in trying to understand other people, it’s really frustrating for them and it feels like this issue is pronounced in modern society, as illustrated in Blue. Perhaps if we connect, we can find some answers or some peace.
The uncertainty and vacillation of feelings matches the style of music very well. The band switches between smooth playing and chaos within songs, there’s usually two moods in each song. It manifests in several ways as contrasts between introspection and passion, confidence and insecurity, action and letting go. The arrangements perfectly support the lyrics and the lyrics give the music direction.
As an example, Insecurity is a real highlight. The to-and-fro bass feels like the ruminating thoughts going round your head, the airy vocals lost up in the sky, the pulsing keyboards searching for meaning. The drums start off skittish and hyperactive as Fija sings about the plight of someone so lost. But when she gets to the line “cut the clouds so you can see the way”, just like that the arrangement opens up space for a moment of clarity. The song continues in that way as Fija explains her insecurity, and it's almost like she’s talking to herself in the mirror. As she comes to a realization in the bridge that “being yourself makes a difference”, the keyboards twinkle, and the arrangement snaps into order. The drumming becomes purposeful, the bass thrums in place, and the keys signal that you’re in the right place. Chloe joins in to reinforce the message “the more you do the things you like, the more you get better and closer to yourself”. And by the end of the song, the chaos makes sense - “you can see the way”.
The other theme is searching and discovery, which makes sense for an experimental band. Dissatisfied with the current situation or unsure of the truth, they’re trying to find a way forward, whether that’s in the arms of someone else or going somewhere. At any rate, some action is needed, and if we take that step the answers may be revealed- “Maybe we’ll figure out where we want this to go”, “どこまでも飛ばして we can find our infinite”. However, depth lies in details, and it’s not clear sometimes what the reasons are, where exactly we are heading or even what is at the end of the rainbow road. One imagines that for Paja Umi it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey, and the abstract over the concrete. And even if the destination is unknown, it’s a heck of a ride. For Paja Umi, the universe is full of possibilities. Let the vibes flow.
Tokyo ON also recommends: Anna Takeuchi - Tickets, TAMTAM - We Are The Sun!