Shutaro Noguchi & the Roadhouse Band - On The Run LP (Sophomore Lounge / Feeding Tube, 2025)

"Shutaro Noguchi didn’t set out to make a farewell album, but On the Run captures a moment of profound change. Recorded just weeks before moving back to Japan after 20 formative years in America (spent primarily Louisville, Kentucky), the album reflects a life in motion – rooted in memories, yet reaching toward the unknown.

In Louisville, Noguchi had built a creative home with a tight-knit crew, crafting beloved records that ranged from the country-rock swagger of Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band to the mutant grooves of Equipment Pointed Ankh. Meanwhile, he released compelling solo work, including the full-band psych rock gem Love Super Terranean on Feeding Tube Records. With On the Run, Noguchi joins The Roadhouse Band once more for a searching, expressive collaboration – an album made at a threshold between past and future.

The opening track “Olympic 3.5” begins with Noguchi in solitary introspection: "Now the wind is blowing / It’s passing me by … I’m getting a little too used to watching this sunset." He’s soon joined by the syncopated rhythms and lilting synths of The Roadhouse camp, constructing a warped odyssey that intertwines the cosmic spirit of Gong with the melodic, pop-driven abstraction of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Noguchi returns with Wyatt-esque wordless vocalizations before the song spirals into a dark, abstract descent.

Jazz-tinged numbers like “Apocalypse/Calendar” and “River Dagger” highlight Noguchi’s singular compositional voice. His relaxed vocals float over otherworldly arrangements, while “Drive My Cape Cod” – a voice memo captured during a long car ride and completed in the studio – offers a candid glimpse into his melodic daydreaming, in a move reminiscent of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, where casual, unpolished moments reveal deeper emotion.

Some tracks lean into groovier, more danceable territory, with production touches that echo Japanese contemporaries like Shintaro Sakamoto, Fishmans, Cornelius, etc.. “Melody” pairs a nostalgic City Pop feel with the band’s forward-thinking sound. The bubbly rhythm of “Time With You” feels almost weightless beneath the album’s perhaps only guitar solo, played, oddly enough, not by guitar wiz Noguchi himself but by bandmate Ryan Davis -- (NOTE: Keiji Haino told Shutaro several years back that he should focus less on the guitar elements of his music and more on his singing – a conversation that significantly influenced the shift in sonic approach exhibited here compared to his frantic, pedal-powered 2018 debut). Amid the breezy lightness, he accepts the chaos of an uncertain future: "It’s beginning to change / The time of the world / Eventually we’ll see it."

Noguchi’s reflections on uncertainty are deeply relatable and bittersweet – especially in this moment. With On the Run, Shutaro Noguchi and The Roadhouse Band show us how they face the unknown – together, embracing uncertainty with both resilience and camaraderie." - Kryssi Battalene, 2025

"I’ll forgive Noguchi’s somewhat off-key singing of the opener “Olympic 3.5” because the pop melody is heartfelt and daring, and regardless, after just 90 seconds of it, the track shifts into an extended B-section/set-change that is easily the finest Amerikraut indie jam of all time. I’m being serious; as fine indie Amerikraut jams go, it really is the best one...

Not unlike everything else the Roadhouse Band is doing, this record is going to blow some minds." - Larry Dolman, Blastitude