Japanese synth-funk duo CRYSTAL will follow up 2020’s “Ecco Funk” EP, inspired by the 1992 Sega Megadrive classic Ecco the Dolphin, with a new LP entitled Reflection Overdrive due out May 7th via FLAU. The album title is inspired by William Gibson’s 1988 sci-fi novel Mona Lisa Overdrive, while musically it continues CRYSTALS’ retro-futurist re-imagining of synth-pop.
On “Disco Na Koi,” Ryota Miyake (Sparrows) and Sunao Maruyama craft nods to Yellow Magic Orchestra and John Lennon’s song “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him” into a buoyant affair. With Miyake urbanely crooning lines about microbes dancing in the forests, this song sets chiming kalimba to a bouncing, stylish rhythm. The result is dusted in nostalgia, but its infectious groove is expertly recast with modern, dance-oriented sensibility.
