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Some singers use digital effects as a mask, hoping to cover pitch problems or other inadequacies. Amber Bain, the musician behind the Japanese House, uses them to create an androgynous, polyphonic sound that has become her signature.
During the best moments of Sunday's show at Holocene, the Japanese House's sound was a balancing act, flexing and stretching between analog and digital, weaving guitar, bass and drums with bass cliffs and washes of synth. Drummer and co-producer George Daniel and an unnamed bassist-keyboardist both made considerable contributions during a too-brief, 50-minute set, though Bain's voice and finger-style guitar was always central.
At times, transitions between songs became disjointed. During "Leon," a song from her November EP, Swim Against The Tide, Bain giggled as the arrangement came apart a bit after she sang the line, "I love the feeling just before you go down." But the hiccups were due partly to the level of artistic risk involved: This was no plug-in-a-laptop-and-hit-play gig. And the twentysomething audience, which had waited in line outside in miserable wintry weather for the show, was mesmerized and forgiving.
"I wish I could blame it on jet lag," Bain said. She hesitated, then laughed: "We're going to play another emotional one."
Indeed, underneath its more-poppy aesthetic, the Japanese House is hardly fluff. Along with the genderless androgyny, there's a feeling of loneliness and betrayal that darkens the vibe. On "Clean," perhaps Bain's most complete song, she sings "All the years my soul, all the things you thought I did/This soulless kid was under all my skin/All the things I tried to say remain within/I'm cooling in the clay/I've always been molded this way."
The future looks bright for the Japanese House, which is reportedly working on its first full-length album after a string of three EPs. Bain, 21, has industry buzz around her, and though her unique songs don't yet deliver the catharsis of the artists Bain admires, like Beach House or the Beach Boys. It's a good bet she'll find a way to fix that by the next time she comes to Portland—or "Poland," as Bain pronounced it in her English accent, before correcting with a laugh.
"It's time to play our least depressing song of the night," Bain said, shortly before launching into the more anthemic "Face Like Thunder," after which she accepted a pair of red chrysanthemums from an audience member. "That's so sweet," she responded. If the Japanese House's songs aren't quite sweet, neither are they depressing. And if the audience didn't quite burst into actual dancing Sunday, neither did it shift its gaze from the stage, even for a minute.
All photos by Henry Cromett.
