[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.]
As with many one-man bands, Japan’s Color Filter exists mainly as a studio project — in this case, by one Ryuji Tsuneyoshi. Drum machines and loops, guitars and soothing synthesizer sounds sway between atmospheric haze and obscured pop melodics. On Sleep in a Synchrotron, “Sad Grey Sky” deftly mixes My Bloody Valentine samples with vocals by a woman named Aiko over shifting percussion sounds, while a cover of Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love” creates a new disco sound for the mumbled lyrics.