Wink is, after
Pink and Punk, the third album by Japanese girl band Chai. And the first to appear on the American label Sub Pop. The foursome from Nagoya - who named themselves after the tea that band member Kana regularly drank with her Russian literature teacher - follow in the footsteps of one of their great examples, Brazilian
CSS. Like the band
Superorganism, which Chai toured the UK with in
… late 2018, CSS is a nice indication of where to place Chai musically. A cosy mishmash of hip electronic music, hip-hop and J-pop, full of bleeps and bouncing ping-pong balls (just listen to PING PONG!). With as bonus the helium vocals of Mana, keyboard player and twin sister of Kana. You can hardly escape calling this record 'charming' (and secretly wondering if the next Chai record will really be called Wunk...). We'll see. (RME)more
