Review Summary: top of the dream pops
Let’s cut to the chase:
Soft is a soft album. Very soft. On top of that, the debut full length by Japanese Heart Software is one of the strongest dream pop records to emerge from Bandcamp’s crevices in quite some time. Its half hour of bliss is filled with nothing but the most heavenly of melodies, delightfully detached vocals and enough sparkles to soften the glow of any polluted environment.
Nat Chippy, the mastermind behind Japanese Heart Software, is no stranger to putting forth wonderfully light music. Her experience in Aussie gaze outfit VIM pays off massively on
Soft: while every song follows a similar, familiar structure, everything is wrapped in unique glimmers and manages to constitute a wonderful collection of highly memorable moments as a direct result of this. Sacrificing neither cohesion nor diversity, the record employs different textures to differentiate moments, while retaining its adorably delicate aesthetics all throughout. Lead single ‘Passenger’ basks in 80’s-inspired synths to enhance its brooding atmosphere, without ever feeling tacky or unnecessary. Underscored by a looping, trippy drum beat, Japanese Heart Software details a night of dissociative sadness: “
under a midnight spell / the sky was void of colour / you looked like someone else / pretend that we were lovers”.
Soft’s melancholic yet benignly disturbing lyrical approach perfectly complements Chippy’s submerged vocal style: fragile, but seemingly impenetrable.
Elsewhere, the magnificent duo of ‘On the way down’ and ‘Just a dream’ form the heart of the record. Embracing distorted shoegaze textures, the songs add a sense of abstraction while remaining anchored by the gentle performances that define
Soft. ‘Just a dream’ constructs a gorgeous soundscape by using a hypnotising riff as its baseline and carefully adding drums, vocals, and bass before distorting any and all clarity during the highly alleviating chorus. Similarly, album closer ‘Flower’ is effervescently subdued until the song is able to translate this unique sensation into a more full-fledged experience, adding calm drum patterns to bring the album to a characteristically blissful conclusion. It’s the perfect concoction of synths, gaze, and atmosphere: every element is perfectly distinguishable, yet never in the way of diluting the record’s ambience.
While its lyrical content occasionally drifts into darkness,
Soft’s stunning shimmers keep the overall experience in a welcoming twilight. It’s the sensation of warm summer nights quietly waking from a long sleep: it’s Japanese Heart Software mastering the art of sonic ethereal satisfaction on her very first album. It’s
soft.
