the Shiina Ringo thread

third Tokyo Jihen album title is 'Variety' and is out September 26. Killer Tune single cover. 'Osca' single released tomorrow.

(w/ shouts to Orenji and all at Ringo Catalogue)

Looking forward to that new Tokyo Jihen album. [said in tone of TV new anchor banter.]

One thing about KZK that I'm not sure I've ever noted here is the use of offkilter rhythms in some songs. I need to sit down and focus as much as possible on the rhythms some time. It's often somewhat subtle, or if not subtle, overshadowed by other things going on.

Specifically, sometimes there will be overlapping rhythms that kind of pull in different directions but still work together. That's my non-technical description anyway.

rocket scientist,

i only have the first two solo records. the first one is very, very good. it has more immediacy than shoso, but is not as mature or rich.

i have heard a couple of tracks from kzk. sounds like she's doing something entirely different on that one, though i'm sure it's thoroughly rewarding. is next on the shopping list.

Okay. I don't want to detract from Shouso Strip, I just have nothing to say about it at the moment and am feeling KZK more.

that's cool :)

so it's 'shouso' not 'shoso'. my records only have the kanji on them...makes it very difficult for me to identify song titles and what not.

I usually see it as Shouso.

Since you are a fresh pair of ears (wrt Shouso Strip), I will ask what I asked earlier:

is "Byoushou Public" off Shouso Strip her tribute to the Butthole Surfers?

(Not thematically, but in some of the sounds.)

Is she really known as a Butthole Surfers fan???

I shouldn't really be surprised though, there's that story of her showing her label or whatever a list of her influences that was ten pages long.

Either way that tune is one of my favorites on that album.

Oh, I don't know if she is. It wouldn't surprise me though, especially given that particular song. I'd love to get my hands on her infamous multi-page list of influences.

Yeah, I wonder if Hanatarash is on it! :)

byoushou public... track 11 right?

fantastic song. excellent muffled vocal effect. nice spasms of guitar feedback. butthole surfers-esque? maybe just :)

damn there's a lot going on in these songs.

'Killer Tune' PV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxwmK133lmg

well I mean I love this. once again I can't believe that I love this but there's no way around it. another psychotically cheery broadway musical number played way, way too fast, written by Izawa.

the 'OSCA' EP's second b-side, 'Crosswalk' is also by Izawa with lyrics by Ringo, and it's a perfect song. I agree with the Ringo Catalogue posters calling the new b-sides Beatles-via-Cardigans ballads, but there are weird production quirks that come out on headphones, her vocals run through delay and shortwave static, or gated distortion on the drums. with songs this great I'm feeling less uneasy about Ringo having turned over all the tunewritiing to the other band members, though that still hurts a bit

Can not wait for Sept 26

Why didn't I see this on my dinner break? Now I have to wait almost four hours to hear it.

The Electric Mole version of Kuki is back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rEjxrBcd_U

still exploring 'shousou'

a record with seemingly limitless depth

Finally checking out the OSCA EP. I know it's not the best thing to say to promote her music, but her music catches up a lot of strands of classic rock and 70s pop/rock that seem to have mostly gone missing from current music. (Either that or they generally aren't used to shape anything I like.) Not thinking of "OSCA" itself.

I think I like this "Kaban no Nakami" song.

On first and a half listen, "Pinnochio" sounds a little too much like solo HZM and Hirama. Who wrote it?

I like Uki's noodling at around 2:20-2:30. I don't remember noticing that when listening on youtube.

I don't know about this new stuff, but I will repeat--Adult is a masterpiece. I remain a little baffled by the way it goes largely unnoticed.

cannot get enough. can't think of another rock band that even comes close to tokyo jihen in 2007. reminds me of queen circa sheer heart attack/night of the opera

come on now. What little I've heard I've liked, and the production is to die for, but queen circa SHA is kind of unbeatable.

