Tokyo’s Cephalo are still relative newcomers, but they’ve been very fast with making a name for themselves. Their debut EP Wind Surfing School made waves in the Japanese shoegaze pond on its release last May, and their debut full-length Fluorite Code affirmed their excellence when it followed in December. And in 2025, they’ve somehow managed to keep the momentum going with international (within Asia, of course) touring and frontwoman Fuki releasing another full-length album with her other project iVy; not bad for a band of self-declared loners.
And amidst it all, they still found the time to write and record another EP – they released Gloaming Point last week, which introduces five new songs into the Cephalo oeuvre and continues the new trend of having OG shoegazers doing production work with Japanese bands; Slowdive’s Simon Scott gets mastering credits on the release.
Guitarist Omae has annotated the album on Note. Of「ヴェイパーロード」(translation: “Vapor Road”) – the first single and video from the new record – he says:
It was completed soon after we released our first album, so we’ve been performing it live ever since, and I think everyone was able to spend the most time on the arrangements.
I feel like things have changed somewhat since we wrote this song, and I think it was a turning point for the band.
After watching the movie “Ichiko” (starring Hana Sugisaki) late at night, I was so moved that I sat down at my desk and completed the song at home.
I remember being so moved when I received the lyrics, even though I hadn’t told fuki anything about it, and thinking, “It’s Ichiko…!!”I think the composition is quite simple and easy to listen to.
The chord progression is subtly creepy, and there are strange open string sounds, which I think gives it a Cephalo-esque feel.
Omae, Cephalo
The guitar interlude is recorded an octave above and below at the same time, which I think was an interesting experiment.
2nd EP “gloaming point” @ Note
He also notes that the track is all Gibson Les Paul through a TKOG Oxford Drive into Marshall amps. For those who care about these things. Also for those people, Omae’s rig got featured over on ToneBook back in April.
And back in September, they gave an interview to Filipino music site City Writer that covers how they’ve grown and learned to write and work together as a band over the past two years:
Meet Cephalo Band: Indie Rock with Heart and Edge! @ City Writer
