Japanese producer Towa Tei is mainly known in the West for either being one third of 90s dance act Deee-Lite!, or the shibuya-style collaboration he did with Kylie Minogue known as GBI (German Bold Italic). The irony is though the man has released eight albums in the twenty years or so that have gone by, each one fine tuning his idiosyncratic take on electronica.



Emo, his 10th album to date, has just been released in Japan, as preceded by the storming little single Brand Nu Emo, which features Towa’s side project Meta Five and modelling sisters the Mizuharas on vocals.

As you listen, close your eyes and imagine the male vocals being sung by Mr. Beck Hansen. It’s a good fit, especially as Mixed Bizness-era funk guitars duel it out with various bloops and bleeps in the background. Any Beck fans who prefer his more upbeat albums like Guero and Midnite Vultures will find a lot to enjoy here, especially a rather uncanny na na na breakdown in the song’s middle section. The video’s cool, too, with a rad little robot thrown into the hyper kinetic series of edits that grab your attention from the get go.