Golin: “One Touch”
The pop artist Rin Suemitsu—or Golin—was born in Tagawa, Japan, emigrated to the US as a child, and is currently based in Amsterdam; her latest song, “One Touch,” feels fittingly transcontinental, nodding to the sleek, anodized aesthetic of J-pop as well as rave music and European big-tent EDM. Released on the latest compilation from Drain Gang label YEAR0001, it’s a classic breakup song that shares DNA with Ecco2k’s great PXE EP and Grimes’ Art Angels. Over a walloping techno pulse, Golin sings in Japanese of self-determination and uncertainty— “I want to hold you close/I won’t forgive you/Do you understand?”—her voice stinging and vaporous like a musical tear gas. The song races by in less than three minutes, and its breakneck speed gives the whole thing a scorched-earth intensity. One line is sung in English—“You fucked me over”—and it anchors the song’s emotional core even if you can’t parse the rest of it: Golin was wronged, and this is her coming to collect.