'Every Day Is a Sunday' Makes Everyday Feel Like A Good Day
By Sara O’Connell
A little over a month ago Kishi Bashi teamed up with El Ten Eleven on the EP Every Day Is a Sunday. The EP is a rework of an LP Kishi Bashi released in the depths of quarantine when he and his collaborators were stuck at home. This two-track release is packed with explosive sound. Kishi Bashi is a multi-instrumentals singer-songwriter who uses his classical violin training to bend the expectations of genre. He’s known for his haunting yet comforting sound that engulfs the listener into another world.
His popularity has grown tremendously since his first release in 2013. These two tracks are a far departure from some of his popular tracks like, “I Am The Antichrist To You'' which you might have heard in the new season of “Rick and Morty”. In those works, he leans more towards an orchestral sound. However, on this EP, he sounds follows the lead of his collaborators El Ten Eleven. An LA-based rock duo known for its combination of steady electric drumming, fretless guitars, and basses with heavy vamping and effects. Before this EP I had never heard of them, but their influence on the track was immediately noticed.
The two tracks are like siblings in the same family. One is the more peppy, excitable one, while the other is the quieter, more sensitive one. Every Day Is A Sunday is our first of the two. It’s an upbeat electronic piece with a lot of drive. Its four-minute duration delivers rejuvenating sounds while El Ten Eleven adds a sonic punch. It’s a good walking somewhere-with-purpose song, with a fast tempo, upbeat synths, and a strong drum track that makes you wanna move. It mellows out with a signature Kishi Bashi strings section as we fade into the next track.
Slow Motion Feel is my favorite track out of the two. It’s got a steady pace to it that matches the track before. The bass line on this song has a little more of a groove than the previous song and makes for an excellent head bop track. If Every Day Is A Sunday is a walking-with-purpose song, Slow Motion Feel is a you’ve-reached-your-destination-and-now-you-can-chill song. The end doesn’t resolve in a way that we’re used to hearing; It kind of drifts off into a soft space and then — abrupt silence. This leaves it in a more open-ended state, rather than a big finish.
The reworks of these sister songs are a great introduction to both artists. El Ten Eleven makes their presence known in an understated way, and paired with the undefinable style of Kishi Bashi, it creates a superb sound. These are likely Kishi Bashi’s most uplifting tracks. While there’s still his unmistakable ethereal sound, a sense of energy and optimism added.