PRESS

"It’s stunning. [...] If you like a little more depth to your shoegaze then Japan Review are the band for you. The song opens on a pulsing beat and chiming chords. As the bass and vocals come in there is an eighties synth pop aesthetic at play feeling new and nostalgic at once. In the second half the track gains a bit of bite and we are floating along on glorious glide guitar. [...] I really enjoy how ‘Go Around’ evolves over its three-minute run time. I’m reminded of the arrangements on that classic debut album from Lovesliescrushing with a real focus on interesting textures and changes." - Static Sounds Club (UK)

"One of [2023]'s little gems [...] Japan Review have made themselves very comfortable between shoegaze and dream pop, of course quoting the greats like My Bloody Valentine or The Notwist here and there, but are completely independent over the length of the album. Drum machines cut through the milky soundscapes of reverb-packed guitars and brittle synthesizers. Although the nature of "The Slow Down" is overtly experimental and free-spirited, Japan Review also creates some poppy moments." - Unter.Ton (GER)

"Very powerful one [yet] manages to ensure that the experimental touch does not ruin its more pop side. [...] [D]arkness can be seen throughout the album which means that we find some moments that we could put within the darkwave genre. [...] The title track takes you directly to a darkest dance floor. Although yes, they degrease that dark world a little with a very bright keyboard. And, deep down, they can't stop their pop soul from coming out. You just have to listen to “Connie Gustafson”, which is the closest thing to a hit that we find on the album." - Don't Eat The Yellow Snow (SPA)

"12/15 - Somewhere between joy of life and the acceptance of body blows, the music acts like a guide to personal deceleration, which means the album title hits the nail on the head. [..] The duo turns the aesthetics of the art noir genre into a life-affirming opposite and combines this mood with a warm lo-fi character that always seems to be covered by a fine layer of dust. [...] But deep in the heart of the band lies a fragile pop soul, which inevitably breaks through in songs like “Connie Gustafson”. [...] And as if to symbolize the rhythmic heartbeat of this album, “RSS” starts with pulsating electronica, spreads its electronic wings more and more and ultimately envelops the listener’s mind in a kind of hypnosis, from which the lovely closer “Lou Deer” does not fully emerge wakes up. Instead, memories of the shadows of your own soul are awakened. Not to condemn them, but to look at them and ultimately say goodbye with gratitude." - musikreviews.de (GER)

"[A] record that must first be understood and then appreciated [...] a sense of sad nostalgia [...] specialized in dreamlike and rarefied landscapes [...] testifying to an evident and very interesting experimental inclination. [...] The opener "No Listening" begins in a shoegaze style and with clearly lo-fi sounds, outlining the most absent-minded and fleeting of dreams. [...] But it is the title track that surprises for the aforementioned experimental tendency that makes it completely unusual: it seems to be halfway between reality and chimera, outlining a scenario apparently without rules, dominated by almost hallucinated electronic notes but endowed with an intensity authentic even if not easy to perceive." - Ver Sacrum (ITA)

"A notable maturation [...] British darkwave veins, astral shoegaze guitar strums, the painful songwriting, thanks also to O'Sullivan's tormented vocals, and above all that fearless lo-fi approach, to extract a minimal electro-synth touch from JR's imaginative and decadent sound never less exciting than the listener might expect. A stirring document of a scene that will never die [...] The result is exciting, both for the younger and older generations." - Darkroom Magazine (ITA)

"With steady drumming and dreamy sounds accompanying it all [...] I want to call them 'slowcore'. [...] Beautifully blissed out. [...] Japan Review have done an excellent job at creating their own sound out of existing sounds." - Raised By Cassettes (USA)

"Sweet and genuine. It reminds me of the feeling of butterflies welling up in my stomach when I look at the person I love. This album is nostalgic and offers a macabre complexity [...] the guitar sounds post-apocalyptic. It's danceable and catchy above all. This album is sure to please the goths."- ISSUES (USA)

