Immi

Immi is a new face on the quickly exploding Japanese techno-pop scene. Similar in tone to the overly compressed dance sounds of Perfume, Immi manages to add a much needed dose of originality and texture to her songs. Perhaps this comes from her work as an artist outside of music, or maybe it has something to do with the company she keeps.

Produced by N.A.i.D and JETBIKINI, and hosted by Grand Funk Inc., a TV and radio jingle studio, her sound is at once both very gloomy, yet very poppy. Much like The Cure, a band covered on her first album Switch, she manages to walk that thin line between pop and something darker. At times she hits on the same sort of ultra-consumerist Madonna/Meg line, with her slick and danceable candy-coated club tracks. Then she'll dip into a lower gear, sounding a bit more like Utada Hikaru, only much more minimal.

It's that willingness to strip things down to the bare bones that often pushes Immi's work just a bit beyond the average pop idol. Sure, she's very girly and bubbly at times, but there's also that element of early '80s new wave. It's different than the usual 8-bit band-wagon crowd as well. Instead of relying on the usual go-to lo-fi tricks, her producers stick to a few well developed synth sounds, extremely hard edged, yet backed with some nicely blissed-out pads, giving her a more melancholy space to work in.

To date, Immi has released only one full-length album, a collection of her previously released singles and EPs. It will be very interesting to see where she goes from here as the current electro resurgence inevitably starts to fade.

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Klaxon




Official Site
MySpace

Releases:
Switch 2008

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