Looprider will return with its second album, Ascension, to be released on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 from Japanese independent record label Call And Response Records. The release comes just nine months after the group’s first album, My Electric Fantasy, which was released in August 2015. Frantic, chaotic and noisy, the nine track album sees the band turning to hardcore and the experimental.
Recorded during the mixing of My Electric Fantasy, Ascension shows another side of songwriter and the band’s driving force Ryotaro Aoki’s musical palette, this time channeling 80s DC hardcore, the soundscapes of Japanese noise artists such as Incapacitants and Merzbow, and the hyperkinetic freak outs of noise rockers Melt-Banana. The album’s basic tracks were recorded during a half-day improvisation session in 2014 and were then tweaked and added to over the course of the next year and a half in between other activities.
Ascension features collaborations with American drummer Sean McGee and vocalist Sachiko Fukuda of noise pop duo Umez. Illustrator Nasutakeo, who has contributed artwork to the official Hatsune Miku expo, “Magical Mirai 2014” and artwork for My Electric Fantasy, returns to provide both a visual contrast and continuity between the two albums.
Ascension will be released in both digital and physical formats. The CD version of the album will be a limited run release and will be available online and through record stores and other physical distribution outlets across Japan.
Looprider “Ascension”
2016.5.4 on sale
CAR-67
1,500 yen (tax out)
Call And Response Records
Tracklist:
1. N.E.C.O.
2. Fantômas
3. Doppelgänger
4. Science ≠ Evolution
5. Kaboom!
6. Sekai
7. Ascension
8. Mustafar
9. 667
About Looprider:
Formed by Ryotaro Aoki, Looprider is a rock band based in Tokyo, Japan. The group released its first album, My Electric Fantasy, in August 2015 from Japanese imprint Call And Response Records. Combining a mix of rock, shoegaze, noise, metal and hardcore, the band is a reflection of Aoki’s diverse interests and also an unwillingness to stay in one place or sound for too long. For Looprider, noise and pop are simply two sides of the same coin.
For the live incarnation of the band, Aoki is joined by guitarist Haruka Sato, bassist Hideaki “Wookee” Usuki, and drummer Sean McGee for a two-guitar, four-piece line-up. The band currently plays shows in Tokyo and regularly hosts its self-curated events, “Pop Sabbath!” inviting bands from the local scene to create a context to better showcase the band’s own musical output.
︎Release Party:
2016.5.7 (Sat) Higashi Koenji Niman-Denatsu
Looprider presents
“Pop Sabbath! Vol. 3 – Ascension Release Party -“
with special guests:
Lo-shi
Start Of The Day
DJ:
James Hadfield
Looprider 