Shugo Tokumaru is one of those rare people who can pile instruments all over each other in a way that makes no sense on paper and then make it come off as the most natural thing in the world. He creates toy-box indie pop with his vast collection of noise makers and a computer, and for all its obvious compositional refinement, it's still a giddy celebration of pop music's potential for mayhem. He's been doing this for a while now, with varying degrees of success, but on In Focus? it all comes together in a beautifully sharp series of Technicolor audio bursts.
This music is hard to place in context without referencing a dozen different things-- it has so many affinities lurking inside of it, from the Beach Boys to French pop in the 60s to 70s Brazilian pop to bedroom IDM, that from moment to moment it will probably remind you of something different. Tokumaru sings entirely in Japanese, which for a non-speaker has the effect of turning his breathy tenor into another instrument, threading its own melodies around the ones carried by the wood flutes and gadgets fluttering in the edges of the mix.
"Decorate" has all of that, balancing frenetic verses against a sweeping, harmony-laden chorus-- at first it just sounds like a perfectly constructed indie pop confection, but turn it up a little, and a whole world of little details emerges, from wooden noise makers accenting just the right part of the beat to wood flutes played in different styles depending on the texture that will best complement what's being sung at the moment. The level of thought given to the arrangements on even the shortest, most incidental tracks is astounding. One of the few bands I can think of that's this audibly meticulous is Field Music, but their arrangements are never so colorfully bricolaged.
You can practically hear the kaleidoscope twist to make fresh patterns over the rocketing mid-section of "Shirase", as brightly hued instruments tumble into new positions with each passing moment. Though it makes left turns and constantly tweaks its formulas, In Focus? is admirably coherent and cohesive, with each little pile-up of ideas finding its place in the big pile-up of ideas that comprises the album. Tokumaru may not be able to stay in one place for long, but I'd still say the answer to the question of the title is yes.
