Maya Ongaku – ‘Electronic Phantoms’ EP review: God bless this acid folk
Dawn rises on the sleepy seaside spot of Enoshima. A car cruises through the fishing village fog. It quietly, smoothly pierces the enshrined suburbia with purpose. Perhaps it is off on a camping trip, perhaps it’s just heading two hours northeast to Tokyo to dig through the crates. There is an enigma to it, no doubt, but that is ineffably how ‘Iyo No Hito’ sounds. It marks the opening to a sparser EP for Maya Ongaku, but one resplendent with atmosphere, imagery, and a beauteous sense of laidback vitality.
Following on from their 2023 debut album, Approach to Anima, the trio have mildly transformed their sound. As the album art for the EP hints, there is a vintage electronica texture that runs throughout the recent work. This dabbling with old 808s and oscillators provides a noir element to the band’s otherwise gentle acid folk. It creates a feeling of a quiet morning before the afternoon heist.
This sense of billowing atmosphere is the product of expert orchestration. With great grace, Maya Ongaku, value the importance of every note, creating sparser melodies with gently giant moods. ‘Love with Phantom’, for instance, even has a hooky single quality—capturing the essence of Sachiko Kanenobu’s laidback, wandering pop. It’s a waltzing serenade of springtime that sees the record stretch its legs.
The second half of the EP consists of a three-part movement known as ‘Meiso Ongaku 1-3’. For this odd cosmic journey the band bring in oboes and woodwind, crafting a twinkling forest journey of free jazz. Cinematically, the carefully constructed mystic world that the band foreshadow its embalming, turning dingy flats into vast expanses of greenery, with just a hint of fantastical Disney resounding in the sweet mix.
In this sense, Maya Ongaku feel less like a band and more like a local collective. There is a swelling sense of place and personality in their music. Both the heist-like early cuts on this brilliant EP and the sweeping fantasy of what follows is distinct and driven by exploration in its own unique way. There is no shortage of originality in this EP, which feels far longer than its 29-minute runtime… in the best possible way.
There might be retro equipment brought back to glory on Electronic Phantoms, but the album feels oddly like it could’ve been recorded in either 1964 or 2064. The whirling acid folk and new age mix is a spellbinding combination that proves subtly entrancing and acutely energising.
It’s an album for dreamers and yet it firmly defines what life in modern Enoshima is like in its own idiosyncratic way. The past and present are as palpable as the dissolution of time in a whirling sound that carries a haze of unknowable depth. Another gem from Maya Ongaku.
Where’s next for the band? Refreshingly, not even they seem to know.
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