Influential chiptune act Anamanaguchi have just signed to Polyvinyl Records, who will be releasing the group’s upcoming studio album [USA] which is set to be released on October 25. The group have just released a new single entitled “. . . [ U S A . . . ] . . . . . . . .” with an accompanying music video that shows eclectic video game and vaporwave aesthetics.
Staying true to their chiptune roots, the new single blends signature Nintendo synth sounds, that are reminiscent of early JRPGs for the first half of the song. Toward the middle a piano riff and heavily edited vocals play adding a unique and experimental dimension for the track, before it glitches out at its conclusion. Currently the group’s line-up consists of members from New York City and Los Angeles, with Peter Berkman James DeVito, Luke Silas
and Ary Warnaar listed as current members.
This is the group’s third studio album, and their first full release in over six years with Endless Fantasy back in 2013. This is also one of the band’s first single releases in nearly three years, as the band’s most recent single release “Miku” featuring the Japanese Vocaloid Hatsune Miku debuted in 2016.
The band even went as far as touring with the virtual pop star back in 2016, performing in various venues across North America in the United States and Mexico. These events were multi-media platforms hosting short films from across the globe featuring Miku, a Barnes & Noble drawing workshop that facilitated the development of a fan-made collaborative music video, and club event pre-parties.
Berkman discussed their collaboration with Miku in a 2016 interview:
“Hatsune Miku’s team reached out to us after a concert we did with Rorter Robinson at Anime Expo. A year later we were performing in the same theater with Miku, it’s pretty wild. Working with Miku is delightful and quite an exciting opportunity. As for how technology will shape music scenes – I suppose I can say technology shapes the world all around us far beyond anything music is concerned with, and I think Hatsune Miku has a large role to play in that. It feels very much like a natural progression in the cultural technology of the pop star.”