Japs Sergio’s Stereo Mood Swings is a cathartic look at depression.

Japs Sergio’s Stereo Mood Swings is a cathartic look at depression.

by rick olivares

You know how there are things you just have to do? Not in the bucket list sort of way, but more to get something off your chest? Daydream Cycle/Peso Movement and former Rivermaya bassist and guitarist, Jap Sergio, has released his third solo effort, Stereo Mood Swings, under the nom de guerre, Japsuki, and it is more than a mood swing. Sergio revisits a particularly a difficult and depressing time in his life and the result is an intensely personal album which is perhaps why he opts to have Stereo Mood available to those who appreciate the dream pop/shoegazer style he performs with Daydream Cycle rather than the masses.

“I wanted to revisit that feeling but not be depressed,” said Sergio to this writer. “(To look at it from) an outside point of view. It messed up my mind a bit and I will never do that again.”

Catharsis you can say; Sergio expresses it via Stereo Mood Swings and he performs every instrument and records on his trusty laptop. The album features 10 hauntingly bittersweet songs that ultimately offer hope. More often than not, we just have to go through these bouts and hope we come away not too scarred but stronger and better.

Thematically, Stereo Mood Swings reminds me of Tears for Fears’ fourth album, Elemental or English dream pop band, the Field Mice. Regarding Elemental, that album took a step back from the intricate and lush Sgt. Pepperesque production number on The Seeds of Love for a more introspective and atmospheric approach to songwriting. Though not one of the more popular albums in TFF’s catalogue, the tracklist is strong and contains some solid songs of anger, hope, and well, quiet introspection.

The opening track, “The Waking Hour” finds Sergio channeling his inner Robert Wratten (lead singer of the Field Mice) in a shimmering song that belies the questions about self-doubt.

“Out of the Shadows”, the second track will not be out of place on Elemental. And it’s a brooding piece.

“Waves & Vibrations” is about the ebb and flow of life, is shoegazey while the next two songs, “Suitcase of Mystery” and “Silver Haze” – the sixth track -- have this dreamy tinderbox nod to Siouxsie and the Banshees.

If the first four songs are like a taking chill pill, the fifth one, “Lady Luck”, adds much needed buoyancy – a mood swing – to the album.

Stereo Moods Swings is revisiting a difficult time but a necessary one because it’s exorcises those ghosts of bad days past and looks ahead to the future having learned the lessons of survival and heeding life’s cycle of tomorrow is another day.

The album is quite a performance by Sergio who to my knowledge first tread these textured sonic landscapes during Rivermaya’s Between the Stars and Waves and ventured further into with Daydream Cycle and the earlier Japsuki releases. However, I do wonder how it would have turned out if he had some female lead vocals on some songs. I sort of wondered if maybe a higher vocal range would have worked on some.

Nevertheless, we should be so thankful that this year, we’re getting a chockful of dream pop/shoegaze releases. Taken By Cars just released their magnificent, Plagues. Japsuki’s out and Sugar Hiccup will end the year with a triumphant bang with their fourth album (more than a decade after their last one).

Stereo Mood Swings has its moments. Like life, it rises, sometimes stalls in the ether, but ultimately, its poignant. Now smile.