Perfume - JPN

they're not a guilty pleasure for me anymore

it's like looking at a completely transparent window with a beautiful landscape behind it but all you can see is the window itself

http://burningambulance.com/2011/12/05/perfume/

I don't know anything anymore

http://www.aflyvariety.com/2011/11/marketing-machina-of-yasutaka-nakata.html

you know how when you first listened to ABBA, it could be a little difficult telling Agnetha & Frida's voices apart? until maybe you saw a few of the videos and got to know their catalog a little better? well there is absolutely no danger of that ever happening here

i watch the Oricon top 30 on youtube pretty regularly & Perfume are consistently the best thing on it (along with Kara & similar Korean imports)

The Aflyvariety survey is a great intro.

I can live without the saccharine vocals tbh, but the production is really interesting. Do J-Pop artists do authorized karaoke albums?

most of the Perfume singles add on instrumental versions and they are great

still coming up short as to why this doesn't bother me in the same way that 90% of J-Pop does, except that it is less slavishly imitative of western genres in that 'copy that erases the original' kind of way. the harmonies & melodies sound way more east than west, the main thing that keeps coming up for me when listening to songs like 'VOICE' is late period Yellow Magic Orchestra

Can't wait for this to arrive.

Also I didn't realise that capsule had released a new album this year, so thanks for the link!

have yet to check out any Capsule, but that 'World of Fantasy' video is really something. Nakata goes for full-on Daft Punk production on some Perfume songs like 'Polyrhythm' but if the Capsule is a full album of this, I'm definitely in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4h8m74pyC8

Wow, that video indeed! Like The Chemical Brothers' "Star Guitar" except that it doesn't match up to the music as precisely but instead is more futuristic and has FLY MODE.

From first listen, the album is broadly along the same lines. That song is one of the standouts but it's definitely worth a listen and (in the UK at least) on iTunes which makes it a lot easier to legally obtain than Perfume's album.

Absolute holy wow @ that video, too. Instant love with that track. Though it's driving me a little crazy, that vocal leap she makes when she sings "world of fantasy" reminds me so much of some other song and I can't quite work out what.

I wish my life came with FLY MODE.

the album "Cutie Cinema Replay" by Capsule is really something. like a busier Pizzicato 5 but with chiptune noises. later stuff I've heard from them is really electro-weird and not all that appealing (right now) - does anyone know what the good albums are?

Nah, I want the electro-weird stuff. Tell me where to find the stuff that sounds like a J-Pop Daft Punk, that's what I want.

Fruits Clipper is kinda like that, it has the "in your face" DP-style; personally I dislike it because to me Daft Punk = lazy

I got absolutely obsessed with this performance a while ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF_bLVsJLlY&list=FLdyL8YSopjItjAKmL0xJhig&index=24&feature=plpp_video

OK, holy shit, I'm in love.

I'll see if I can YouTube Fruits Clipper - but I was completely blown away by WoF and Jumper by Capsule. Which are v v Daft Punk, both tracks.

yeah, i'll have to have another listen to it, IIRC the whole middle section of the album is amazing. i'm kinda surprised Capsule puts out albums so damn often b/c their work seems pretty complex on the whole, not really melodically but with all the sounds and wonkiness that they insert into every single second of every single song

Hmm, Fruits Clipper wasn't quite doing it for me - a bit too much of the French Touch disco to it. I like the stuff that sounds almost like a weird splice between YMO and bass-heavy Justice. That's exactly it, the sounds and wonkiness and every single second of a song has something really quite texturally complex going on it even if the melodies and harmonies are pretty simple.

This one even has the video straight out of TRON but also a little bit like Do The D.A.N.C.E.

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

it sounds like Harder Better Faster Stronger (Justice Rmx) TBH.

I do wonder if the videos are half of the appeal.

the perfume album is so great.

