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This was one of the most exciting things I've ever received in the mail. Almost begging me to believe it was a vinyl release, this cd was hidden in a plastic slip under a poster that was attached to a piece of cardboard the size of a record cover with writing on it. Whew. If it was that hard to explain, imagine me trying to figure out how to go about opening it.

LoAF Recordings has specially packaged all their current releases this way which might make them worth buying regardless of the quality of the music. Luckily, the music is just as good as the packaging.

This album's a must buy for fans of carefully layered and wonderfully textured electronica along the lines of The Books, Boards of Canada, Four Tet, Vincent Gallo and Dosh. Though Motohiro Nakashima doesn't bring too many new things to the world of electronica, he does reserve a sound that is completely his own, one which has matured and highly improved since his first release And I Went to Sleep.

Not to say that his first album was bad. In fact, it was easy to listen to and was great background music, but that also means it was unfortunately lost in the field of electronica mediocrity. This time around, Nakashima adds consistently beautiful beats and samples to his simple and sweet acoustic guitar melodies and bass lines in a way that somehow sets him apart from his contemporaries. He creates a sound that is both powerful and calming at the same time.

To separate one song from the others wouldn't be fair, because the songs are not individual songs but songs that complete an album. Simply put, they're all great.

To completely unravel the thought and artistic effort put into I Dreamt Constellations Sang might take a lifetime. Lo Alternative Frequencies is one heck of a label to watch out for if they keep releasing stuff like this.

Listen to Almost Cool's podcast of it

Watch a music video for "Stanley Park"

by Roman the Fury

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