"[A] trip into nostalgia for me [...] with that glimmer of sadness. [...] My first impressions were that Japan Review sound like a cross between Interpol, Mew, and Radiohead. They have dreamy introspective tunes done in a purposeful low-fi fashion. Many of their tracks have a melancholic wistful nature to the lyrics, featuring a type of mild beat that could go on for double the length that it does without ever outstaying its welcome, such as can be seen on second track 'David Chicane'. At times they create echoes of the more chilled out moments in exploitation action video game Hotline Miami ('Go Around') something most welcoming to hear. The stand out track for me was probably title track 'The Slow Down'" - The Rotting Zombie (UK)

"[An] album of homemade and introspective shoegaze, a sonic aesthetic based on minimalism that works. David Chicane, perhaps the most interesting song, vaguely recalls the best The Radio Dept. on their "Lesser Matters" album, due to a certain romantic indolence that usually combines with our most secret nostalgias. Nice album." - Shoegaze Blog (ITA)

"It is, that much is clear, a wonderfully melancholic album! [O]ften classified as shoegaze and electronic dream pop, but that does not do justice to the music. In just under 45 minutes you will be presented with 10 new tracks, which certainly contain elements of the mentioned genres. But there is also a good dose of 80's music mixed in. For example, the lush synthesizer parts sometimes evoke memories of New Order and O.M.D., while in the background the dark edge of Joy Division and the experimental pop of Disco Inferno also seem to have had an influence. The melancholic vocals are somewhere between Morrissey (The Smiths), Zach Condon (Beirut) and Thom Yorke, whose Radiohead is also on the reference list. Okay, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive should also be mentioned." - De Subjectivisten (NL)

“[A] drum machine beat with gauzy, almost in a closet vocal […] conjures up images, of either a racing driver, or a particularly dodgy ducker and diver […] build around a thumping bass beat, barely strummed guitar with indie vocals, like early Grandaddy, that feel quite wistful even as string like synths sweep through[…] drum & bass riddims married with long tonal synths and fey indie vocals, this is quite the journey into the north, as the vocals go a little bit Indian Summer as sung by Galaxie 500, they gaze towards those Northern Lights. […] almost Postcard records style vocal intonations set against clattering drum machine fills and subtly disturbing synth tones […] wall quaking slow bass drum beat, with hazy synths and uneasy vocals giving this a dark edge […] a slowly evolving synth wash […] busy breakbeat drum part […] a feel of the wastelands covered in penguins, as icy synths make glacial progress […] mad clattering percussion […] almost Thom Yorke at his most pained vocals […] almost nursery rhyme style sparse indie song being slowly strummed, before it begins to build while retaining an almost Daniel Johnston style innocence” - Whisperin' & Hollerin' (IRE)

"Of course it makes perfect sense that Japan Review hail from Glasgow and their second album comes to us via the mighty Berlin-based Blackjack Illuminist label. Genna Foden and Adam O’Sullivan have crafted a damn fine LP with The Slow Down and I especially like Go Around. All the component parts are in the right places, resulting in a genre-dying song with melancholy hints. [...] Top marks for this one." - Life Elsewhere (USA)

"Equally nostalgic and alienating, “David Chicane” channels lilting tinny high hats along with a ceaseless, hazy and distorted shoegazing guitar flow, blurring into a stirring mirage of sparse off-tempo, knocking percussions, meandering humming bass lines, shimmery magnetic strumming, and radiant echoing sad ripples, layered with break-through piercing and droning keyboard overtones, wistfully reverberating around a lost and dreamy vocal, longing for balance and belonging amid a light fuzzy and chirpy background noise of disenchantment." - White Light/White Heat (ITA)

"The Slow Down features 10 enchanting songs. A strong focus on electronics, in shoegaze and dream pop style. Hypnotic and emotionally striking tracks with a touch of nostalgia" - Luminous Dash (BEL)