Shugo Tokumaru Rum Hee / Katachi

As if blessed with the ability to summon birdsong at the strum of his guitar, Shugo Tokumaru has carved out a distinguished career with a master's approach to crafting intricate pop melodies. P-vine is delighted to be pairing two popular singles from two of his most loved albums to release as a 7" single. Back in 2010, Tokumaru released his fourth album Port Entropy and its collage of ideas is no better demonstrated than on the fifth track "Rum Hee" where toy boxes are entrusted with melody lines and Tokumaru's soothing tenor voice colours in the rest. His follow-up album In Focus? arrived two years later, and lead single"Katachi" - with its sound-box of recorders, accordion, melodica and all kinds of instruments one might expect to find stored away in a typical Japanese middle-schooler's closet - is as charming as it is uplifting and waltzes straight to the heart. The music video by Kijek/Adamski was a perfect companion piece to the single picking up best commissioned film at Animafest Zagreb and also making it into Pitchfork's best music videos of the year list.