kotoji : Everything
kotoji
Everything
The solo project of songwriter Anjila Lim, Kotoji’s sonics are exercises in confessional indie rock. With her first single, Roulette in My Head, she presented melodic sensibilities rooted in Japanese tradition, reminiscent of the pleasant jangle of Spitz and Love Psychedelico. Unfortunately, unlike other indie rock projects indulging in lo-fi glory, Kotoji’s first effort sorely lacked any intensity needed to sell it. Rather than adding to its emotional potency, the mix’s harsh nature, characterised by awkwardly mixed vocals, overly thinned out frequencies, and robotic drums obfuscated its potential, which showed glimpses of melodic inventiveness and potential. With Japanese influences often overlooked in the Singaporean music landscape, it largely felt like a lost opportunity – without an outwardly brash attitude nor sonic experimentation of her supposed peers (e.g. Weatherday, for example), Roulette… merely sounded like an unpolished demo.
On Everything, however, Lim manages to overcome Roulette's weaknesses, by finding a way to now wield her production’s lo-fi haze to her sonic advantage. Introducing the song with a tasteful, reverb-drenched riff, Lim creates a strong impression right out of the gate, signalling and ushering in the six minutes of seductive, slowburn guitar-pop to follow. With the mix now substantially fuller than its predecessor’s treble-heavy production, Everything’s newfound palatability allows for Lim’s vocal presence to shine. Here, cavernous reverb washes over the track, smearing her booming drums and jangly rhythm guitars with a smoky haze, while also cloaking her Bush-like vocal delivery in enticing shadows.
The result lands not far from recent Pitchfork-favored contemporaries, somewhere between Mitski-like melancholia and Alvvays' dreamy jangle, coloured with a slight gothic tinge. At times, the production does still become a double edged sword, unintentionally obscuring her voice and muddying the mix. But more often than not - the reverb-drenched mix manages to give a flattering quality to her vocal affectations. As she pushes her voice towards the highs, she sounds as if emerging from darkness, trying to shine light on nakedly personal truths and struggles. The second verse shines brightest - as Lim pushes her voice towards her falsettos, it soars over the instrumentation, solidifying a powerful emotional potency that was close to unreachable on her first outing. The chorus doesn't exactly deliver on the building tension, but the accumulated sense of atmosphere and lyrical message more than makes up for it. “Everything we never did,” she ponders upon longingly, and the result is a moody image of regretful yearning.
Compared to its predecessor, the track ultimately wins through its newfound sense of confidence, with its sonic decisions reflective of well-thought out artistic choices, rather than simplistic lo-fi put-togethers. With its enticing atmosphere, it manages to establish a convincing voice for Kotoji’s future work. A marked improvement, Everything is a promising new entry for Kotoji - a songwriter slowly grasping the keys to classic indie-rock melancholia.
More Reviews:
