Call it art pop, call it psych pop, call it experimental. Call it whatever you want, but the music that Joaquin Pastor aka James Supercave puts out is not only aurally phenomenal — it's first-world metaculture commentary.
The singer/songwriter has been active since 2012, reaching seminal fame for his acoustic collaboration with filmmaker and Erhu player Evita YuePu Zhou in "Chairman Gou", a character perspective of the 2012 Foxxcon factory suicides. It was covered by the Chinese-American newspaper World Journal, illuminating labor abuse in the world's largest contract tech manufacturer. But prosodic quality isn't the only mark of James Supercave — the group's sensual musicality, playfully bridging unorthodox timbres and progressions, definitively separates them from the myriad of emerging acts in the city. James Supercave asks that you don't think too hard, and that sentiment resounds in "The Afternoon" EP. Released last year, the debut skillyfully pours levity over profound subjects of apocalypse, voicemails, the constant of change, and the self versus the society.
Percy Shelley once remarked: "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Well it's 2015, and now's as good a time as ever to start.
James Supercave performs on Saturday at the Non Plus Ultra as part of their Fall Tour. Acclaimed dreampop/shoegaze band Winter and So Many Wizards side-project Crown Plaza will support. Watch the new music video for "The Right Thing", directed by James Kim, below. - Ryan Mo
