Infinite Seasons

My J-Music Favorites of 2007

nobody@vox.com(the quiet fox) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:13:57 -0500

I’ve never been a person who makes big plans for New Year’s Day. I think I was out on the streets at midnight once, a few years ago, and I went for the company of friends more than any perceived importance of observing the day itself. Nope, I’m the kinda guy who’ll just sit at home and do nothing, and be happy for it. Maybe I’ll have a beer or something, play some more World of Warcraft, or spend some quality time with the boyfriend. But, I will admit that the new year does give me a decent prompt for blog writing. I think I’ll celebrate the occasion of incrementing a digit on the calendar by writing an entry on the most remarkable j-pop discoveries I’ve made this year. Some are genuinely brand-new finds; some represent a newly-vested interest in a group I’ve known about for a while. All are very important to me and are artists I hope to be listening to for a while. So let the sharing commence:

capsule - Sugarless GiRL

Yasutaka Nakata. Number one on my list is a name that may not be directly familiar. Nakata is the man who, at only 27 years old, is the producer for such luminary acts as capsule and Perfume. He has a number of intriguing side projects like COLTEMONIKHA, runs his own record label (contemode), and has recently produced varying amounts of work for artists such as Ami Suzuki (“FREE FREE” and “SUPER MUSIC MAKER”), Leah Dizon (remix of “koi shiyou” which, I should point out, totally kicks the ass of the original), and MEG (her entire BEAM album, released earlier this month).

MEG - OK

In addition to his impressive list of collaborations, Nakata is also amazingly prolific: capsule alone had three full-length album releases in 2007. Nakata, in addition to production work, generally writes all the music and lyrics for his projects, and has even directed his own promotional videos in the past. If you’re looking for someone to really show you up as far as career accomplishments go (by the way, I’ll be 26 in February. Grumble.), Nakata’s your man! Oh, and did I mention that his genre of choice these days is insanely catchy, over-the-top vocodered electro music? Yeah, this music pushes all my buttons, including ones I didn’t even know I had. Check out the samples, and if this is your thing as much as it is mine, don’t hesitate to check out the albums Sugarless GiRL, FLASH BACK, or FRUITS CLiPPER from capsule; Complete Best from Perfume; BEAM from MEG; or any release from COLTEMONIKHA.

Yuka Funakoshi - Morning Bird

Yuka Funakoshi. Interestingly, I discovered this artist from domestic channels. I first stumbled across Funakoshi’s music on eMusic, where customer reviews hailed her as being a “Western-style” Japanese pop artist. I was intrigued and purchased her album Silent Sun. What I found was a young woman with a gorgeous voice, self-composing and writing her own lyrics, and even playing keyboards (a prominent element in many of her songs). I’m not sure how “Western-style” she is, as that’s a term I find difficult to qualify, but I can say that she is a definite far cry from most other Japanese pop (as in popular) music.

Yuka Funakoshi - Silent Sunrise

Best of all, Funakoshi’s music is completely accessible: her albums are available not only on eMusic, but also on iTunes as well as Amazon’s MP3 Downloads store. I don't work for eMusic, but I should point out that if you don't mind paying $10 for a basic 30-track subscription (which can easily be canceled after the first month if you prefer it not to recur), they are by far the cheapest option. Anyway, corporate shilling aside, I didn’t fall head over heels for Funakoshi like I did for Yasutaka Nakata above, but her music is relaxing, intelligent, and very well-done overall. The albums of hers that I own are Silent Sun and Pool no Nioi no Natsu; both are highly recommended.

Morning Musume - mikan

Morning Musume. “But Fox, they’ve been around for years!” Yes indeed, and I’ve known of them for years as well – but 2007 is the year when I finally sat up and started to pay attention. Their July single “onna ni sachi are” grabbed me and held on tight for months afterward. The song was catchy, it was well-performed, and with just nine young women in the group I found it fairly easy to “get to know” all of them with regards to their various personae. Recent single “mikan,” while not as impressive to me, helped seal the deal, and while I don’t own any album releases yet, you can bet I’ll be buying the next one that comes out.

