Japan Soul, mtvU winner, will release debut LP “Plastic Utopia” April 29

Constantly evolving, Japan Soul is a wandering vacuum of ideas influenced by styles as diverse as art rock, sophisti-pop, electronic dance music and funk. Japan Soul is the music collective of Jason Paul—vocals, guitars, bass, programming, David Rozner—percussion, arrangements and guitars, and DaVe Lipp—saxophones, bass, guitar and eclectic instruments. Japan Soul seeks to create transcendental music that synthesizes art, dissent and euphoria.

Japan Soul’s Plastic Utopia LP, 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, accelerated climate catastrophe…it feels like in the 90s we were 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. The songs are like landscape vignettes of this moment in history. Time seems to move backwards and forwards and I think our eclectic pop reflects that. The songs are designed to be sticky, cloaked in irresistible hooks, so a listener can simply enjoy, dance and sing along to this album. Maybe it’s a bit of a trojan horse, where a deceptively a catchy hook reveals a hard truth. Even for those who don’t pay attention to lyrics there’s an emotionality, a euphoria, that will make these songs memorable for anyone.”

Plastic Utopia represents two years of meticulously crafted songwriting and wild music exploration. Japan Soul was aided by Craig Levy for mixing on 6 tracks, Mike Ryan for on a track and David Rozner who took on the role of lead producer/arranger of the album. New York/Detroit synth-pop legend Kent Odessa provides guest backup vocals on two tracks – “War” and “Fight With Love”.

Jason Paul, an artist, designer and songwriter, has been writing and recording music since he was a teenager. He co-founded the New York Dolls influenced Music For Girls in the mid-00s. Afterwards, he started an art-rock/soul music project where he began collaborating with David Rozner and met DaVe Lipp who joined that band (a previous incarnation of Japan Soul spelled Japan Seoul). Jason took a long hiatus in which he traveled the globe for a year with his soon-to-be wife and artistic collaborator, Eva Orzech (who created and provided the cover painting for Plastic Utopia).

David Rozner is a drummer with a degree in music theory and crafts a-typical arrangements out of the songs. He was a founding member of the band The Vitamen. He also played drums in Peephole/Kent Odessa (joined by Jason on bass). David has become a music producer working with artists as well as for film and television.

DaVe Lipp, a writer, bassist, poet/lyricist and multi-instrumentalist, contributes unconventional ideas utilizing his growing stash of musical instruments. DaVe played saxophone in The Vitamen’s horn section. He is also the founder of the experimental/surf/8-bit project, Himalayan Gold.

Pre-order Now on BandCamp – Available at all digital stores April 29