Haru Namuri - “Shunka Ryougen”

SXSW 2023 - OEB Score: 9; Popularity Index: 7

Pairs Well With…Kero Kero Bonito, Cibo Matto, Xiu Xiu

I didn’t quite remember what Haru Namuri sounded like when she was added last-minute to a SXSW day party last year, but had thirty minutes to kill before the next set, so I posted up by the stage. Artists tend to blend into one another during a marathon week in Austin and what is really needed is an interruption. Haru Namuri’s death-metal scream in the middle of a Japanese electro-pop song was the perfect interruption and set the scene for one of my favorite sets of the year. Her latest full-length is SHUNKA RYOUGEN, a record that goes literally everywhere and is even more epic than Namuri’s live set that afternoon. Dramatic, moving, and danceable, this is an album that sounds like an artist giving her all and pays off in interesting and unexpected ways. Punk-pop, indie rock, bedroom pop, nu-metal - you name it and there’s a committed effort on Namuri’s part to explore and fuse like the mad scientist she is. Namuri masterfully plays with tension throughout SHUNKA RYOUGEN that is borderline visceral, exploding and rebuilding over and over again through the record’s hour time. She’s a special artist and someone making music pushing genres forward with studied bravery. (Kevin McStravick)