the Shiina Ringo thread

I think it's fantastic, though again I wouldn't be giving it a chance if I hadn't heard KZK first. I'd have turned this off ten seconds into the guest rapper's intro on the first track, & I'd have missed out.

definitely some tracks stick out more than others but this flows too well as an album to skip any tracks (unlike Heisei Fuuzoku or Variety). sometimes I play "The Leading Hitter" twice, deranged hyper-Disney. reminds me of Louis Wain paintings of cute cats, but something's really off about it, and then you realize it's not that the cats are playing sports, it's that they all are smiling and have blue fur

I didn't even notice all the English yesterday -- there's a lot of sudden switching to English for just a few lines, and the production is so dense you don't always catch it

xpost agreed on the singing, she sounds wonderful. and agree about the last few tracks, I like them all right but they make it seem like less of an album. it doesn't seem to have an ending.

Definitely like it so far, want to give it more listens before giving a more full opinion. I do agree about her English having improved measurably.

Interesting, I was thinking of P5 too - it falls alongside Yasuharu Konishi as curator of vintage Western music. The sound resembles late Shibuya-kei in the hodge-podge of reference points (jazz, funk, showtunes, Brazil, France) & in the slightly airless production w/ all that thick brass and organ. A different model - music chops & a lot less detachment (Shiina & Maki Nomiya are opposites in performance-style) - but the frame is very close. The vocal harmony bits also reminded me of Cornelius/Fantastic Plastic Machine & their Beach Boys fixation (or less charitably, J-boy-band Da Pump).

SG actually sounds like a continuation of Utaite Myouri which is probably one of her less appreciated moments. Enthusiasm for capital M conventional Music w/ a playful approach to the baubles and arrangements (in contrast to something more overtly straddling avant-garde). The stature of Motown & Ella Fitzgerald will always come before Stockhausen & drum & bass. And maybe I just know more about her collaborators than I used to, but their involvement feels more significant this time from track to track (they're also lined up to somewhat match the symmetry scheme, so you work inward to the busy Soil & Pimp to the busier Saito Neko, pause for Shun, & reverse back out). It's like a big assured music genius party.

Of course, I probably still prefer haunted KZK tones or Shouso Strip's more nascent visions of pop. But I embarrassingly end up liking everything, b-sides, covers, unofficial soundtrack music, whatever, so I don't know what it would take to count as a betrayal.

I think the accordion one functions as a proper ending track. Then the one rock track on the album feels like some sort of relief (which I like a lot). The MS EXPO has a devil may care bonus track thing going on.

But I embarrassingly end up liking everything

^^

I noticed the tracks are all very strongly paired up this time... KZK did that as well, but this time it's sonically obvious, so it makes sense that the collaborations are symmetrical. all the overtly strange production is cordoned off in tracks 4 <> 10, who did those?

The MS EXPO has a devil may care bonus track thing going on.

it breaks symmetry but it is so shamelessly good

4 and 10 are by Nobuhiko Nakayama who does synth programming for lots of bigtime J-pop (inc. Shouso Strip).
5 and 9 are Soil & pimp.
6 and 8 are Saito Neko.

I wonder what percentage of the rest of ILM is even aware that there is a new Shiina Ringo album. (That's just an observation on the existence of sub-cultures here, without an implied value judgment of them.)

if you live in Japan, you've known there's a new Shiina Ringo album coming for the last four weeks, she's on more magazine covers this month than she's been since Jihen, and there's an ad campaign on television made from outtakes from 'Shun'

my hopes were up for a US Jihen tour, since 'Spa and Treatment' was a scaled back production, but now that she's returned to solo stadium-scale shows I've kind of given up on her ever touring here

there's also this to keep track of. haven't heard it yet.

