REVIEW

Tenth album from Japanese music producer TORIENA, whose career has spanned chiptune, hardcore techno, game soundtracks, and international live performances. On this release, TORIENA makes a notable foray into shoegaze—a direction that appears unexpected on paper, yet surprisingly coherent in execution.

The clearest statement arrives with #11 “Emily,” where psychedelic guitars bloom like prismatic fog, strongly recalling the classic textures of My Bloody Valentine. Encountered without prior context, the accompanying music video amplifies the impact: shot entirely on 8mm film, it translates shoegaze’s hallucinatory immersion into a striking visual language.

Another standout, #3 “Unconscious Bias,” pairs sharp, angular beats with a melancholic melodic core, resulting in a highly addictive track that bridges electronic aggression and emotional weight. Meanwhile, #4 “Dominant” leans into a driving four-on-the-floor rhythm, carried by whispered vocals. While its shoegaze elements are more restrained than the previous two tracks, the delay-soaked guitars may still resonate with listeners attuned to shoegaze and dream pop sensibilities.

What makes these shoegaze-oriented tracks particularly compelling is how seamlessly they integrate with TORIENA’s established dark and aggressive rave aesthetics. Rather than feeling grafted on, the guitars coexist naturally with hardcore techno’s harsh noise textures, allowing the album to transcend genre boundaries and articulate a singular, cohesive world.

Looking back through TORIENA’s catalog, early hints of this evolution can be traced to the sixth album PURE FIRE, where guitar elements began to surface amid a darker sonic shift. However, clear signs of shoegaze influence remained elusive until recently. According to an interview, the turning point came in early 2024, when TORIENA picked up a Jazzmaster and a full set of effects pedals—and composed shoegaze material within a single week. Remarkably, these tracks were performed live at Akihabara’s MOGRA just a few weeks later, despite minimal prior experience with guitar. (Interview with TORIENA)

Given the natural affinity between shoegaze’s feedback-heavy walls of sound and the harsh noise central to hardcore techno, this development reads less as a sudden mutation and more as an organic progression. Where TORIENA’s sound will evolve from here remains an open and intriguing question—whether toward deeper immersion in shoegaze, or further hybridization with rave music.

Either way, this album suggests that TORIENA’s ongoing metamorphosis is only beginning.

^{Note: The values in the graph refer to “Unconscious Bias” and “Emily.”}