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The Noodle Bar 麺

by Breather 1

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Sumatran Black
Sumatran Black thumbnail
Sumatran Black a great journey album of emotional and sultry cyber ambience that fans of the genre will do well to add to their collection. Plus lots of subtle touches and deft glimpses of melody that reveal themselves on repeated listens. Favorite track: The Apartment.
Evergreen
Evergreen thumbnail
Evergreen This album is fantastic. I have heard several albums taking inspiration from cyberpunk aesthetic, but this one takes the cake. Showing an immense amount of musical diversity, from more futuristic techno-like parts, jazz, cuban inspired music, this album emanates diversity—something that is a large part of what I imagine with “cyberpunk” worlds. Absolutely atmospheric and almost like wandering the streets of a city in the not-so-distant future. Well done.
Fen Walker
Fen Walker thumbnail
Fen Walker An experience that truly captures the tension, atmosphere and the neon glow of the city, futuristic or otherwise. The Noodle Bar is densely layered, nuanced and varied in its musical styles, making repeat listens a must. So turn out the lights, turn up the volume and get emerged in the sounds of the city. Favorite track: The Highway.
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1.
2.
The City 16:42
3.
The Highway 05:02
4.
The Dive 06:41
5.
The Alley 04:57
6.
The Dream 16:33
7.
8.
The Skyline 04:39
9.
10.

about

The rain stays a constant companion here.  I suppose if I'd been smart, I would have bought some stock in umbrellas.  Still..  I find the rain something of a sedative.  Watching the reflections on the street as it splashes down.  Moving its way around the congested corners and markets of the pedestrian stampede.  This neon world is always buzzing.  Busy and beating itself into your head whether you like it or not.  Even in the darkest places, the hum and the glow can find you..  Some flock to it like moths and some run to its underbelly like cockroaches huddled under a rock.  Either way..  Everyone copes with the city in their own way................  Used to be the bottle for me......  Six years ago today.....  The Noodle Bar...  It's certainly not where it all started.  But it's damn well where it ended.  

I guess the reflections in the rain must of drug it up.  The stretched out greens and blues along the highway matching the rhythm of fixtures passing by.  Hearing echoes in the night air...  Echoes of a voice...  Her voice...  Komiko... Still missing some pieces to that puzzle.  Fitting I'd find it swimming around in my swiss cheese brain tonight.  Accelerated instincts.  Thoughts on autopilot.  Before I know it, I'm on the off ramp to that seedy part of town again...  Ugh..  blurry memories.  Sifting through the smoky haze in that leaky roof dive.  I remember her red dress as she played on that run down stage.  A solemn elegance, her every move gracefully contoured and flowing.  She made her saxophone sing a song of hope and hopelessness all in the same measure.  Putting everyone's head down in their drink.  Until the power went out and dropped a blanket over all our eyes.  The sound of her muffled screams sending icy chills down my spine.  And then chaos.  I remember running through the trash can alleys and chasing shadows.  Lights buzzing and flashing disorienting focus.  Steam rising off the battered pavement.  Every corner getting colder and colder.  Until someone clocked me in the back of the head, knocking me out.  Yeah that was a real hum dinger..  Waking up in a pile of garbage, soaking wet under a rain gutter.  I'd still like to find the goon who did that to me and give 'em a proper thank you..

