3 out of 5

Label: Tip Top Recordings

Produced by: Kristian Bell (recorded by)

I do appreciate finding your niche, but Japanese Television’s self-described “space surf” feels like a bit of a misdirect. That stuff is there, but JTVI, an EP of four jams, is more firstly of a laid-back psychedelic vibe, then produced with a large dollop of reverb that gives its jaunty drums and bass that surf vibe… and occasional bleep bloop effects to bring in the spaciness. This isn’t meant as a slight: it’s an incredibly cool sounding combo, and it all comes across very, very naturally, with the surf elements admittedly getting more pronounced once each tune gets swinging. But it’s the non-surf elements that really end up selling this to me: the crackle of the production; the catchy, acid-soaked riffs; the fuzz on those rare occasions distortion is used for punctuation – it’s a very badass sound.

…If maybe one hard to push beyond the scope of this EP. The songs here often cut short, feeling like they’re not allowed to play out to full potential, perhaps in a desire to keep things “light.” That same shortness makes it easy to ignore that the range of what we’re hearing seems rather limited; that is: the general pace and vibes are shared from song to song, with nuance inserted sparingly as things heat up. It’s totally enough across these four tracks to make them repeatably enjoyable, but I can imagine going into a full length will require a bit more variation to hold our attention.