I've got all these things packed in my bag
And what's inside here is a secret I won't share

They'd embarrass me so please don't ask
If I were dying, they'd be personal effects

This cracks me up somehow. It's an odd off-rhyme and bringing death into the issue seems strange, though unsurprising coming from Shiina Ringo. Also, as I keep saying in various ways, the music is like some pure sun-drenched 70s pop/rock that she's channeling.

Incidentally, creme1, if you are a long-time ILX poster under a new name, would you be willing to disclose past your past name(s)? I have no idea who you are.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a6/Sprad/crosswalk.gif

love this song so much. Izawa tune, Shiina lyric. Pinocchio & Killer Tune are Izawa as well.

bars 5 & 6 of 'Pinocchio' are a straight lift of the 'You'll be older too" modulation from Paul's "When I'm 64"

rofl at Dominque getting testy at the mere concept of Shiina's albums competing w/ 30 year old Queen records. though I absolutely agree that TJ's kind of peerless right now

'crosswalk' is the english title, original title 'Kaban no Nakami (鞄の中身)' translates more precisely as 'the contents of my bag'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVFuAIZ2PWU&mode=related&search=

after admiring her for a few years via videos i just splurged on a cdjapan order. got the 2 tj albums (new one on order) plus shouso strip and karuki zamen etc. i'm listening my way through but i love the melodic depth, the weird turns toward swing, jazz, showtunes, squealing hard rock. and the tokyo jihen rhythm section is totally great.

Tokyo Jihen's Adult sounds so good.

Still my favorite of '06.

first listen through was pretty terrifying, this is really not a Shiina album. anyone with Jpop allergies will run away from the cheer, Shiina's not writing the songs and the drama and darkness is gone, this is all sugar rush Pop (i.e. the kind of sound that gives many US listeners auto-headaches). perhaps once frecklegirl's translations show up we'll how completely twisted her lyrics are, but more than ever before she's really just another member of the band -- her vocal lines are mixed at an equal level to the instruments & she even shares lead vocals on a few tracks. as a fan of the earlier records where her voice / direction was the whole point, it's hard not to miss her and impatiently wait for a return

in the meantime there are so many catchy, addictive pop songs on this record they are all competing to get caught in my head at once -- I probably should have started a new thread with this because it's really not a Shiina Ringo album, but I totally love it

"Princess Monthly" probably my favorite one track but that's just now

http://ringoran.wordpress.com/

ringoran has two tracks up including 'Princess Monthly'

I haven't heard it all yet, although I've been checking out bits and pieces of it. I find it disappointing that what I've heard does basically sound like other J-pop/J-rock in general, more than most other material I've heard by SR (certainly) and even by Tokyo Jihen as a group. I also don't like something I can't really put my finger on exactly, but there's a prog. rock whimsy, let's say, in TJ's playing that is starting to get to me. I love the fact that they have a lot of skill as instrumentalists, but I don't care for the ironic-show-offy vibe I'm getting. Maybe this impression is coming from the videos? I was thinking that she always seems to have liked a rigid looking, almost robotic, band. Think "Meisai." It's as if Tokyo Jihen has become the pretend band in the "Meisai" video, if that makes any sense at all. Of course, this assumes that SR has much to do with the videos. I'm not sure.

(I'm not buying CDs right now, or this is one I would buy.)

Does Perpetua still visit ilx? I'm trying to remember the Shiina Ringo song he posted on Fluxblog 2 or 3 years ago.

I don't read fluxblog but I found out about Ringo when Said The Gramophone posted the KZK version of "Stem" in mid-2004