Is there any legit way of hearing JPN without ordering from JPN?

thanks for the links, i've been hearing perfume/JPN thrown around a bit lately and I finally took the plunge and took a listen. the WORLD OF FANTASY album is v v good and i cant stop listening to it

I am about 5 songs into WORLD OF FANTASY and this is one of the most *fun* things I've heard this year, might be a late entry onto my EOY list.

Having trouble chasing down anything from Perfume, the few YouTubes I've seen aren't doing it for me quite as much as capsule but would be interested in hearing the album.

Deeply, deeply amused by the line in the Fly Variety article where it says That slightly effeminate man you see there, quietly sipping his spirits and OJ mixer, his name is Yasutaka Nakata because Yasutaka Nakata, pretty thought he is, compared to yr average Japanese musician (OK, mostly I'm thinking Visual Kei here) is not that "effeminate" at all.

what is the relationship between Capsule and Perfume? I hear them mentioned together all the time.

Yasutaka Nakata is the producer/songwriter on both?

Having trouble chasing down anything from Perfume, the few YouTubes I've seen aren't doing it for me quite as much as capsule but would be interested in hearing the album.

here, for you, a perfect song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci8REzfzMHY

OK, you're right. That was absolutely PERFECT. The Orchestra of Bubbles arpeggios on the chorus, just... sublime. I also think I might be a little bit in love with the tomboy one who's always wearing shorts, too.

While we're talking Nakata productions and videos, I can't not post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC4hFK5P3g

*PONPONPON*

definitely a song of the year, ponponpon

o_0

That just crossed over the line from amusing to RONG.

I can't even. I need to wash my BRANE out with SOAP.

pon pon way way way pon pon pon way way way way

yeah I absolutely can't handle Kyary Pamyu Pamyu either as music or as J-Teletubbies myself. she does have style though, and the brains are cute

great album cover too

http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/kyary-pamyu-pamyu-2011-moshi-moshi-harajuku_113590.jpg

I caught up with Capsule, and like that article upthread notes they started off very traditional Shibuya-kei. 'Fruits Clipper' was the first one where they veered off into DAT Politics / Felix Kubin clipped disco glitch, but still built around songs, and last year's 'Jumper' was when they flat out went for Daft Punk club music. I can't make it through entire albums of that as easily, but the stand out tracks just seem perfect. I watched 'World of Fantasy' three times last night, I can't believe that came out in May without making it all over ILM / american review boards, that's just a great song

Just the same, it's this new third Perfume album that I think is really poised to take over -- the first two albums were still pretty hyper & J-quirked out. But you can kind of see what Nakata is doing now, instead of doing lots of different things on each album he's figuring out which project suits each song best, so now Perfume songs like 'Linear Motor Girl' or 'Chocolate Disco' go on the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu album, or 'Polyrhythm' goes to the Capsule album. And Perfume just gets the most perfect, sterling, ABBA/YMO hybrid classic pop songs imaginable

& that clip emily posted of 'polyrhythm' upthread is the first song where Perfume really went for club, even though it's still paced like a pop song -- I had to make an edit of that to play out where the breakdown in the middle lasts three times as long

Chocolate Disco is my favourite Perfume song so I'll be slightly disappointed if they don't get anything like that any more. And the rest of the Kyary EP isn't quite as hyper as PONPONPON (well, apart from the intro, which sounds like the Nyan Cat song). I definitely see where you're coming from though, and am happy to see Perfume getting a wider audience. I was really pleased that "Spice" did so well on The Singles Jukebox (having campaigned unsuccessfully to get them covered there with the last album!).

I can enjoy 'Linear Motor Girl' and 'Chocolate Disco' because when it's taken so far over the top like that, it reminds of the more inexplicable Shibuya-kei songs by Tomoe Shinohara

& Perfume is still doing some club tracks on the single b-sides (like 'Fake It') but I wasn't surprised that track was left off the album, because it was not quite adult enough to fit with the other tracks

my new display name was funny on saturday after six cups of coffee but it's becoming truly intolerable especially on a J-Pop thread. there's no way to change it is there?

not feelin this

soo tim & eric directed that video right?

