Hailing from the vibrant Japanese port city of Kobe, The fin. elected to temporarily relocate to England’s equally bustling capital in autumn 2016 to explore the impact that life in London might bring to bear on their new material. Having signed to Lost In The Manor Records the previous year, the band’s growing renown on these shores has led to a surge of media interest and prime headline slots such as this year’s Great Escape Festival. A reputed and singular attraction in their homeland due to their stylish Europhile blend of synth-pop, chillwave and dream-pop, complete with English lyrics addressing universal themes of everyday uncertainties, The fin. have, since forming in 2012, performed before thousands of rapturous fans at major Japanese festivals including Fuji Rock, Rising Sun and Viva La Rock. Not content with such acclaim in one country alone, Yuto Uchino (vocals and synths), Ryosuke Odagaki (guitar), Takayasu Taguchi (bass) and Kaoru Nakazawa (drums) set their sights worldwide and in 2015 embarked on a major tour of the US, which included a performance at SXSW, before signing to Lost In The Manor and releasing their debut UK EP, ‘Night Time’. This spring’s deliciously refined follow-up, ‘Through The Deep’ only served to demonstrate the depth, versatility and scope of this terrific band, whose songs’ sonorous components, as evidenced in this new collection, are a remixer’s delight.
When All We Are toured with The fin. in Japan earlier this year, the two bands became firm friends, and the love that the Liverpool trio have put into their exceptional rework of ‘Anchorless Ship’ is clear. Rich, Guro and Luis convert the sparse funk of the original into a haunting cut of anthemic techno, upping the tempo, bottoming out the bass end and decorating the track with dissonant acid stabs. True to All We Are’s psych-disco leanings, their ‘Anchorless Ship’ evolves into a second act with a ferocious tribal edge, an invitation to dance that can’t be refused.
London’s blissful electro-indie pairing Ten Fé artfully craft their mix around the melodic synth washes of The fin.’s 60-second ‘Heat’, expanding the groove via a punchy bassline set to a motorik pulse, phasing the original sine-wave oscillations and warping frontman Yuto’s vocal into an alien drawl. This singular piece of extra-terrestrial kraut-funk builds to a euphoric climax, as horn stabs and sustained harmonics add colour to an irresistible clubland vibe.
The fin: White Breath (Yuto Uchino Remix)
Finally, Stockholm-born, Berlin-based ambient techno producer Axel Willner, aka The Field, transcends the rapturous dream-pop of the EP’s title track with an extraordinary 12-minute canvas of electro-minimalism. A hypnotic raga for our time, ‘Through The Deep’ here becomes an unusual jewel of rich, breathy experimentalism, almost imperceptibly peaking and troughing along its mesmerising sonic path.