Review Summary: Yep, it's certainly TOKiMONSTA.
Electronic music can open the floodgates to make sounds that no one has ever heard before. Jennifer Lee (or TOKiMONSTA), who is is best known for abstracting sounds and creating a sonic atmosphere, manages to push past the norm of what you may usually hear in electronic music. By creating a slew of different sounds transformed into music from the likes of "Midnight Menu", what can she bring to the table here?
To start, Jennifer's abstraction of sounds is the main attraction to this EP. Throughout songs like "Playing With Toys" and "Doing It My Way", you may find yourself lost in its warping instrumentations and its head-bobbing beats on tracks like "Let Me Trick You". Songs here are set apart from one another by how they're stylized musically as well as a variety of strings and percussions that are implemented to diversify the overall vibe of the record. Interestingly enough, the tracks, despite having different identities from one another, still possess a cohesive nature. This is best represented with how Jennifer distorts the elements of her music, as they appear to be spiraling as if they're coming through an electrical fan. This effect is certainly subtle but does a lot in stringing the songs together in some fashion with "Line To Dot" being the best example of this trait. With that said, some of the abstracted elements may appear a bit monotonous. Although the blending of instruments makes for an interesting listen, some of the elements like the instruments mentioned earlier get a bit "same-y" as the songs progress. The novelties of some of the tracks like "Smoke & Mirrors" string instruments and "Aching Nodes" strings and percussions tend to wane and appear somewhat repetitive heading into the latter half of each track. It makes sense to execute this so the songs have some form of cohesion, but it seems to also hurt the tracks if abstracted elements are reused over again.
Despite its flaws, it's a pretty solid and enjoyable listen. When you boil it down, the album's structural simplicity may make songs appear a bit monotonous as a whole, but Jenniffer handles each song to have its own unique traits and qualities to drown that out. The warped sounds definitely add a lot of flavor to what's already there and elevate how things resonate with the listener entirely. If you enjoy some musical curveballs mixed in with some altered yet catchy beats, this is the record for you.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Standout Tracks: Playing With Toys, Line to Dot, Glaring Lights