Toridori, A New Album by Rie Tomosaka - On sale Wed., June 24

Contributions
Track 2 – Tokai no Manaa (“City Manners”) - Music and lyrics by Sheena Ringo - Arranged by Tokyo Incidents
Track 3 – Mezame (“Waking Up”) - Music, lyrics and arrangement by Ukigumo
Track 4 – Talins - Music, lyrics and arrangement by Ichiyo Izawa
Track 7 – Kodomo no Jokei (“Childhood Scene”) - Music, lyrics and arrangement by Sheena Ringo

4 and 10 are by Nobuhiko Nakayama

I would have sworn that 4 <>10 were the two tracks where Inoue Uni really got to go off. his composition / editing on "Ringo Catalogue" is still in many ways what makes it my favorite Ringo song. "Bakeneko Killer" (Goblin Cat Killer) (aka the 'producers' of KZK = him & Shiina

interesting list of her admitted influences

wikipedia page on KZK has really fleshed out since the last time I looked - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalk_Samen_Kuri_No_Hana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGO1P3tyRrY

Rie Tomosaka doing a waaay too mellow version of "Aozora".

Randomly googled this by accident - I guess it's the full version of the cover photo for the Ariamaru Tomi single. Didn't notice it before, but what is up with the fake mole? I guess the fake necklace sort of fits the song's theme.
http://i44.tinypic.com/1zwcc9g.jpg

Is she really blind in one eye?

What? Haven't heard that one before.

Just joking based on her line:

I shed a tear from one blind eye

I'm not sure what this is saying but I can kind of get the gist of it (scroll down for SR content):

http://www.soundsblog.it/post/7683/album-piu-venduti-mondo-agg-03-luglio-09

Babel fish says that "Album più venduti" means "Sold egg whites more!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYQoxTJ4edg

video for '都合のいい身体 / Tsugou no Ii Karada' (The Leading Hitter), one of maybe three songs that's holding up for me on the new album

early Tokyo Jihen records made such a negative first impression on me, but I couldn't stop listening to them. this new album seemed like a solid quality effort at first, but I'm not spending that much time with it. buying a copy didn't help, the cover / booklet, there's something off

Cute video. Don't share your opinion on the album though... Is it in her top tier of work? Probably not, but I'd still consider it a solid fun record (and that song isn't even one of my favorites off of it). My expectations for the album were already muted since I didn't love her last solo one, so maybe that helped.

I'm still enjoying it, but I still don't rate it all that highly. I find the detective movie lytics here and there a bit boring after a while. There's some great instrumental work throughout, especially the trumpet blaze on Mayakashi Yasaotoko." I'm liking her English here less than I did at first.

I only normally listen to tracks 1-11.

being in a self-conscious group like Jihen allowed her to frame herself formally as an entertainer rather than... whatever KZK was, both a cipher and a confessional, that album really radiates both a personal and a historical identity. it is not just about the collapse of a relationship, it's about what has been happening to Japan over the last century. so the sudden turn away from that into a glossy pop group, to album packaging framed as fake advertisements for glamour products, vamping up the cabaret outfits & covers -- all that Vegas had a satirical edge to it in the context of Jihen.

but it comes across very differently now that she's still doing it as a solo act, the album title isn't really satire, it's descriptive. the booklet's a bunch of disgustingly airbrushed shots of her body lounging in satin, fondling a guitar and looking vacant, and I get the same kind of feeling about the music, it is beautiful but only surface?

of course I am overthinking, but KZK set the bar that high, and this really is her first solo album since then (Heisei Fuuzoku was not a solo album). I still like it, certainly listening to this more than any other album this year outside of things like hour long CDs of tibetan singing bowl drones or Georgian choral music or Violeta Parra comps etc.

Anything new and special on the Violeta Parra front?

I suspect that KZK may not be the "real" Shiina Ringo any more than anything else she has put out (not that you are exactly saying that). I mean, it's like it's something that happened via her, but whether it's the truest expression of her vision or whatever, I don't know.

Yeah, as much as I do appreciate KZK I have to lean more on RS's side there. As artful and self-indulgent as it was, I don't consider it more essential than several of her other albums.

I most of her music, but KZK is my favorite pop record of the decade

nothing new on the Violeta Parra front, just discovered her via an old Santiago Alvarez documentary with her song 'Arauco' on the soundtrack and I realized that's one of my favorite songs on the Robert Wyatt covers album. I just have 'Antología' which is mostly solo voice & guitar and I'm looking for good albums of her with full backing band now

Put SG on while doing the dishes the other day & was surprised to find that I remembered how a lot of the tunes went. It's possible that I've just internalized her songwriting style. I agree about it being an entertainment show - big spotlight on maximal consolidation of all the music bits & pieces through TJ & everything else. As such, it lacks... maybe narrative purpose, or formal contingency, or surprise (the red herring promises of KZK, perhaps)? Maybe she's in a suit of armor now.

