Slight Variations

Fujiya & Miyagis ninth studio album, Slight Variations, returns the four-piece lineup they established in 2016 (founding members David Best and Stephen Lewis, bassist Ben Adamo, and drummer Ed Chivers) for their most ambitious outing yet. Intended as a stylistic retrospective of sorts, as well as a nod to where they might be headed, it incorporates Krautrock, dub, disco, house, and art pop influences, among others (West African funk and more), often converging multiple elements on sleek, effortless-sounding tracks. To top it off, their signature wry detachment is in full bloom on songs like the striding opener "Slight Variations, a disco and house merger that credits Charanjit Singhs Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat as an influence on its bassline. It finds David Best deadpanning lines like "Leave space for the bass/Put the rhythms in the right place" and "When you live in your head/Its easy to neglect your body" to spacy melodic keys and a relentless groove. Likeminded tracks include the funky "Olympian Heights" and narcotic closer "Feeling the Effects (Of Saturday Night)," though these are spaced out in the track list to make room for the dub-influenced "FAQ," multifaceted highlight "New Body Language" ("You dont need a degree in philosophy to read your body language"), and whimsical quasi-instrumentals "Non-Essential Worker" and "Oops." The latter is an infectious representative of possible future directions, with its more treble-centric sci-fi blend of various electronic timbres and guitar patterns that ride along a brisk, simple beat with snare on two and four. All told, its a delight to hear that, over 20 years into Lewis and Bests partnership, they are pushing their recognizable but rarely formulaic sound into fresh territory. ~ Marcy Donelson