Canterbury quintet Tokyo Tea Room make a play for sensory euphoria with new single ‘Worlds Apart’. It’s a psychedelic bliss trip that lands its listener deep inside the band’s world, submerged in their lucid dreamscape, all is transitory and absorbing.
The vocals, drums and bass linger back in a kind of blissful connection but it’s the dual guitars that are given free reign to roam as they please, in front and atop, bridging the themes of the titular refrain as they wrestle together in a bond of desired attraction and equal repulsion. This push/pull effect is practised throughout, and for good reason. This means as a listener we wait in baited breath for each new twang of distorted guitar to open up the playing field because if not for the subtle remarks of this instrument, ‘Worlds Apart’ may have become a one-sided affair, lifeless and flat.
Thankfully the five-piece have considerately cultivated a breathtaking epic, one that sings mournfully yet holds a hint of hope close to its chest. Hurrah for an arrangement that gives just enough to tantalise without losing sight of a good hook.
Tokyo Tea Room will support The Moonlandingz at Ramsgate Music Hall on January 12th. Tickets are available here.
