Fans of LITE don’t need us to tell them – Jun Izawa’s percussive, heavily stylized bass lines have been integral to the band’s long standing legacy. They’re one of those bands that rarely if ever misses thanks to the absolute planets of talent each member represents, but Jun has always helped ground their identity no matter what universe they’re working with.
He also plays for FULLARMOR, which is a similarly fun band if you haven’t heard of them – we’re not sure if they’re active and they’re not terribly known in the US, but you can check out one of their singles here. You can still very clearly hear those chunky, funk-friendly bass lines, but it’s a little slower and methodical.
However, it seems that the bass master has just begun to fully embrace his unnatural powers with some formidable solo material. Check out MilesTone:
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What is technically the Junizawa gives you a lot to process right up front, but never quite amounts to something overstimulating, at least not to us, and we imagine a lot of you will feel the same way. It’s dance-y. It’s math-y. It’s funky. It takes us back to the main menu of games like Extreme G, Wipeout, and Star Wars Episode One: Racer. The gaming nostalgia seems organic here, even when intentionally sequenced into the music. Considering that we knew that the bass player wanted to introduce more IDM and DnB elements when we started hearing the singles a couple years back, it seems perfectly timed that 90’s electronic music is making a bit of a comeback and MilesTone plays like the best of fifth-generation console OST’s.
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We’ve always loved that LITE throws in a lot of hip hop and rap to their sound as well, because it always comes across as a fresh thing. They could probably even do a whole other thing exclusively dedicated to that but we don’t want to give them too many ideas. MileStone gets a similar treatment with a pretty flow-tastic feature on “HUFF” from KEISUKE SAITO, but also a really satisfying range of progressive, cybertronic dance gems with artists like Tami Keen, Cwondo, and more.
If you’re a fan of Battles, Three Trapped Tigers, the recent debut from Layers in Lairs, and/or happen to be a citizen of a distant solar system watched over by Autobots, you’re going to be all over MileStone.
Get more Junizawa in your life here.
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