Tenniscoats - Tan-Tan Therapy (2022 Remaster) '2007/2022

Tracks list

       Just over a decade ago, Japanese indie-pop duo Tenniscoats recorded
»Papa's Ear« (2012) and »Tan-Tan Therapy« (2007), two albums made
with musical and production help from Swedish post-rock/folk trio Tape.
Originally released on Häpna, they are beautiful documents of the exploratory
music made by a close-knit collective of musicians, fully at ease with each
other, playing songs written by Tenniscoats and arranging them in gentle and
generous ways. Released during a prolific phase of collaboration for Tenniscoats
– during the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, they would also
collaborate with Jad Fair, The Pastels, Secai and Pastacas – they have,
however, never been available on vinyl. In collaboration with Alien Transistor,
Morr Music is now reissuing these albums with bonus material.

Filled with graceful pop songs, autumnal folk tunes, and gentle yet risk-taking
improvisations, »Tan-Tan Therapy« was the first Tenniscoats album to be
released in Europe, after a run of albums on Japanese labels, and the excellent
»Live Wanderus« (2005) on Australian imprint Chapter Music. It was also
the first recorded evidence of their collaboration with the three members of
Tape and that group’s extended musical family. It opens with one of
Tenniscoats’ signature songs, the pop fantasia of »Baibaba Bimba«,
with Tenniscoats singer Saya repeating a light-headed incantation over joyous
brass. The essence of Tenniscoats is contained in »Baibaba Bimba«:
uplifting melody and playful musicianship, tinged with distant echoes of winsome
melancholy.

From there, »Tan-Tan Therapy« explores many hues of lustrous blue.
»Oetu to kanki no Namoriuta (Given Song of Sob and Joy)« is an aquatic
arbour, the musicians’ gentle performances growing together like vines
and seaweed as Saya’s voice swims through the waterway. »Umbarepa!«
is full of play and pleasure, sparkling with glockenspiel as snare drum tattoos
push the song ever-forward. »Abi and Travel« floats past, a lovely
instrumental built from shifting layers of synthesizer and pianet; »Good
B.«, an extra track originally only available on the Japanese edition of
»Tan-Tan Therapy«, is added to this reissue, and follows a similar thread,
its humming pump and Hammond organs swirling under beautiful vocals from Saya
and guest performer Kazumi Nikaido.

Throughout, you can sense the deep empathy the members of Tenniscoats and Tape
have for one another. It’s a conversational, tender and, at times,
fragile music that can only be created out of mutual trust and kindness, with
each of the players contributing to the community of sound they’re
building. There’s an element here, too, of feeling out the possibilities
of what this creative meeting can achieve, something reflected in the
loose-limbs sprawl of »Marui Hifo (Everyone)«, which echoes the seaside
drift of Bristol post-rock group Crescent, and the following »One Swan
Swim«, a dreamsong redolent of the sleepy sensorium of Robert Wyatt’s
»Rock Bottom«.

The freedom and liberty at the heart of Tenniscoats is something Tape and their
friends have picked up on, beautifully so, and run with during the entirety of
»Tan-Tan Therapy«. This is music with its wings outstretched, wanting to
take to the air, ready to fly. 

Tracklist:
1 01. Tenniscoats - バイババビンバ / Baibaba Bimba
(2022 Remaster) (04:37)
1 02. Tenniscoats -
鳴咽と歓喜の名乗り歌 / Oetsu To
Kanki No Nanoriuta (Given Song By Sob And Joy) (2022 Remaster) (07:22)
1 03. Tenniscoats - まあるいひと / Marui Hito /
Everyone (2022 Remaster) (04:17)
1 04. Tenniscoats -
ワン・スワン・スイム / One Swan Swim
(2022 Remaster) (06:02)
1 05. Tenniscoats - ウンバレパ！ / Umbarepa! (2022
Remaster) (04:03)
1 06. Tenniscoats - アビ、トラベルと / Abi
And Travel (2022 Remaster) (03:14)
1 07. Tenniscoats - ローリン・トレイン /
Rolling Train (2022 Remaster) (04:44)
1 08. Tenniscoats - うたがないのに / Uta Ga
Nainoni / Like No Songs (2022 Remaster) (04:51)
1 09. Tenniscoats - グッド.B / Good. B (2022 Remaster) (03:24) 

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