Fujiya & Miyagi

Metro
23 September 2008

After their addictive 2006 album, Transparent Things, Brighton’s Fujiya & Miyagi returned last month with their third LP, Lightbulbs. It brings more of the same encyclopedia-raiding wordplay (deadpan singer David Best rhymes Lena Zavaroni with knickerbocker glory, for example), while pulsing beats and sophisticated bleeps ripple underneath.

Though their melodies fuse new rhythms with high-energy beats, the lyrics are a meticulous study of sounds: hisses, clicks and rolled rs weaving around grown-up nursery rhymes about chess games, amusement arcades and home decorating.

Transparent Things may have leaned more heavily on hypnotic Kraftwerk-style instrumentals, but by shifting their focus on to tightly locked verses and dancier bursts of Italo-disco, Fujiya & Miyagi have taken a unique slant on electro-pop and set themselves apart from the current wave of Krautrock-inspired bands.

Fujiya & Miyagi’s steady beats are also soon to be heard on a 43-minute running mix for Nike, jogging in the sneakered footsteps of Aesop Rock and LCD Soundsystem, who have made mixes for the company in the past.

More geeky than showy, Lightbulbs is an understated and structured album that doesn’t make you want to dive into a club, but in its own witty, charming way, it’ll make you hit repeat.

Thu Sep 25, The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Central Manchester, 8pm, £7.50. Tel: 276 9350. www.fujiya-miyagi.co.uk