LLLL initially caught my interest because of the way that he conceptualizes his music. Now, if you had asked me to describe it with no prior knowledge, I would have said that LLLL sounds like dark, moody house music. This is not at all how LLLL thinks about himself, though. In his mind he is a j-pop artist first, and a shoegaze artist second. And I think he's right on both accounts. Upon giving his 2012 EP Mirror thorough listen, I was struck by how tightly layered and sequenced its compositions are. Each track runs about four minutes in length and none of that time is wasted. I'm not sure that these songs exactly obey the strict conventions of j-pop's structures (ie, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, etc...), but these numbers do feel identifiably pop in nature and are all highly ear-wormy. Something that I'm glad to have confirmed about my initial impression of Mirror is that it is a shoegaze album. I've been acquainted with the idea that Japenese shoegaze departs significantly from its Western counterparts, and while I definitely heard a lot of elements I associate with the Japanese variety on Mirror (eg, cooing vocals, fluttery feedback, dreamy atmospherics, etc...) I was somewhat hesitant to allow these observations to color my impression of the album as a whole before I discovered some references to this fact in the work of other writers and in interviews with the LLLL himself. This is a good reminder to myself to trust my instincts as a music appreciator and critic. I also enjoy how this album, and LLLL's work generally, have expanded my idea of what shoegaze can be. Rather than just a fuzzy, highly textured, and emotionally charged form of rock music, I now know that it can take the form of peculiar recombinations of pop and dance as well. I can never put down a piece of art that helps me appreciate something I thought I was familiar with in new and interesting ways. Give Mirror a try if you haven't already. You might find that it will help you see things a little differently as well.
