The Moment of Nightfall and Tony Jay - Winter Dream

Japanese indie-poppers The Moment of Nightfall (featuring members of Pervenche amongst others) partner with San Francisco's Tony Jay (Flowertown, Cindy++) for this neatly conceived 10" collection of seasonal music, incongruently recorded whilst the latter was in Tokyo during this year's sweltering summer. How they've managed to channel such a crystalline wintery feel amidst such conditions is a skill usually reserved for only the most talented of John Lewis Christmas ad executives. The trick resides in the style of music the group perform. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but there's something inherently 'Christmas-y' about this kind of slow-motion dream-weaved jangle, conjuring a vision of snow-covered winter scenes and midnight blue peaceful intimacy that might be more of a byproduct of Hollywood fantasies than any real life experience. Nonetheless, this is essentially snowglobe music, a scene caught within its own self-contained bubble, untouched by the wider world. No wonder, then, that it sounds like a perfect extension of the current Bay Area scene, Tony Jay's involvement with both Cindy and Flowertown obvious connecting points, while the shared, continuing love for Mazzy Star and the Velvet Underground is unavoidable (and never get old for me). A San Francisco Christmas in Japan caught in the summer heat? It's the kind of interstitial concept that feels perfectly suited to the aesthetics of dreampop.