- "I just don't know what I'm supposed to be, you know? I'm stuck. Does it get easier?" This ambivalent snatch of dialogue in "What's A Girl To Do" (sourced from Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation) doesn't exactly suggest dance floor dynamite. Yet the 2004 track is Bas Bron's biggest hit as Fatima Yamaha, having received a high-profile reissue on Dekmantel this summer. Perhaps its very innocuousness is the secret to its success. It's sweet and melancholy but doesn't overstate its case.
Bron's latest album, the first new Yamaha material since the reissue, is just as unimposing. So much so that I'd listened to it half a dozen times before I noticed its political message. There's the album title, of course, plus loaded track titles like "Borderless II," "Shuppatsu" ("departure" in Japanese) and "Night Crossing." The news in 2015 has been dominated by the worst global refugee crisis since World War II, and Imaginary Lines seems to be Bron's own humble commentary on the situation.
His angle? It's tempting to line up a further two titles, "Citizens" and "Only Of The Universe." Bron's music as Yamaha has never paid much attention to boundaries, occupying a tuneful interzone between Detroit electro and whimsical Japanese video game soundtracks. With Imaginary Lines, he focuses on the project's friendlier side, avoiding uptempo numbers in favour of limpid, heartstring-tugging melodies and gently bumping drums. Tracks like "Sazak Bay" and "Only Of The Universe" coast by gorgeously. The exquisite "Sooty Shearwater, King Of Migration" might even be as good as "What's A Girl To Do."
There are weak spots: mainly the two vocal tracks, whose heavily autotuned performances sit at odds with the well-judged arrangements. "Citizens," featuring Sofie Winterson, is particularly cheesy. But Bron's charms work slowly, and by the fourth or fifth listen you're so beguiled by the album as a whole that these blips hardly stand out.
The album ends on a less comforting note. Closer "Imaginary Lines" is pretty but leaden, placing Yamaha's sad side front and centre. Sparkly e-pianos are joined by a single sung note, more a sigh than a melody. Maybe Bron is conceding that, while the lines between places might be imaginary, their consequences are very real. As ever, he expresses the idea with rare grace.
Tracklist01. Shuppatsu
02. Borderless II
03. Love Invaders
04. Only Of The Universe
05. Migratory Floozy
06. Sazak Bay
07. Citizens feat. Sofie Winterson
08. Sooty Shearwater, King Of Migration
09. Night Crossing
10. Imaginary Lines