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Old 2008.04.08, 08:08 AM   #34
Glathannus
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I'm having a bit of trouble finding that myself, but I can sum most of it up.

The notion is that how you hit a note, is at least as important what notes you're hitting. The problem people mostly have, isn't so much on the what, but instead focusing particularly strongly on the how. He's not a smooth operator like David Gilmore (from Pink Floyd), or an animal like Jimi Hendrix. Ukigumo has a very uniquely twitchy stacatto approach in most of his playing. Some people favor that automatically because it's different, and some people automatically hate it because it's different. As time goes on and we hear more performances, we're getting a more accurate sense of Ukigumo's 'flexibility' (or lack thereof) to truly project an array of variable attitudes that you would expect different songs to "call for".

Arguably if Hirama had stayed around all this time, then that's "the only fair means" we could truly measure whether or not he was the more appropriate guitarist for Tokyo Jihen, so there's "inequal opportunity criticism". But the Hirama supporters consider it a legitimate practice to include Hirama's solo-career albums into the comparisons, of "These are all the different things he can do, and if that isn't what you thought you were getting from his involvement with Tokyo Jihen, then it isn't what Shiina Ringo was asking him to deliver at the time". Electric Mole (the DVD) is also a very little-acknowledged example of Hirama doing most/all the things that strong Ukigumo supporters don't believe Hirama can do, but most of the "haters" are very late on paying particularly close attention to the nuances of everyone's performances in that DVD.

Killer Tune is considered at least somewhat refreshing, because Ukigumo finally used a different electric guitar (even if Ukigumo haters would argue that the solo in the middle was rather 'obtrusive'). Ukigumo has a particularly edgy and sterile sound that he usually likes to get out of his guitar/amplifer/effects combinations. The intro of Kaban no Nakami is another nice (and all-too-rare) example of a resonating performance, which arguably gets ruined by the ending of the song, where Ukigumo gets back to his usual edgy self. Arguably he was twitchy even at the intro, but that's alright because the tone/effects worked with that rather well. Normally everytime Ukigumo hits a note, it's like he's fencing... and the more fluidly he tries to sustain a passage, the more serrated his unique tone often sounds. Between that, and the occasions when Ukigumo is doing country-style twang - he's rarely exhibiting a more sensitive tone anywhere inbetween. There is the growing implication that the style of songs are being bent Ukigumo's way, rather than Ukigumo's playing is being individually flexed for different songs, so he is perceived as "an influence that holds the band back". Sometimes his style really works for a song, but for at least a third of the songs, the haters are in unison that Ukigumo's habits don't 'belong' there. However, Ukigumo's performances are universally well-received among Tokyo Jihen fans when he plays acoustic or when he's not the sole guitarist, but for other performances, Tokyo Jihen fans are more divided.

A common counter-offensive among Ukigumo supporters toward Hirama supporters is "You just want an overbearing rocker!", and... amongst a significant portion of Hirama supporters, that might very well be true. Yet there's a small (but growing) sect among Hirama supporters, who don't care so much about whether the guitar playing "rocks" or not - they just want someone "groovy", and that's what most people (Ukigumo haters included) think they're getting from Izawa's piano/organ playing, so most of the "haters" are not totally against Phase 2. The problem is that on a "grooviness" scale, Phase 1 fans feel like they lost more from Hirama than they gained with Izawa, and that's where a lot of the general Phase 2 hating comes from.

Shiina Ringo releasing Saito Neko arrangements of some of the same solo-career songs two or three times, doesn't exactly quell the fire either. The main deal that the "haters" take solace in nowadays, is "Well, at least Adult was mostly (previously unheard) Shiina Ringo compositions, plus Adult included some extra sounds or instruments instead of stuck to the same old band template".
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