Blindfold tested Rie Tomosaka's latest &, well, it was not entirely difficult to single out the Shiina contributions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ftyLNv0_LE

I do consider KZK more essential than any of her other albums, just not more a representation of Shiina Ringo's essence (if there is such a thing). (I think we've all sort of gone in this circle before at least a couple times anyway.)

I'm kind of amazed that lots of people over on Electric Mole seem to prefer Sanmon Gossip to Adult (which I think they underestimate seriously).

Milton, I'm not sure it's a matter of the flashy diva thing not being interesting any more, for me anyway. I think Adult was better musically, in addition to having the advantage of that whole image still being relatively fresh.

I should probably comment over there about it, but I'm not interested enough to argue the point.

i got sanmon gossip like a month ago, but it was one of those late-night acquisitions in the middle of a bunch of other stuff so i filed it away and totally forgot i had until last week. been listening a lot, i like it a lot. agree more or less with the consensus here i guess, it's a solid and entertaining pop record, more immediately accessible in a lot of ways than KZK but also not as detailed or surprising or interesting.

but hell i even liked (most of) variety so whatever. i'm a fan.

http://sadisticgossip.blogspot.com/2009/06/shiina-ringo-2009-tower-records.html

Question #26
Q: Was there a aim or intention behind Sanmon Gossip?
A: The intention was "no concept".

Q: If you could be born again, who (what) would you like to become? (It's ok if it's not real)
A: Any creature with a penis.

no concept! i do wonder why bother with the symmetry, but i guess it was just for fun after all (or trivial as the interview says... the answers are so short, though, i wonder if it's edited or just a quick blow-off)

For the benefit of those who can listen (I can't really, as I'm at work):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E20IgVKIoY&feature=player_embedded#

That's the new Tokyo Jihen single, though that should be obvious enough once you click on it.

thanks for the info

Sanmon Gossip left my rotation pretty immediately, so here's hoping there is gold to mine in a new Tokyo Jihen disc.

Aces thanks!

Sanmon Gossip stayed in my rotation for a while, but it's now left rather definitively, and I find it really difficult to bring myself to listen to it.

Oh crap, I was just listening to the embedded video and the video as displayed on youtube, and didn't realize they were both going, and thought, wow, this sounds pretty good and more adventurous than I expected. I'm afraid it will be slightly less interesting one at a time.

Playing it again the straight way and it still sounds good.

I think I like it.

Where have I seen those arm movements before (the way she flicks her wrist as her hand approaches the mic)? (I think to myself half-consciously)--ah, the video for the last Tokyo Jihen single (I can nenver remember the name). Maybe they aren't exactly the same, but it definitely reminds me of it.

And Kameda is going to town.

But why is she tormenting her band in the video?

Immediate reactions: Background vocals brought to the fore! Moonwalking! Also far too similar to the material on Variety, by which I mean it's indistinguishable pop. Man, I miss the Kyoiku era something fierce.

yeah I dunno

oh wait, now I remember: http://sadisticgossip.blogspot.com/2009/09/shiina-ringo-20070700-sannin-kichisa.html

actually, just downloaded the Soil & Pimp Sessions album that 'Foolish Heart' track is from, '6' -- less wild but tighter than the one previous album of theirs I'd heard, I'm going to have to pick up a copy of this. and the Shiina song sounds perfect in the context of the album.

Dug the S&P song, actually! The new Jihen single is OK. Too much moonwalking, though it is kind of funny when she throws the rose bouquet at the keyboardist for no reason. I was a fan of Variety, though, it grew on me more quickly than it did for others, I guess.

This S&P song makes me think: she really is no jazz singer.

I find it really hard to care about that song at all.

Listening to "Frustration" for the first time right now, and I like it so far. Haha, oh the guys doing the chorus thing is pretty good. Her singing here reminds me of Shouso Strip for better or worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zNHE6LGZ9o

I could be happy with an album that sounds approximately like these two songs, I think.