Shugo Tokumaru - Port Entropy

Shugo Tokumaru
Port Entropy
(2010, P Vine Records)
RIYL = Colourmusic, Adem, Sufjan Stevens

Consider this a plea to begin or quicken any and all plans pertaining to the stateside distribution of Shugo Tokumaru’s 4th full length album, Port Entropy. I have long wanted to visit Tokumaru’s homeland of Japan just to sip of the water running through their pipes, that Japanese water, to see if I felt as a result some odd tingling in my fingers and toes, heard that pleasant, polyphonic buzz, saw the wondrous spread of vibrant colors that seem to be constantly beaming from that wonderful nation. I seem unable to separate my experience with Japanese culture from the hyper-imaginative films of Hayao Miyazaki, the absurdist whimsicality of the Katamari Damacy gaming series and the bright flutter of instrumentation that works its way through Shugo Tokumaru’s blissful pop. Port Entropy is simply another notch of pop perfection in Tokumaru’s already well notched belt. The guy is a brilliant, consistent and infinitely creative. A true artist, I say. And Port Entropy, his latest opus, may well be a high water mark in terms of his ability to intelligently express childlike joyousness. When listening to the album its difficult not grin wide and hard. Sure, I don’t understand a lick of the Japanese that Tokumaru sings, but the delicate tone of his voice simply can’t be mistaken. It also helps that Tokumaru is a master multi-instrumentalist (something we already knew). I don’t know, I don’t know. Port Entropy feels to me like that invisible wiring that raises the sun in the morning, that spreads the clouds wide and opens up the skies in order to warm the earth. I’m just happy to be caught in it all. Hopefully the distribution of Port Entropy becomes more widely available soon because you won’t experience summer the same way without it.

-Thistle

the Port Entropy website