Oh hey, Kyary has a new single/video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLy4cvRx7Vc

Not feeling this as much as PONPONPON though.

The music's nowhere near as catchy as PonPonPon but hey the video seems to be on better drugs, it's not ~quite~ such a bad trip?

It's ok, but feels kind of staid in comparison...

the sole redeeming factor of the first Kyary video was the idea of an adorably bad trip, and even then my teeth hurt too much to finish watching

I checked out some more Capsule. I got it wrong upthread, 2008's 'More More More' is already pretty Daft and 'Jumper' is a single from that album, not an album of its own. & 2010's 'Player' has a lot of bad rapping. Each of these Capsule records have at least 2 tracks that have good songs hiding inside the production but a lot of this I am instinctively deleting.

The Perfume cover of "Lovefool" helped itself to several bits of Capsule songs, I do like how the projects blur together

Applied to English language chart pop:

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

The Kylie track is not working for me, I gave up halfway through.

So far I've now got WORLD OF FANTASY which is just straight-up BANGERZ end to end, there is pretty much only one duff track (I Will) which isn't really so much bad as just kind of mismatched between the ballad-y vocals and the big drums. Sure, lots of it is that specific bubblegum electro sound that was all over everywhere last year, but it's just really intriguing to hear it mixed with the sheer dementedness of J-pop as opposed to the oppressive CHEEZE of Guetta-house.

More More More is patchier as an album and has more filler to my ears, but its highs might be higher. It's not quite as immediate and earwormy.

The segue between "I Just Wanna XXX You" and "Striker" is probably one of my favourite musical moments of the year for sheer exhuberance. (I can't even spell that word but I know what it sounds like.) They are basically the SAME SONG but with different stylistic tics over the top, and the way they transition, the drive, the build, it just really thrills me.

(Yes, "I Just Wanna XXX You" is basically PonPonPon De Floor but ~how~ is that a bad thing?)

Ok, I'm realising how spurious it reads to be all "J-pop is demented, Guetta-house is CHEEZE" considering how ignorant I am of vast swathes of those genres. What I mean is this:

Both these approaches seem to rely on this idea (I thought it was an oblique strategy but I can't find it in the deck) of not really emphasising any single element any more than the others.

And the one approach to this would be to make everything as slick and sleek and polished as humanly possible - which leads to that incredibly tedious Guetta house/Calvin Harris aesthetic. But the other approach to not emphasising any one element over the other is to fill EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of music with things going off and doing interesting things with the end result of the ear and brain getting short circuited into a kind of trance state of information overload. Which is, to me, a much more fun way of achieving that state of altered consciousness through repetitive beats club music.

Sorry, I realise I'm not expressing myself very well.

the harmonies & melodies sound way more east than west

I'm confused by this description

recent capsule records have been all about the boshing, like perfume's "edge" but without any relief. i kind of admire the direction without actually enjoying it.

also sugarless girl is such a goddamn triumph that i can't help but wish for thirty records like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaBKoiM9WxU

i mean yeah i guess i preferred capsule when they were nakata's daft punk tribute band

yikes anime! there's a perfectly stylish video for that song to link to without having to drag anime links into this thread

I guess I should not be surprised that the Perfume thread has gone Capsule-heavy -- they sing in English and they're fun and their good songs are great. Many songs on the new album remind me of those two Mu and Husband records, right down to the latin breaks, but without the humor. Kind of miss the humor (not like everything has to be the Frank Chickens)

Have you ever seen somebody sample singing voices and turn them into a kind of glitched out percussion bridge? No?

jean-michel jarre - zoolook (1984)