How I managed to make it home is anyone's guess.  Must have staggered and followed the walls until I found my way back.  But the dream I had that night..  The dream I do remember.  It's like the signs downtown were connecting all the dots for me.  Each one leading me to an unknown destination until I found myself in another alley.  There...  twenty feet away, a figure in the swirling steam..  Never saw a face.  Never spoke a word.  Just dropped a shiny object and vanished.  That's when I saw the pinstripes.  Four of them coming straight for me.   I grabbed the shiny thing and ran back the way I'd come.  The lights were changing.  Distorting.  A whole new pattern flashing and sending me down a different line...  Rain...  The rain was coming down harder suddenly.  The stripes not far behind.  But almost like they were being slowed down.  Almost as if the rain was pushing them back.  I remember hearing the distant sound of metal banging.  Trash trucks dumping garbage bins maybe...  And then I saw it.  The bright neon sign atop the Agasaki あがさき high rise.  Glowing bold in bright blue letters like some kind of a beacon.  I followed its light down the empty street until I found myself at the front of the tower.  As I walked through its golden double doors and into its giant lobby.  I opened my hand to see what it was I'd been carrying the whole time.  A golden key ring with two keys and a gold plated tag with the あがさき logo on it.  I flipped the tag over...  33DA.  The 33rd floor...  I looked back to the entrance.  No pinstripes.  No lights.  I clutched the keys making my way to the elevator and punched 33.  Seemed like slow motion going up.  I swear I could hear someone playing the piano from far away.  Lulling me into a doze until the elevator cracked open.  The air felt heavy and light at the same time as I made my exit.  A large single slab window at the end of the hall gleaming from the moon light hitting the floor.  It wasn't raining anymore...  Strange...  A calm feeling came over me and I remember breathing deeply.  Like one would do when meditating.  I followed the hallway down and found myself in front of the door marked 33DA.  Keys in hand, I watched as a white radiance leaked from the locks as I turned each key.  The door slowly opened while making a sound like swallows calling...  and that's when I saw her...

The next evening I taxied to the Agasaki building and found the apartment I'd been to in my dream.  Minus the keys, I knocked a while without an answer and found creative means to allow myself in.  Empty.  The lights were on with the windows open and the T.V. playing to the street.  An eerie feeling hung in the air.  Almost like the shadows casting from the fluorescent lights were trying to tell me something.  She was gone.  But someone had been here.. and recently.  The oscillating fan blowing the smoke from an ashtray on the window ledge was proof of that.  I surveyed the room again then sat down on the couch as the local weather reported another week of rain.  I had bad vibes crawling all over me and an uneasy feeling rising up in my gut.  Everything blurred.  And for a moment I thought someone was in the room with me.  Like someone was pacing back and forth along the windows.  Picking at things and pacing again  The sound of a singing voice on the tele snapped me out of it.  I rubbed my eyes and brought myself into focus which is when I saw the tan bag before me.  It was her purse sitting on the glass coffee table.  The butt of a gun peaking out next to a compact mirror and a tube of lipstick.  And next to them...  A single drop of blood, still fresh on the glass...

For obvious reasons, I refrained from going to the police.  This didn't look good.  How was I going to explain all of this without becoming the prime suspect.  No this didn't look good at all.  Ugh..  Breaking and entering.  Tampering with evidence...  The evidence...  I'd found a digital scrapbook in the pocket of her purse.  Protected by a violet flowered case embossed with the character "き"...  I knew something was there.  Something was telling me to open it.  And when I flipped it on, the display immediately went to a picture taken on the southern toll bridge.  It was her.  Standing against the railing with an umbrella over her head and a sparkle in her eyes.  Blue jean shorts and leather jacket.  Her blonde hair whipping in the wind with a warm smile full of joy on her face.  She was pointing toward the skyline.  The city and harbor vibrant in the background.  And in her hand...  The same set of keys from my dream...  She'd been reminiscing...  Looking back on fonder days...  Trying to bring them back...  Trying to find that joy again...

I found myself back at that dingy dive where it had all happened.  Half a dozen shots of whiskey in...  Her scrapbook in my hands...  Watching some other jazz outfit in the mirror behind the bar.  I'd gone through every picture on the tablet.  Heartbreaking...  It was just so heartbreaking...  Such a lovely life slowly soured and then gone so wrong.  Each picture chronologically telling her story and documenting the dissolution of her happiness.  But all without an explanation for her disappearance...  No clue as to who would have wanted to do any wrong by her.  And certainly no one talking about it...  It just didn't add up.  The evidence was all right there in her eyes.  But the answer was nowhere to be found...  Just then, I heard a saxophone...  The band was playing a tune reminding me of the way she had played...  Hopeful and hopeless melodies converging all at the same time.  I closed my eyes for a moment and pictured her playing again in her red dress...  Flowing...  Like the rain washing down the street...  I opened my eyes...  The last photo on the reel was one of her sitting and smoking on the window ledge of the apartment.  Clearly taken just before I had got there...  Her smile gone...  Her eyes staring right through the picture at me...  No warmth and no sparkle...  Just a longing look, asking "why"...  "Why didn't you save me?"  ...  My face in my palms...  My salted eyes...  The bartender poured another shot in front of me and whispered "it's on the house..."  ...  I looked up and thanked him with a nod.  Turned my bar stool toward the stage and raised my glass to the band as the song ended...  Making a rolling motion with my hand, I made my request...  "Play it again San...  Mata asobou-san また遊ぼうさん"

