Originally Posted by Glathannus
Shiina Ringo could have been much better off with J.A.M. (the SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS skeleton crew). No saxophone, no trumpet, and no pimp. That would've actually been real nice.
That's kind of what she was getting into with one of her performances just before EXPO (though I don't believe Karisome Otome was among the setlist), but nobody here or elsewhere came right out and said "That's J.A.M.". It was just another stupid debate on whether "the SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS sound" was good or bad - being argued by people who haven't listened to SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS separately from Shiina Ringo (as usual).
I'm not trying to be a raging SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS fanboy here, but I don't think they've been given the proper chance by Shiina Ringo or most of her international fans. Karisome Otome should have been with J.A.M. instead of the whole band, and if they were going to perform with her on any other songs, she needed to coordinate/practice/experiment with them as much as she did with Tokyo Jihen before Electric Mole - otherwise she isn't utilizing their strengths, and you end up with an almost worst-of-both-worlds arrangement.
I don't care whether this is one of your most favorite or least favorite Shiina Ringo tracks to come along in the last few years. If it's among your highest favorites, then you don't know how good SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS really is. If it's among your least favorites, then you've probably decided to dismiss SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS by association and never hear what they are truly capable of. That's why I'm saying the comparisons with other Shiina Ringo tracks really need to stop, because people aren't being fair to SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS here.
This among the worst things the band has ever done, simply because their saxophonist and their trumpeter should be taking turns with the pianist - not with a vocalist. Remove them from the equation and you have J.A.M., which would have ended up as Shiina Ringo taking turns with their move-groovy-than-Izawa pianist. I would say the pianist got held back more than everyone else as a result, and he's one of the best jazz pianists I've heard since Keith Jarrett, so it's really quite a shame for him to be doing about as little as HZM throughout most of Dynamite Out.
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the horns make the song for me, really. the wail ringo sings is kind of equivalent to a wail of a horn at times, especially on this song. it just feels so cheap and brassy, it suits the over image and aesthetic of the song for me. if it was piano it would still be jazzy, but I don't know if I would like it as much. I'm not a S.P.S. fan and I've seen them live twice and overall I wasn't super impressed, I guess I'm just not into that type of music more often than not (I couldn't get into PE'Z either) so I suppose that says something about my taste as well.