NY-based Japan Soul’s upcoming LP, titled Plastic Utopia, is an artful protest of the times. “The album is mostly a compendium of my thoughts on these troubled times,” says Jason Paul. “The conceptual premise of Plastic Utopia is that we have slipped into an apocalyptic alternate universe caused by a rift in time that began around the year 2000. 911, Iraq, the great recession…it feels like in the 90s we were living at ‘The End of History’ on course to avoid all these terrible calamities. Things are no longer as they should be. On Plastic Utopia, Japan Soul gives voice to the artistic resistance of this dystopian world.” Plastic Utopia was recorded in living rooms and bathrooms in Brooklyn as well as a Williamsburg practice space. To fully realize their sonic vision for thePlastic Utopia EP, they worked with Craig Levy, an audio engineer in Clinton Hill, to mix the final versions of the songs. David Rozner stepped up into the roll of lead producer and engineer for the final four songs.
The song “Hey Yah Hey” references the year that Jason Paul travelled with his soon-to-be-wife, artist Eva Orzech, through four continents. They saw incredible things every day for a full year. When they returned to New York it seemed like no time had passed—as if waking from a dream—yet the memories remain vivid.
