Air Feel, Color Swim

“You May Crawl” remains brilliant. Sadly their early albums are unavailable on iTunes. Hooray YouTube!

It has been several years since I first stumbled upon "you may crawl" while browsing through the iTunes store, and I can honestly say that 99 cents was the single best purchase I have ever made on iTunes. After literally hundreds of listens, the song never even comes close to getting old, and it gives me a different feeling every time. So naturally, once I stumbled upon that gem, I had to buy more. And after purchasing all of "air feel, color swim," I can honestly say that there is not a single dud on the entire tracklist. A little more cleaned-up than "school food is good food," the band's sophomore effort may just be their best to date - and that is saying a lot considering how much I love their other works as well. "Sky step" keeps you on your toes with its unexpected rhythm and melody changes leading into an exciting and energetic finish. "Loop,share" is beautifully haunting and has some of the best piano work on the entire album - which is saying a lot, considering how much I love the piano throughout. "Kemuri ni shiro" is delicate and gorgeous, with soft, beautiful melting timbres. "Turn" is a sassy track that cleverly starts out slow, without any decided rhythm, but evolves into a jazzy instrument-heavy number that will make you want to put it on repeat again and again. "Aimai ni soreru" really showcases Yumi's soft and breathy vocals and continues the jazzy vibe started in "turn." Though nearly six and a half minutes - a long song by most standards - you will never get bored during "Art line." The long instrumental sections are just as beautiful as the vocal parts, and they blend together seamlessly. "Transient" is a soft, wonderful end to the album. Needless to say, at less than $8, this album is an absolute steal. I would pay that much for "you may crawl" or "turn" alone. Be sure to check out "Riff-rain" as well, and any other albums iTunes may add in the future. Though I think sfp's mini-albums are better than their full albums, that doesn't mean the work they've done with Epic Records isn't worth a listen, or two, or two hundred. :)

I will have to say that this album was a bit of a surprise for me. Just stumbled across it and gave a listen. All and all, School Food Punishment delivers nice well put together songs that have a fun beat and at times a very jazzy vibe. The bass grooves and the keyboards parts are well composed and have nice hooks. The singer, Yumi Uchimura, has a very strong voice that just grabs you. The keyboards are very well played and go back and forth between synth and piano sounds depending on the song. From my point of view, this group is the best when they play straight ahead, minimizing some of the gimmicky synth based sound effects that they do from time to time. I tend to find these random sound effects more distracting than pleasant to listen to, and add little to the songs that they come up in. In the end, that is a minor point that should not dissuade people from giving this group a shot. As others have said, this group has a good sense of composition and making interesting and somewhat complex music that is very expressive. Now iTunes has to get the rest of the groups songs up on US iTunes.

I fell in love with this band after listening to 'Futuristic Imagination'(the ending theme for the television show, 'Eden of the East'), which sadly iTunes doesn't have. I'm happy to see that I can expand on my collection of School Food, but I really hope iTunes gets 'Light Payer', 'After Laughter', and 'Future Nova' sometime soon along with 'Futuristic Imagination'.

I don't listen to much rock music anymore, but these guys are above and beyond what I've grown to expect from rock band. Their attention to atmospheric and sonic detail is meticulous, and the use of frequent metric shifts, textural evolution, and unconventional modulations all make for a far more interesting musical experience than I've ever heard from a rock band. Add to the mix a vocalist with a beautiful singing voice, and a highly expressive sense of melody, and you've got yourself a keeper.

Never thought I would like a Japanese Indie band, but these guys blew me away! They have a wonderful sound.

not very common to find awesome indie music. let alone japanese too. school food punishment is great! i love their songs and have a great feel to them