A few weeks ago we introduced Wao, the forthcoming album from new project Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats on Western Vinyl. “When touring Japan together in 2024, Joseph Shabason and Nicholas Krgovich met Saya and Takashi Ueno of Tenniscoats, who played as a backing band,” we wrote. “The four had little time to rehearse but quickly discovered they did not need it, the subsequent shows fluid, unpredictable and spontaneous, successful in the way only genuine artistic connection could allow.” Lead single ‘Our Detour’ offered a peek at the lightning-in-a-bottle result of the partnership. What we decribed as “a lesson in instinct and invention which reaches for inspiration from the everyday and returns it back to us as something bright and magic.”
With the album’s release fast approaching, Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats have now shared the album closer as a new single; their own take on My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Lose My Breath’. “Before the first show of our tour together Saya asked if I knew this My Bloody Valentine song and if I would join them and sing it as part of their set,” Krgovich explains. “Of course I was up for it but MBV is a bit of a blindspot for me. She was like “it’s called ‘Lose My Breath’,” and then as soon as the wordless oooh’s happened I was like “oh! That one!!!” I had a cassette copy of Isn’t Anything that I got at a thrift store while in high school and it was in my old Volvo as a teenager. I don’t remember listening to that tape all that much but I remember loving that melody, and I still do.”
The recorded version of the track goes some way to preserving this moment in amber. A snapshot of a group of musicians pitched together for a short window of time, subject to the small moments of chance and happenstance and all the more special for it. This atmosphere is indicative of the spirit of an album made in such a manner. The ephemerality of the moment is essentially the entire point. No overthinking, no ironing out creases or polishing flaws, just leaning into the simple magic of a couple of days and preserving it for the sake of prosperity.
Watch the visualizer created using footage shot at at Guggenheim House in Kobe, Japan below:
Wao will be released on the 29th August via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.