Morning Musume - onna ni sachi are

Of course, nobody told me that getting into one Hello! Project group means potentially-fatal levels of exposure to the entire idol milieu created by Tsunku and Co. (It probably doesn’t help that I read International Wota on a daily basis, of course.) It may be too late for me, I’m afraid, but you can still save yourself! Under no circumstances should you listen to the samples I’ve provided! Run… run far away… but y’know, I was nice enough to put the links right there for you, so…

Koharu Kusumi - Chance!

Koharu Kusumi. “But Fox, she’s in Morning Musume. And she can’t sing for crap.” Well, dear imaginary reader, those were the exact reasons I ignored her solo releases under the Kirarin Revolution banner for so long. But hey, guess what popped up on the US iTunes store just recently? Why, nothing other than Ms. Kusumi’s second solo album, Kirarin Land. Fancy that. I was bored at the time, so I decided to give it a download. I expected the worst, since the short samples I heard of the tracks weren’t doing much to bring me around. Well, let’s just say that I listened to the entire album, straight through, twice in a row today – and that’s just today.

Koharu Kusumi - koi no mahou wa HABIBI no BI!

Tsukishima Kirari starring Kusumi Koharu

Koharu may not be able to sing very well (although she is slowly improving, it seems), but the beauty of the music on Kirarin Land is that nothing requires her to sing well. One track, “Konnichipa,” has Koharu hamming it up in a way that both showcases and somehow glorifies her lack of technical ability, to the point where I don’t think a more accomplished vocalist could pull it off quite as well. Other album tracks, like “koi no mahou wa HABIBI no BI!” (worth it just for the title) and “Ramutara” have her bouncing along, gleefully singing half-nonsense verses like no one’s listening, and it all works. It works shockingly well, actually. Seriously, buy this album. (This may be a little late for a truly justified addition to a “best of 2007” list, which isn’t really what this entry is anyway, but I still consider Koharu’s solo work an important discovery for me because it’s made me do a complete 180-degree turn in my perception of her.)

I listened to a lot of new and new-to-me music in 2007, and while I don’t exclusively listen to Japanese music (and also could compile a list of great English-language albums I bought this year), I can confidently say that the above-mentioned artists are the ones that kept me playing and replaying their songs well past the point of total memorization and into the depths of addiction. (Seriously, I listened to nothing but capsule during my work commute for a good two months.) Here’s hoping that 2008 will be as fruitful for my ears and as draining on my wallet.

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Morning Musume Redux: Takittied and Feathered

nobody@vox.com(the quiet fox) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:08:46 -0500

Since it’s been said that the truth will set you free, I’d like to get it out of the way right now: I am a 25-year old man who enjoys the music of Morning Musume. Let me pause for a second while freedom sets in.

Hmm. Maybe it takes a while. Well, uh, in the meantime, let me elaborate a bit and say that this is a very recent musical interest. I’ve known of MoMusu and the vast sea of cuteness that is Hello!Project for years now, but had never really paid it too much attention in the past. In fact, if you’d asked me a year ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to name any current or former members of the group. Exceptions are Ai Kago, who distinctly annoyed the shit out of me (in retrospect this most likely goes for Nozomi Tsuji too, except that I probably couldn’t have told them apart then); conversely, Hitomi Yoshizawa left a positive impression on me because of her tomboy character and distinctive voice; she’s stood out from the group as a result, enough that I regretted her recent graduation.

Around when Yossie left is when I finally heard a full MoMusu album - their sixth, ai no dai 6kan - and to my surprise, I took to it. Then I started to really take to it. It was a slow process, but eventually I started to hum “LEMON-iro to MILK TEA” to myself at random points during the day, and since the proceedings don't get much more saccharine than a song like that, clearly I'd reached the point of no return. Okay, so it’s the present day and I’m officially ready to open myself to more of this group’s music. But with Yossie gone, who will be my idol among idols? Who am I going to latch onto and develop a big gay crush on now?

