True Life by TOMC

TOMC's second beat album in almost two years, "True Life" is an album filled with the history of beat music from the 1990s to the 2020s.
The album is a combination of "deep respect for the history of jazz and soul", "sound-collage like abstract hip-hop and trip-hop", "hybrid musicality with various rhythms similar to LA beats", and "a quiet listening experience that resonates with ambient music after the lo-fi beats movement. The result is a work that combines all of these qualities.

In addition, the album is unique in its deep knowledge of club culture, including medium grooves like rare grooves and neo-soul, house music, and even 2step.
This album is like Nujabes' "Modal Soul" in the 2020s, and is a dense piece of sampledelia magic similar to The Avalanches, Cornelius and others.

The album features three guests.
H.Takahashi, the owner of Kankyo Records, where TOMC also works as a writer/reviewer, and one of the current frontrunners in nowadays Japanese ambient scene, pushes the quality of the balearic new age track, "True Life Again," to the extreme. Yutaka Hirasaka, a guitarist/beatmaker shows off his superb groovy playing on "Ubiquity. Hiroyuki Nakamura, a pianist and a longtime friend of TOMC, plays a key role in raising the quality of the three songs that form the heart of the album. He is like Uyama Hiroto in Nujabes’ works.

What TOMC expresses in its sound is a genuine wish for those who stand at the crossroads of their lives to live their "true life" with their hearts beating with excitement while being lost in their own positions.
Yes, this album may appear to be a complex work, with three deep "inner" suites and short interludes, but the result is very far from a sense of introspection or stagnation. Instead, the album is filled with sincere vibes that inspire and celebrate the lives of listeners living in today's uncertain society.

This album is TOMC's first masterpiece, summarizing his extensive work from beats to ambient and beyond. We hope that this album will connect the cultures before and after the lo-fi movement and will be loved beyond the boundaries of the scene for a long time to come.

Tracklist

1.	Ambience ft. NAKAMURA Hiroyuki	2:18

2.	Lush Life	2:19

3.	Inner Vesper (Part 1 & 2)	1:59

4.	Yosuga	2:11

5.	Inner Shimmer (Part 1 & 2)	2:46

6.	Another Saturday	2:28

7.	(Midtownlifecrisis)	0:52

8.	True End ft. NAKAMURA Hiroyuki	1:49

9.	True Life Counterpoint	1:43

10.	Place To Be (Album Mix)	3:00

11.	Ubiquity ft. yutaka hirasaka	2:19

12.	Inner Stepper (Part 1 & 2)	2:51

13.	(Midlifetowncrisis)	1:21

14.	True Life ft. NAKAMURA Hiroyuki	6:58

15.	True Life Again ft. H.Takahashi	3:56

Credits

released May 26, 2023

Artwork by Kass Ilagan

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