“State of Indigo”, the newest single from Tokyo-based project Yasu Cub, feels like standing on soft grass while the evening sky hangs onto its last streaks of gold. A tender, post-emo jangle-pop meditation that lingers long after its final verses dissolve, closing the upcoming album “my early years, your spiral arms” (set for release in March 2026 through Candlepin Records, U.S., and felicity, Japan).
Listening on a quiet bus commute, I found myself pulled into a soft, meditative state. The mix doesn’t chase the rhythmic immediacy found in earlier tracks like “Enoshima,” nor does it carry the vivid instrumental depth of “All This Time”. Instead, “State of Indigo” leans into stripped, crunchy guitars and strikingly clean vocal recordings, which reflect both restraint and emotional clarity. There’s an honesty in the production that mirrors in the lyrics the exploration of memory, ego, and the instinct to hold onto a perfect moment even as it slips away: “As the evening retains some gold / We reminisce between the waves and coast.”
Part of its glow seems inseparable from the unusual recording backdrop the song had. As frontman Jacob explains, the sessions took place at Turning Reel Sound, a studio on Bainbridge Island (Seattle) built inside a former meditation room of a Buddhist monastery. “Tone-wise, we attribute a lot of the ‘specialness’ of the album to that recording environment,” he said. Working with longtime friend and producer Rory, they bridged the two continents using the real-time mixing software Listento. This high-tech workflow has defined the finishing stretch of the mix, and as a fellow producer, genuinely sparked my interest.
“State of Indigo” acts as a final chapter, connecting tiny human memories to the broader cosmic frame of the album. The forthcoming “my early years, your spiral arms” draws its conceptual spark from a college laundry room, where an astrophysics textbook accidentally reframed the universe as something intimate, almost affectionate. This trail of inspiration makes the album move between galaxies and daily life: ferry crossings, graduation lakesides, indigo-sky airport shuttles…
Within that constellation, “State of Indigo” is the moment you pause, breathe, and feel time folding in on itself. It doesn’t try to impress with immediacy. Instead, it leaves space for the listener to lean in. And in that space, the song quietly becomes one of Yasu Cub’s most affecting works.
Written by Gabi SaltaSoles, producer and storyteller
