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Tokyo-based rock band Looprider will release its third album, Umi, on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 from Japanese independent record label Call And Response Records. The release follows the group’s debut My Electric Fantasy and the second album Ascension, which was released in May 2016.
Recorded over a two week period in the summer of 2016, Umi is a single, 25-minute track. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Mono, Deafheaven, Boredoms, King Crimson and Earth, the album is a mostly instrumental affair, featuring two drummers and a slew of percussion instruments. The track features callbacks to both the shoegaze and alternative rock inspired My Electric Fantasy, as well as the noisy and abrasive hardcore sound of Ascension. A loose concept album on the origins of life and its evolution, Umi displays a band willing to expand their horizons and to continuously challenge the established idea of what it is to be a rock band.
Along with the regular Looprider cast of Ryotaro on vocals and guitar, Haruka on guitar, and Sean on drums, Umi also features drummer Kazuya Matsuda of Day & Buffalo and Start Of The Day as a support musician, along with bassist Yujiro Imada, who played on My Electric Fantasy, and Call And Response Records label mates Tropical Death’s Eugene Roussin on guitar. 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.
Umi will be released in both digital and physical formats. The CD version of the album will be available internationally online and through record stores and other physical distribution outlets across Japan.
