Tokyo indie-darlings Yasu Cub’s sophomore album ‘my early years, your spiral arms’ just dropped on Japanese label felicity. “en” is the hushed slowcore centerpiece of their second full-length album. The song begins with the soft strumming of an acoustic guitar met by lead singer Jacob Oki Ahearn’s soft vocals. Fuzzy reverb hangs in the background threatening to burst into the foreground. Layers of guitar twinkle around Jacob Oki Ahearn’s soft tones switching between English and Japanese.
Yasu Cub began as a solo project of Jacob Oki Ahearn, who is now joined by a full band since his move to Japan. For the album, Yasu Cub collaborated with long time producer and friend Rory Hoffmeister. They recorded the album at Hoffmeister’s studio Turning Reel Sound–a cabin-esque building that was formerly a Buddhist monastery–on Bainbridge Island in the beautiful and lush Washington state.
my early years, your spiral arms was written over the course of more than a decade throughout Tokyo, the Pacific Northwest, and small-town Georgia. Sonically the album draws on slowcore, shoegaze, folk, and bedroom pop. Inspiration for the album can be traced back to an astrophysics textbook containing a diagram of the spiral arms galaxy. According to the album’s press release, Jacob Oki Ahearn was overcome by “a fleeting sense of one being embraced by the universe.”
You can listen to “en” and the rest of Yasu Cub’s latest release here:
You can also check out our 2024 interview with Jacob Oki Ahearn here.
Written by Emma Hums
