Fujiya & Miyagi: ‘Light Bulbs’

Having formed out of a mutual love of Aphex Twin and Karate Kid, a sense of humour was always going to be high on the agenda for Brighton boys Fujiya & Miyagi.

Far more accessible than everyone’s favorite Cornish tech-head, the album is fueled with funk licks and catchy bass lines inspired heavily by Can, and with the lyrical style of comedians Flight Of The Conchords.

The album gets underway with ‘Knickerbocker’, a slinky, funked-up number with the lyrical content of Mr Whippy’s ingredients list. It certainly won’t stretch your brain cells, but it's a fun track that will leave you with permanent nodding dog syndrome.

‘Uh’ sees vocalist David Best (Miyagi) sounding like a sexed up Steven Malkmus, but lacking in the Pavement frontman’s subtlety as he delivers lines like “up against and / Underly we are as prickly as a couple of porkeypines / I’m putting out fast all over the place.” Not quite candle-lit supper-for-two stuff, but it is certainly refreshing in an industry awash with drab, overly-serious bands scared to enjoy themselves.

The whole album is a breezy affair and takes the same approach to songwriting as they have to choosing their band name, Miyagi being the mystical teacher from the film The Karate Kid and Fujiya a stereo distributor. In the Brighton-based band's world, style is everything and lyrical substance comes second which is the source behind some excellent pop hooks.

Often hypnotic, as on ‘Dishwasher’, they have created a world of sleek grooves that capture the imagination, but are so subtle that they can often appear trivial. On a second listen, ridiculous choruses like “got to get a new pair of shoes / There tripping me up” in ‘Collarbone’ begin to add to the psychedelic tapestry that they have created and make a little more sense.

There isn’t a great deal of variation on ‘Lightbulbs’, except on the album's final track, ‘Hundreds & Thousands’, which as an instrumental isn’t overshadowed by their comedic side and shows the real inventiveness of the band.

Released on 1st September 2008 by Full Time Hobby.

Written by Carl Williams.