The Saboten

Saboten's music is a puzzle. The young female quartet from Tokyo plays rock instruments (guitar, bass, keys, and drums) but they don't exactly make rock music. Without knowing if this is true, Saboten seem to come from a classical background — imagine one of dutifully studying piano in their parents' drawing rooms — then switched to the immediacy of a live band context at university. The playing is rough, sparse, the singing endearingly naive. The first half of the album is devoted to their impressionistic songs, such as "Emerald Echo" and "Low Chair," mix and match cut-ups of melody, with the arrangements offering up duets of plucked guitar leads and synthesizer runs. "Excessive Premonitions" switches halfway into a Spanish dance, complete with homegrown castanets. The second half focuses on instrumentals, ranging from a twisted surf-not-surf song ("Hi no Maru") to their own Martin Denny exoticism ("Knee Guitar"). As admirers of Erik Satie, they cover one of his pieces ("Yachting") on "Kanojo," turning it into something strange and burbling, and another on "Horse."