Super Angry Hurt Feelings Over JPN
Posted: November 30, 2011 Filed under: contemode, Perfume, Reviews Leave a comment »Honestly, I just want to say this is the worst thing that could ever come out of Perfume and Nakata’s partnership and I hope that it is never repeated.
From the slow, boring intro track to the lazy Laser Beam album mix, all the way to the indistinguishable MY COLOR/Kokoro no Sports songs and the horrific abomination that is Toki no Hari in all its infantile simplicity (what happened to Take me Take me? Kiss and Music? why do we get Perfume the kindergarten trio on their third studio album?), JPN is a godawful mess and I hated every minute of listening to it. The only two new tracks to bring me any sort of joy were the GLITTER album mix and Have a Stroll; the former for its ambitious beginning and the latter for being the only thing that even remotely sounds like the Perfume I knew and loved.
That’s 2/7 new tracks (this is counting The Opening, not counting the bizarre minute edits in Fushizen na Girl). I’ve never had a Perfume album I loathed so intensely — moreover, I’ve never had a Nakata production I’ve loathed so intensely, not since Kyarypamyupamyu’s debut earlier this year. So maybe it’s the fact that it’s Perfume, the three girls who were the principle catalysts for bringing me into this genre and this community of artists and fans that I’ve grown so fond of, that strikes such a nerve and makes me this irritated and let down? Or, really, it’s the fact that it’s Nakata? But even that I can explain away by using Tokuma as a scapegoat. After all, there’s no way the same person who created Secret Secret and thought it was good then would go on to create Kokoro no Sports and find it similarly a decent song, right?
I should just stop my commentary of JPN at “it’s a horrible album” and spend as much time discussing the intricacies and semantics as Nakata spent on producing this work: none at all.
It’s Been Two Months?
Posted: October 6, 2011 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
To be fair, my blog’s been about as dead as this man’s website.
Yeah, I knew this was going to happen. I have very little time to devote to writing high quality blog posts due to life, which is why this place has been dormant for a little over two months now. I’m still paying attention and hoping to find time to spare to complete/refine some of my drafts that have been sitting around.
Just…in case any of the three people interested in this blog are interested.
(Also, R.I.P. Steve Jobs.)
Kyary’s Way Way Way
Posted: July 16, 2011 Filed under: contemode, Kyarypamyupamyu 5 Comments »
I’d like to say that of all Nakata’s produced artists, Kyarypamyupamyu may be the most difficult to digest. We first heard of her back in May this year, when she and two other models hosted her Nico Nico live show and debuted capsule’s WORLD OF FANTASY album the night before the release date. After that, I could have easily forgotten her existence — except for an announcement in early June about her eventual debut mini-album Moshimoshi Harajuku, produced by none other than Nakata Yasutaka.
My feelings about her were initially rather malevolent. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity Over Quality: The Perfume Conundrum
Posted: July 14, 2011 Filed under: contemode, Perfume 2 Comments »
When Nakata Yasutaka is being asked to adapt fifteen seconds of audio into a full song for the sake of a single with a commercial tie-in, I think it’s time to reevaluate how big of a role the music has in making Perfume what they are.
Tell Me Why…
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: D-topia, Reviews, Saori@destiny 1 Comment »Saori@destiny is an interesting case in the realm of Japanese electronica. In late 2007, she began as almost a replica of Perfume’s cutesy and “safe” pop-influenced electro style and has graduated to higher levels of musical artistry throughout the course of her career. She is not, however, without a mostly wota-dominated fanbase — something attributable to the Akihabara street performances she routinely put on that pre-date her debut on the D-topia Entertainment label. It was in these performances where she covered songs from notorious idol company Hello! Project and group AKB48, henceforth garnering the dedicated wota edge to her somewhat meager fan collective. Her initial release of the 2011 music season comes in the form of her second mini-album titled Domestic domain, with lyrics entirely penned by Saori and majority of the composition/arrangement credits owed to chief producer Oonishi Terukado under his bizarre pseudonym Alex Funk-it.
To be entirely honest, I’m not the biggest Saori fan under the sun. Her lyrical content can at times be too grim and dark for my still slightly idol-tinged music palate. So what attracted me to review this? I really can’t say. Maybe I’m giving her a second chance after the depression trip that her full-length album WORLD WILD 2010 was; maybe I’m genuinely curious to hear how she’s evolved in this release. Or maybe it’s because I dig the off-putting and messy cover art — which is an outright lie, but I digress. Read the rest of this entry »
Fashion Check: Perfume At Cars 2 Premiere
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: contemode, Perfume 4 Comments »Perfume appeared last month at the Cars 2 premiere in Los Angeles, much to the surprise and joy of numerous U.S. residents who are fans of them. I was there — not really there, but I was sitting here on my computer with my eyes glued to the Ustream and patiently awaiting the journalist crew to lure over the only idols I maintain an actively jovial interest in. However, I didn’t enjoy their painfully short interview nearly as much as I enjoyed scrutinizing their attire…
(The image above was originally one featuring Perfume alongside a rather well-known older fellow in the Perfume fan community who goes by the name of Perfume444, but I had decided to censor his identity with Nakata’s face. Unfortunately, he took umbrage with this for mysterious reasons — perhaps jealous of Nakata’s countenance? — so I replaced it.)
Anyway, let’s look at what we’re working with here. Read the rest of this entry »
Call the Cops, I Have a New Blog
Posted: July 4, 2011 Filed under: General Leave a comment »
…so hi, I’m Yoshimi. You may (no, you probably don’t) remember me as being formerly of the blog ★ ☆ yossha yossha YOSSHA! ☆ ★ that I started back in 2007. I like electronic house-esque club music and consider myself part of J-electro fandom. I listen to Nakata Yasutaka’s works — Perfume, MEG, Suzuki Ami, COLTEMONIKHA, etc — and RAM RIDER and Shinichi Osawa and some other people nobody cares about.
I have an about page, so I really don’t know why I bothered to make an introduction post, but whatever.