The next day I woke up to find myself lying in a hospital bed.  Tubes coming out of my arms and a very uncomfortable one going up my nose...  The nurse next to me holding my wrists and saying "it's okay!" as I frantically tried to remove the tubes.  Then the doctor entered the room...  I calmed myself as best I could and tried to listen to what he was saying...  Most of it a blur...  But apparently I'd had a seizure on the street the night before.  He said I'd be found bloody and unresponsive in the gutter and my blood sugar dangerously low.  Definite warning signs of what a liquid diet could do...  My head still swimming...  I signed the release forms and got dressed...  Smack back into the middle of downtown, rain falling and me without an umbrella...  I made my way out through the front doors and collected what was left of my thoughts...  Back into the barrage...   I walked while looking down the street at all the fantastic shapes and colors...  Something was different...  Something felt different...  Felt like a long welcoming home...  Felt like I was hungry!  ...What the hell had those doctors pumped into me?  I stopped for a moment to turn back and look at the hospital...  "Hmm.."  Well whatever it was I was feeling pretty okay...  I turned back and continued down the street...  And as if fate had arranged it.  I saw a big pink bowl of neon noodles glowing brightly just down the street.  The Noodle Bar...  The oldest one in the city to my recall...  I crossed the street and found a stool at the counter.  My stomach rumbling as an old man in a white kitchen cap and bifocals approached me.  "Nani ga suki 何が好き?"  I looked above him and saw the specials, my stomach growling even louder.  I quickly replied "Tokusei rāmen 特製ラーメン" and searched for the wallet in my coat pocket..  What I felt though wasn't  my wallet..  It was the hard outline of a bottle..  A pint of whiskey to be exact..  I took it out and looked down...  Half empty..  Half full...  Didn't matter...  This was the day it was all going to end...  I stood up and turned to the curb behind me.  Opened the bottle and began pouring it out into the rainy street...  As it neared to dry, I saw something out of the corner of my eye...  I looked up...  And across the street a blonde girl wearing blue jeans and a leather jacket was holding an umbrella while staring at a tablet in her hands..  It was her!  I couldn't believe it!  It was her!  I patted the pocket where I'd had the tablet and began to yell.. "Hey..."  Surprised, I felt no tablet in my pocket...  And then I lost my footing on the curb which sent me falling backwards against the bar, dropping the empty bottle as it smashed along the asphalt.  The old man behind the counter yelled out "Yo!  Itaidesu ka 痛いですか?"  I pushed the stools out of my way and jumped up and started to yell across the street again, then stopped myself...  She was gone...  Just like that...  Like a ghost..she was gone...  I rapidly surveyed in every direction while running across the street to the spot I'd seen her standing.  Looking up and down and all around the street!  Was I dreaming again?  Was it just my imagination...  I let out a deep breath and took a short step to turn back around...  As I did, I felt my shoe hit something on the pavement...ringing out with a sharp "tinging" sound...  I looked down...  And there between my feet lay a golden keyring with two keys and a gold plated tag...  Reaching down to pick them up, I could feel the embossed side of the key tag before I even read it...  "あがさき"  ...I flipped it over and smiled as I read the backside of it...  "33DA"  ...And from a distance I could hear the old man yelling from across the street...  "Men no junbi ga dekite imasu 麺の準備ができています!!!"

-From the journal of Detective Jei Rion (retired)

credits

released June 4, 2021

ヌードルバー
This album is best enjoyed
with headphones in a quiet,
dim lit atmosphere.

ブレイザー
Story & Music By J.Shook

Album Art By Alex Fusea
www.instagram.com/alexfusea/

Pixel Animation Video & Narration
By J.A. Grimes
www.instagram.com/flannelwizard/

Physical release TBA
danseatlantic.bandcamp.com
danseatlantic.com

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Breather 1 Visalia, California

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