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

todd edwards (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8uKbprFjIE

carl stone - flints @ 5:39 (piece from 2001)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Synt_zrYqI

perfume - nee @ 0:18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W63nzvIoFJU

the instrumental version of perfume's 'laser beam' goes even further out with the trick

yikes anime! there's a perfectly stylish video for that song to link to without having to drag anime links into this thread

couldn't find it at the time

ah you posted a different track than the one I thought you did, my total error. it is not like anime links aren't accurate associations for half of this stuff, though not as much for Perfume

by 'east than west' I just mean there are plenty of eastern elements in the writing in the counterpoint synth on the chorus of 'VOICE', or the violin patch in '575', so this feels more like a hybrid than oh god something like Namie Amuro who is rhyming over tracks that really might as well be going to any US R&B act, or Shakira, or anyone. The one song where Perfume raps on the new album is smooth but weird on the ears, it does not sound like a copy

I mean even in Capsule, when they do a simple ascending fifths patch for the chorus, it ends up sounding more like a direct reference to YMO's '1000 Knives' than Chicago House, it's idiomatic not cloned

(^^ the chorus of 'World of Fantasy' -- it's a generic enough chord sequence but it's the same one from '1000 Knives')

comparing this to '1000 knives' is a serious stretch, i think

ha!

this is like when dominique's sole post on the shiina ringo was to indignantly protest someone comparing her vocal harmonies to freddy mercury

duly noted, Capsule is in bad taste I agree with you but it is the same chord sequence

you created your sandbox login just to say that didn't you

haha 'it is the same chord sequence'

The chorus (at least the vocal line) of WORLD OF FANTASY is almost note for note a Blondie song, which has been driving me crazy trying to work out which one it is, but that particular vocal leap is very very Debbie Harry.

I've found it, it is actually Rapture.

i kinda hear the 'rapture' in there, but if they wanted to rip a really banging blondie tune, they should've chosen 'atomic'

>haha 'it is the same chord sequence'

it is it totally is and therefore it is also just as good as both '1000 knives in bathtub with lamp' and blondie's awesome song 'rapture'

My Perfume<>YMO argument would rest more on songs like 'VOICE' on this very slow work day. admittedly Perfume is admittedly never, ever as weird as YMO.

I don't know what they're singing but I doubt it's on the level of 'this must be the ugliest piece of bread I've ever eaten wrapped in a tinfoil-like substance' or 'today, placenta, tomorrow' choruses

i was with you up to 'therefore'

you're a tough audience

Missed this whole sandbox thing and thus ilx suddenly devoting a thread to this group and my album of the year.

Anyway, someone said something about Nakata finding a certain style and sticking with it for JPN; which is totally true - and the same for his other projects. There's a "Kyary" sound now, and a more defined Capsule sound, where before a Capsule song could've become a Perfume song, and I think he talked about this in an interview when the Capsule album was releasd.

More impressive that he's managed to juggle the projects and write some of the most crystallized melodies and songs. It helps that the build-up to this album was so long and we knew it would be great based on _that_ singles run, of course.

Baffling part: It's still not available legaly digitally to western audiences. They made a big point of Kyary's stuff being released on itunes at once, but no Perfume. J-pop's got some way to go to catch up with k-pop in making this material available. They're on a Disney soundtrack, ffs, there's a market for it.

have never understood what the criterion are for western iTunes activation. Capsule I can almost understand, all the lyrics are in English, but if them why not Shiina

I understand why it never happened with physical CDs, which are so expensive in Japan that they had no interest in allowing other countries to sell them at prices that would still be cheaper after being imported. But now that it's all digital, they can lock out continents and set the market price, it's almost as if after having assimilated and hyper-modded the west's music, they're uninterested in re-exporting it

that being said, official channels are now officially besides the point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPayHjacAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlylzVg7cqc&feature=related

been spinning JPN and esp that amazing live vid frpm above A LOT last week. thanking u, thread.

feel like there might be a little bit of the BLUE SKIED sega sound in this record but I also feel like I might be making that up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_fNLfjQZ14&feature=related