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Old 2013.12.24, 08:04 AM   #8943
Tokyo Jihad
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Yo Inseu, I'm really happy for you that you got 7 CLT posts in a row. But I'm gonna talk about some of the last 2013 albums of all time. Of all time!



As 2013 concludes, two artists that put out my favorite japanese albums strike while irons are hot. Without any recharge time, Oomori Seiko further pumps the well that brought the fantastic full-length debut Mahou ga Tsukaenai nara Shinitai as well as a handful of bonus releases in the afterglow. I didn’t get to talk about Kinoko Teikoku’s wonderful Eureka in any of my end of year mainly because the album was a bit confused as to what it wanted to be. Did Kinoko Teikoku want to be Boris-lite and embrace some drone and slow tempos like the fantastic opener demonstrated or did they want to be a shoegazier up-beat alt-rocker – like a more legit Bugy Craxone? On their new Long Goodbye EP, Kinoko Teikoku hints at a decision.


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Kinoko Teikoku really don’t decide one way or the other, though they do favor their crowd-pleasing rocker feet in this release, the band does an admirable job of reconciling both sounds. My main problem with the poppier songs on Eureka was that they were mostly nondescript. This time the band puts more thought into their arrangements and performances through the first three tracks. To me, the songwriting on these tracks are just punchier and more memorable. The heart of Long Goodbye is “Flower Girl” -- the dissonant, seven minute dream. This song still convinces me that the less standard routes the band explores -- the better. Even the minute-and-change puncher “Make L” is fantastic. Even if there are less tracks on this release, Kinoko Teikoku improves upon Eureka in just about every way. Quickly do I become a believer of Kinoko Teikoku.

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I feel like I just got done writing about Oomori Seiko, and she already has another new full length? That seems to be the standard for her so far. Everyone seems to have fallen in love with Oomori Seiko in the last few months. If you haven’t then you are likely befuddled by what all the hype is about. The way she attacks her songs with minimal structure can be divisive. In my write up for Mahou, to describe her singing style I likened her as more Yoko Ono than (Puffy) “AmiYumi.” On Zettai Shoujo Oomori tips that scale in the other direction. She opens the album with two of her most produced tracks. “Zettai Kanojo” and “Midnight Seijun isei Kouyuu” ring in like any other jpop-starlet you’ll run into on Jpopsuki. If you are Idol-phobic like myself -- these are two of the best tracks on the record. They are essentially Oomori Seiko songs, just super charged (and though I can’t decipher the language, mentions of Disney, and “fuck you,” I’m pretty sure she slips, make me think these songs are pointed or ironic.) Afterwards, she slides into her more comfortable acoustic tracks. Oomori definitely rounds those edges a bit on her latest, but she does so judiciously. She can still be deliciously abrasive like on the bouncy “Are Sore” which is the most reminiscent of her debut. Altogether Oomori ups the production. Fuller arrangements, better recording give even more personality to Oomori’s music (check that tasty sax on “Tenrankai no e” or the noisey half of “Over the Party”.) But is everything better?

When I wrote about Mahou, I had to do some mental gymnastics to not bring up Shiina Ringo. Its right there on the cover for goodness sake. When comparing Oomori’s two full lengths, more Shiina Ringo analogies can be brought up. Zetai Shoujo is more akin to Muzai Moratorium, and Mahou like Shiina’s leaked home demos. Shiina mentioned Shouso Strip as an extension of Muzai, as many of the songs were generated in the same blast of creativity. The close release dates between Oomori’s releases suggests similarly. In my years of enduring Shiina Ringo fandom, there’s never been a consensus over Muzai or Shouso -- the two were certainly separate from KZK and separated further from chronologically later releases. But “one or the other” changed with personalities and time. I suspect a similar fate for Oomori’s sister releases. Will you be the person that favors Zetai Shoujo’s slightly more developed and varied sound palette and found “Zettai Kanojo” to be an easier song to grasp? Or, will you always prefer Mahou’s lo-fi, stripped sensibilities. Those first two tracks definitely have me excited to hear Oomori expand and build her sound in more directions, and the fact that the rest of this album is anchored by typical Oomori-fare assuages me that maybe she’ll keep her core sound for years to come. Oomori begins to stretch her sound in the studio and I expect a leap with album three.

Ratings:

I give Long Goodbye an actual “eureka!” out of ten.

I give Zetai Shoujo a Mahou ga Tsukaenai nara Shinitai out of ten.
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