“Swim Against The Tide” the latest album by London indie pop band Japanese house has earned quite favorable reviews in the UK. The band is a project headed by singer Amber Bain and her North American tour will bring her to the Triple Rock on February 27. Tickets are available HERE
Expansive yet exactingly nuanced, hypnotic yet uncompromisingly complex, The Japanese House offers up timeless synth-pop whose layered vocals and lavish textures unfold into infinite dimensions of feeling. In each track, East London-based artist Amber Bain charts such terrain as the pain of shattered relationships, the growth that comes from moving solitarily through life-changing experience, and the newfound lucidity that ultimately follows.
A perfectly fitting moniker for music so dreamlike, transcendent, and defiant of all convention, The Japanese House references the Bain family nickname for their vacation home in Cornwall. While staying in that home at age eight, Amber developed a crush on the girl next door. By tucking her hair inside her hat, she soon led her crush into mistaking her for a boy, and within days the girl was sending Amber love letters.
The follow-up to 2015’s much-acclaimed Clean, The Japanese House’s new EP Swim Against the Tide delves into memory and loss and love of all kinds. Written by Amber Bain and produced by the 21-year-old in collaboration with labelmate George Daniel of The 1975, the EP reveals the emotional intricacy of The Japanese House in songs like lead single “Face Like Thunder.” The track offsets its bright beats and radiant melodies with Amber’s painfully poignant lyrics (“I kiss the floor, curled up in a ball/There’s nothing coming out of my mouth, so I said nothing at all”), brilliantly rendering “Face Like Thunder” both heavy-hearted and hopeful.
Tour Dates:
Feb 21 A&R Music Bar Columbus, OH
Feb 22 Grog Shop Cleveland, OH
Feb 23 Pike Room Pontiac, MI
Feb 24 Park Theatre – Hope College Holland, MI
Feb 25 Bottom Lounge Chicago, IL
Feb 27 Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis, MN
Feb 28 Riot Room Kansas City, MO
Mar 01 Lost Lake Lounge Denver, CO
Mar 02 Okeechobee Festival (2nd-5th March) Okeechobee, FL
Mar 05 Holocene Portland, OR
Mar 06 The Crocodile Seattle, WA
Mar 08 The Chapel San Francisco, CA
Mar 10 Teragram Ballroom Los Angeles, CA
Mar 11 Vivphx Festival Phoenix, AZ
Mar 14 Curtain Club Dallas, TX
Mar 20 Exit In Nashville, TN
Mar 21 Aisle 5 Atlanta, GA
Mar 22 Cat’s Cradle Back Room Carrboro, NC
Mar 24 Rock & Roll Hotel Washington, DC
Mar 25 The Foundry Philadelphia, PA
Mar 26 The Sinclair Cambridge, MA
Mar 28 Bowery Ballroom New York, NY
