'The Very Model of Modern...' Spacemen, beat-eaters and international pop music conspiracy theorists - lend Himawari your ears. Promise: You will find in the Japanese techno-performance duo atmosphere, humor, hidden blips and not-so-hidden sights and sounds to vex the expectations and beguile utterly even the coldest hearts. You may have caught them at LifeFest this summer. If you did, yer lucky. If not, tune in to the frequencies on which Takeshi (sound and video editing / mixmaestro) and Lena (singer, singer, singer) cast their sound. A surface scratch of Himawari's soon-to-be released debut LP, Mineral (on Detroit's Rematter label) reveals Krafwerkian mechanics and late-model Bjork vocalizing, but Himawari makes these comparisons merely an entrance to their own autobahn/ichiban. Somehow, someway, singer Lena manages to sound simultaneously as though she's letting loose a sing-song walking down the street and whispering in your ear sitting next to you on the sofa. Himawari's right brain finds creative comfort in four-track indie-pop while the rational, mechanical part of this musical beastie resides not-so-squarely in new New Romantique electro-pop. Mouse on Mars should be so earnest. Adult. should be so textured. Any number of basement twee-pop darlings should be so bold and experimental. We should all be so lucky. Wait, we are. Himawari, as the fellas in Depeche Mode once pined, gets the balance right. Released on Rematter.

01. The Word (4:35)
02. Chu Chu (5:05)
03. Home (5:03)
04. Computer Energy (5:08)
05. My Dear Things (5:19)
06. HR-101 (7:08)
07. Wonder Pan (1:24)
08. Flexia (4:40)
09. Vivid Petal (5:07)