I hear what you're saying Rockist but the weird thing is, I think this is their first album where they've actually _retired_ the ironic distance. when Shiina started Jihen there was an interview statement about how the new band would aspire to bring the audience 'the very best in Japanese Pop' -- everyone expected a hyper-commercial return to her earlier rock hits, but instead they got this somewhat bent, ironic package that was way too self-conscious to actually work with most Jpop fans: the inside packaging for the debut, 'mainstream' but tell me this isn't more than just a little sarcastic: http://shiinaringo.se/pics/Tokyo%20Jihen/jihen1.jpg

now that other members are supplying the songs, I don't get that same ironic remove at all -- the music finally is goofy carefree (sometimes sliiightly wistful) fun as advertised, they've finally hit their target of making a savvy adult version of Jpop that's clever without that menacing edge or discomfort that Shiina's songs have

i.e. the edge that made Shiina / TJ appealing for many western listeners, the synthesis -- 'Adult' works because you get her uneasy songs arranged and played with spotless, overpolished but totally dedicated precision. with 'Variety' many of the longtime english speaking fans on the Electric Mole board feel angrily underwhelmed or even betrayed, they don't like much Jpop and they feel like they've been dragged here, but this has obviously been the goal from the beginning

I don't like most Jpop, it's not just that it's emulative it's just they always clean things up too much -- but I really love this new record

a lot!

I don't know if the irony is retired so much as flattened to the point of minimal difference. The album cover is a 're-photographed' snapshot of your typical mainstream J-variety show & what is that if not a continued insistence on distance or a level of removal? Not sure if I can apply that reading to the music yet (Kronekodow = easiest giveaway?) but I'm neither convinced that it's *just* J-pop *or* that self-consciousness is TJ's saving grace. Maybe I am reading too much into some death-of-author automated-band angle but I like most of it so far.

well, you're right, actually the irony is still there, and this keeps it distinct from most Jpop, still feels like it's geared more for adults than kids. to tone down my point -- relative to their previous two records, this is a huge leap closer to what it's modelled on

but it's weird, if 90's Jpop was modelled on various Western genres, this is more like a Japanese band consolidating the idea of 90's Jpop, very self-consciously

What about all the 70's pop/rock stylings though? (At least in the songs I've heard from the album?) Doesn't that make it different too? Or is that pretty much the norm for J-pop and J-rock (I think some of the stuff I've heard from the EPs is more J-rock than J-pop)?

The idea & not really the sound, right? Fukushuu is the only one that sounds a bit like a calcified J-genre thing. The consolidation of what was already a kind of consolidation is an interesting idea wrt slight difference from an original model (which in turn appropriated from another model).

(Also, if part of the idea of 90's Jpop was Shiina herself, maybe she is reshuffled "Shiina" now in the band).

TJ's sleeve art trajectory - pop painting -> commodity sculpture -> rephotography - is so much more appropriation (of appropriation), so it's brilliant or it's empty sleekness (hence the polarized responses?) or maybe both.

I mean, nobody is doing deconstructive gymnastics while listening to this album but all the process stuff (arguably) makes that needed difference in terms of pleasure. That's the bigger question I guess.

I'm giving it a first listen now, and it sounds pretty good overall. (Sorry, no ideas here at the moment, just crude impressions.)

I seriously don't think I'm going to end up liking it as much as Adult, but I see more point to it than HF (not that that's saying much). "Tsukigime-Hime" reminds me a lot of Go!Go!7188, though I guess it's necessarily more fleshed out.

But I like it a little more than I had expected.

I really like "Boutomin" a lot, including the "Kabuki"-quoting at the end. Also, maybe predictably, I like "Kronekodow."

"Kronekodow," including the faux Latin jazz ending!

I think "Pinocchio" and especially "Kaban no Nakami" deserve a place on the album more than some of the tracks that made it ("Fukushuu," for example). "Kaban no Nakami" has maybe her most satisfactory English lyrics and the singing on it is okay, so if she was going to include some English language tracks, she should have included that one.

"Boutomin" real reminds me of Drums & Wire era XTC, in a way--not that it ends up really sounding anything like them. (Also reminds me of what I rememember Gino Vanelli sounding like, although I never liked him.)

(Making the usual useless comparisons here.)

Am I crazy to hear parts of "Fukushuu" as real close to "Gone Baby Gone"?

It will take a few months to know if I've just brainwashed myself into liking this, but I really do mostly like it. Even the weaker tracks don't feel like the type I must skip over.