Fluid Japan are A-list Bandcamp royalty to my ears during the last few years. I’ve been trying to follow their movements closely, but with the amount of travel and concerts I’ve seen lately, this has proven tricky. But today, we are officially catching up since a pair of singles were released on Halloween, and they followed those with a remix hot on their heels.

ENCRYPTION

Fluid Japan: Encryption – US – DL [2025]

1. Encryption 4:34

Fluid Japan are known to me for their stock-in-trade; elegant Art Rock touched by hints of Prog and New Wave. But there are cracks in the façade. Last year they released a brief taster for an album to be called “Encryption” with a track called “A Safe Place?” That was 79 seconds of subtle environmental ambience that was all about world building instead of Pop music. It was a brief, unsettling faux field recording that was barely there. The first time I listened to it in my car I could not even hear anything!

Now they have released the much more subsbtantial title track to that album project and it was a foreboding mixture of heartbeat percussion and baleful synths spraying the atmosphere with clouds of atomized peril. It was completely cinematic and far removed from their usual tuneage. Rattlesnake percussion and unsettling snatches of dialogue; distorted and glitched out played on my mind like an anxiety inducing drug. I think the title references cybersecurity far less than rooms full of the dead, but perhaps its calling out to both. Listen now.

RISE + SHINE

Fluid Japan: Rise + Shine – US – DL [2025]

1. Rise + Shine 4:34

The pulsating, phased sequencers of “Rise + Shine” immediately got my rapt attention. The vibe here sounded like “European Son” era JAPAN with Gary Numan adding lead synth to the mix. In other words, peerlessly exciting to my ears! The breakneck cymbal hits ticking away throughout the song insured that the energy rush would never ebb.

However, there was a vocal, which consisted of sound bites overlaid on the music bed. With a jovial voice speaking of the beauty of the day and imploring us to “rise and shine.” The disconnect between the motorik intensity of the music and the tone of the voice created an unsettling dissonance in the early part of the song.

Then at the halfway point, new sound bites entered the track. Asking cryptic questions as the music began to meander melodically with minor keys exerting their gravitational pull. The way that vocal samples were used here made me recall The Suburbs underground hit “Music For Boys,” but where that track used a coherent source, and maintained a continuity throughout, the disparity between the two sampled vocals here served to create tension that threatened to pull the song apart to these ears.

The vibe of the track is one of my favorite sounds ever. In another world, this could have been one of my favorite songs ever, but the dissonance that the sampled voices brought to the foreground here conspired to thwart my listening in a quixotic way. It feels churlish of me to complain that a track is too complex, but I can’t help but think that “Rise + Shine” squandered its potential for fist-pumping greatness to traffic in paradox and obscurity. It still sounds fantastic, but the distancing patina the vocal samples bring takes my fervor down a notch. See what you think.

TRUTH [MAY BE HORIZON REMIX]

Steven Jones + Fluid Japan: Truth [May Be Horizon Remix] – US – DL [2025]

1. Truth [May Be Horizon Remix] 6:21

May Be Horizon were a known quantity from remixes they had made for Steven Jones + Logan Sky over the last few years. With this extended version of the great track “truth” they have added their [subtle] element X to the mix. Managing to nudge the track into their zone without eliminating what had been the song’s strengths in the process.

Reversed percussion loops and plaintive peals of guitar add their droning energy to the mix while vocal performance of Steven Jones has been dubbed out to create an expansive vibe. The track now echoed down long corridors of sound while every aspect that I had favored in the original version was still present to delight my ear. I especially enjoyed how the Hook-like bass lines had been transformed with a completely different envelope; yet they were still there. Listen below.

The two new singles were space probes launched to explore new territory for Fluid Japan. While I preferred the “Rise + Shine” track, simply for its relentless energy [may we have more of this sound in service to a traditional song next time?], I get the impression that stripped of its context, the title track to the yet-to-be-released “Encryption” album is particularly ill-served in single form. I suspect that when I finally hear the full “Encryption” album, it will cohere into a powerful statement that will surpass the tentative states it generates in isolation. And more remixes by May Be Horizon, if you please!

All of these tracks are “pay what thou wilt” but the elephant in the room is the fact that you can get all 22 tracks from Fluid Japan for the low, low price of just $4.61 on Bandcamp. Even at three times that price it will be the best $13.83 you’ve spent in a long time. DJ hit that button!

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