Morning Musume - onna ni sachi are

Well, the group’s newest single “onna ni sachi are,” released on July 25th, not only kicks down the door to my cerebellum and bellows “I’m comin’ in, bitch!”; it also answers that last question very, very securely.

Why HELLO there.

Ai Takahashi. Oh man, where do I start? I previously recognized her name purely because she’s been in the group for so long, but otherwise I never took much notice of her… if I’d known what she sounded like, maybe that would have been different, but oh well. Now she leads the group, and in this song and PV she seizes the role. From what various other message board denizens say, this is sort of a dramatic character shift for Takahashi, who is normally quiet and reserved. Maybe some of her “normal” persona is still evident, since she’s really not vamping it up to the extreme that the costumes/headdresses/etc. of the video might allow for. Instead, Ai is merely content to take the lion’s share of the vocals (coincidentally, she sings beautifully), dance her ass off, and direct a smolderingly reproachful gaze toward the camera in her close-ups. Works for me, since she does all of the above so very well…

What, you wanna argue about it?

Vocally, “onna ni sachi are” is a little like "Ai Takahashi plus eight girls that happened to be in the studio that day" rather than an evenly-split group, but in fairness those remaining eight do make a very nice showing, audibly and visually. My preferences led me to especially note Koharu Kusumi, who is managing to look more and more stunning every time I see her (not a small feat for a 15-year-old). She’s got a fair share of solo lines in this song, and while her voice isn’t the best, I enjoy it nonetheless - especially the way she hits the "asahi yo noboreeee" part at the end of the first chorus. Close runners-up are Eri Kamei and second-newest member Aika Mitsui: the former gets mention purely because of her solo line near the end of the song, which she really hits out of the park (I love the multiple shots of her hands while she performs it), while the latter delivers a simple but surprisingly deliberate performance in her dancing and in her pair of solo lines, enough to intrigue me as to her untapped potential.

Koharu Kusumi

Eri Kamei

Aika Mitsui

“Onna ni Sachi Are” is also the debut single for Morning Musume’s two new Chinese members, Li Chun (a.k.a. JunJun, who incidentally looks like she wants to kill someone in the below still) and Qian Lin (a.k.a. LinLin). The pair don’t make the biggest splash here, but they fit in well, hold their own on the singing front, and as brand new talent make me excited to hear more in the future.

JunJun

LinLin

The song itself is uptempo with a hard beat, a canvas that plays an interesting foil to the surprisingly bitter lyrics (which you can find here). The video is very simple and, uh, yellow and feathery (in case you didn't notice), alternating between dance sequences, closeups during solo lines, and brief shots of all the girls mouthing “baka!” at the camera with a gamut of emotions running from pouty to enraged to dominatrix-lite (that’d be Takahashi). Yeah, it’s a little on the cheap side, but it’s simple, surprisingly addictive, and does what it has to do to burn these girls into my brain, which is obviously the whole point.

Takitty allows herself a smile... (wait, what did I call her? Oh boy. No saving me now.)

I’ve had this song on my hard drive for about a month now, and have been listening to it very frequently over that month, only now finding the time to sit down and write about it. This isn’t a proper single review, as I neither own the single nor have heard its b-side, but the reason I’m writing about this one song anyway is because this is the first Morning Musume song that’s stuck to me so persistently and over such a long period. It single-handedly has vitalized my interest in this group to the point where I’m greatly anticipating their next single, and maybe an album in the not-too-distant future. It also has me looking to the past, since I’ve heard so many reminisce about MoMusu’s golden age and former star members; logically, if I like this song so much, there’s gotta be more where that came from, and I’m very excited about what I might discover.

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