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Old 2010.03.26, 06:05 AM   #1
so_cold
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Default Shiina Ringo mentioned in the media outside of Japan!

I'm not sure how often this happens! But SR has got a write-up in a national newspaper in the UK today, as part of a full-page article on Japanese female musicians. Also mentions Alan, Nana Kitade, Tomoko Kawase, Ayumi Hamasaki.

Originally Posted by The Guardian newspaper, UK
Why Japanese pop matters

Eclectic, wide-ranging and unpredictable, some female stars of the orient's hippest country deserve to be seen and heard in the west

( ... )

Shiina Ringo

Shiina Ringo has been a significant influence on at least two of the singers on this list, and consistently ranks high in Japanese polls for favourite artists. Her popularity through the years, even though she's taken extended breaks from music, speaks volumes of the rabid love she inspires in her fans. This, naturally, includes me. She is my favourite Japanese artist, and I sometimes think she might be my favourite artist anywhere. Before forming the band Tokyo Jihen in 2004, Ringo released three solo albums, each better than the last.

The third, Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana (2003) is her masterpiece. Layered with complex sounds and tempo switch-ups, it's an album that demands and rewards multiple listens.

It would have been hard to top, so it's understandable that she turned her focus to her band for the next few years before releasing her fourth solo album (with composer Saito Neko in tow), 2007's Heisei Fuuzoku.

Its songs were used in and inspired by the movie Sakuran, and featured updated reworkings of a few of her older tracks. While it doesn't match her other three solo efforts, it had some memorable moments, and contained what might be her best song yet, Gamble.

Sanmon Gossip, released last year, is probably her lightest album, and she finally consummates her relationship with the loungey jazz she's been flirting with for years. All but absent are the hard-rocking, thrashy, catchy melodies for which she's known. Togatta Teguch comes closest to her former style and provides a reminder of past glories. While I'm not the biggest fan of her jazz-piano departure, musicians reinvent themselves,and I'm too ecstatic that she's still making music to quibble.

Where can I hear her?

http://bit.ly/jpopshiina
edit: Got a copy of it now. There's a little picture of her in the article underneath a big one of Ayumi Hamasaki. It's part of the paper's Film and Music supplement, guest edited by Courtney Love.

Last edited by so_cold : 2010.03.26 at 09:28 AM.
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Old 2010.03.26, 09:41 AM   #2
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T_T wouldn't it be the best thing ever if she saw more of these articles and decided to do a world wide tour?
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Old 2010.03.27, 03:07 AM   #3
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I agree with everything the writer said!

Originally Posted by so_cold View Post
edit: Got a copy of it now. There's a little picture of her in the article underneath a big one of Ayumi Hamasaki. It's part of the paper's Film and Music supplement, guest edited by Courtney Love.
uhh... really? she can't even edit herself.
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Old 2010.03.27, 03:51 AM   #4
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This article has inspired me to listen to "Gamble" from Heisei Fuuzoku again, after a long break, and I'm starting to like it almost as much as I did initially.

Also, more circuitously, I find myself listening to Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" again, and pleasantly surprised by how it sounds, after not really having heard it for a while.

And that ethnically Tibetan Japanese pop star they mention is cute and I do like when she pulls out the hardcore vocal stuff.
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Old 2010.03.27, 03:59 AM   #5
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Hadn't heard of Alan before.
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Old 2010.03.27, 04:12 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Scribble R View Post
Hadn't heard of Alan before.
Yeah, apologies to Alan. I was too lazy to go back and check to see what her name was.

Thanks so_cold for posting this link. I might have missed it otherwise. (Ah, periodic bored-at-work obsessive googling of "Shiina Ringo" would probably have brought it up eventually, but sooner is better than later.)
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Old 2010.03.27, 04:57 AM   #7
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alan makes me wanna fall asleep... I don't know why they picked alan and Nana Kitade instead of Namie Amuro or YUKI...
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Old 2010.03.27, 10:56 AM   #8
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I only listened to 2 tracks by alan and it was very confusing. One (Sakura Modern) was great but the other (Swear) was totally different- it looks and sounds like any other jpop song out there. I hear it's because she was recently signed to avex and they... well... avex-ed her.
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Old 2010.03.27, 11:52 AM   #9
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All her Japanese stuff has been under avex. Her first single under avex came out in 2007 and she only recently got "avex-ed" because her other stuff wasn't selling.

Pretty sure even the new stuff isn't selling though.
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Old 2010.03.27, 12:13 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by BanFan View Post
Pretty sure even the new stuff isn't selling though.

ouch.
I might check her older stuff.
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