Quick, Before It Melts.

Remember the first time you heard "Kid A" (the song not the album) and you waited for those first few blips and whirrs to morph into something sounding remotely like a melody? I had the same kind of experience, only slightly in reverse, as I sampled tracks from Lullatone Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous, the new album by Japan-based duo, Lullatone. I kept having moments where the first few bleeps and twirls of a song reminded me of Kid A, but instead of textures, Lullatone employs tunes and melodies aplenty. These songs could be the long lost siblings of that iconoclastic Radiohead track--albeit a female sibling whose content to lounge around in pajamas for the greater part of the day, and indulge her daydreaming and fantasy existence rather than reality. You can call her Kid L, if you like.


The sound combines toy instruments, found objects and a healthy dollop of creativity and originality from Lullatone's two members, Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida. There's is a love story: Sean met Yoshimi when she was an exchange student in the US. The two moved back to Japan when Yoshimi's visa ran out, and started to work together on creating "cute little pop songs full of hyperactive beeps and melodies". Limited on how many instruments they could carry with them to Japan, Shawn chose to bring only a toy keyboard. Adding Yoshimi's home computer to the mix would eventually produce melodies beautiful enough to sleep to, which would eventually lead the pair to release four albums of their ultra-cool, cross-cultural compositions. Lullatone Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous was released on AudioDregs yesterday (Dec. 5). To hear Yoshimi's voice mingle with the ultra-pink robotic clinks and clanks Shawn produces, check out the samples below:

Lullatone, "Floating Away"

Lullatone, "Bedroom Bossa Band"

Lullatone, "Pajama Party Pop"

Matt over at Skatterbrain had some nice things to say about Lullatone, too. Go check him out, his blog is lovely.