By Keith Walsh
I can always count on the music of Gilles Snowcat to take me to new places. In the case of his new single “Nugu Point,” that place is equal parts historical and mythical. The mysterious tune, released under the Snowcat brand Nekokawa, is an eclectic mix of jazz, R and B, and electronica, and features a sub bass track that is best experienced on large speakers. I quizzed the elusive Snowcat about the origins and meanings of the track.
KW: Is this jazz, soul, something else?
GS: Oh I never think that deeply! I was on a highway bus in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan, and staring at the road and the landscape got me hypnotized and ideas came like a flow, I just wrote down on a paper and the piece was there.
KW: Cool clear sounds…. what’s the synth bass machine?
GS: A little bit of this, a little bit of that… I sometimes like to play the wizard with sounds, and it often leads to interestingly expressive things, especially basses. I do that in a kind of trance and never really memorize what I did, and get little interest in knowing anyway. Once the mix is done, I systematically destroy the tracks, so I couldn’t tell you what made the sounds, even at gunpoint. I love to know that my sound recipes are as undecipherable as the one of Coca Cola.
KW: Explain Nekokawa for us please.
GS: In 2002, I started Nekokawa as a parallel project from Awaken, kind of instrumental – lounge thing: (https://gillessnowcat.bandcamp.com/album/d-ng-s-ng-m-o-the-complete-works-2002-2004). I composed a tribute to Philip Glass, “A Glass Of Nekokawa” (https://gillessnowcat.bandcamp.com/track/a-glass-of-nekokawa), and other instrumental things. In 2009 I composed new Nekokawa music but I lost all the work somewhere and got pissed so I left the project aside. Then there’s Nekokawa Massage and Nekokawa Hypnosis, and now back to the simple Nekokawa.
(According to Gilles, ‘Nekokawa’ means “river of cats.” KW)
KW: Is this showing a new, more mellow, ambient side of the cat? Are you feeling romantic?
GS: Romanticism is in the ears of the beholder.
KW: Have you been to the titular Nugu Point?
GS: The meaning of Nugu Point isn’t all clear, even for me. It’s a kind of pun that I thought only Japanese people would understand, but it seems they themselves don’t even get it.
Enjoy this intriguing new tune exclusively at Bandcamp.com
Nekokawa on Facebook
Nekokawa on Spotify
finis
