Do you want Jihen back

[Vorpax]

Originally Posted by kalmia

I've been in Japan for almost two weeks and I've been asked what kind of music I've liked several times already. Most of the time, people don't know who I'm talking about. But just the other day when I said "Shiina Ringo", this guy made a face like they knew who I was talking about. "What about Tokyo Jihen" they asked. I said I liked them too. That's when he proceeded to first bump me -- "I like them too". The Jihen this guy was probably thinking of was late Phase 2 Jihen. Sports and Discovery Jihen. In fact, in my local CD store, those were the only Jihen albums available. Someone finally knew the name Shiina Ringo but immediately associated it with Tokyo Jihen. Did he even know of Shousou Strip era material? In terms of popularity with the Japanese youth, the mainstream Tokyo Jihen was where it was at for Ringo.

This makes me terribly sad. Her early carrier is in an entirely another level compared to anything TJ has releasead, and even comparing to most of the japanese music industry nowadays, and they don't even know "Shouso Strip"? Meanwhile, I'm here 19000 km away, I can't go to any of her concerts, buying her material is expensive as hell. This world is not fair

[zordon]

I returned to Kyoiku and Adult few weeks ago and it was a great listen. Contrary to the poster above me I find Variety pretty decent but Sports is the one that's terrible. Daihakken is incredibly uneven - I love 'Sora ga natte iru' but Onnanoko is indeed atrocious. I believe Color bars wasn't as bad as people make it.

Honestly, I prefer solo Shiina output hands down, but I'm still gonna take anything she participates in.

In the end, Tokyo Jihen was a nice ride... A ride she will certainly take again. Reunions just seem unavoidable in the music industry and I think Ringo is going to follow that path sooner or later, whether it would be for a tour or a new single, and I'm fine with that.

[zeroryouko]

Originally Posted by zordon

I returned to Kyoiku and Adult few weeks ago and it was a great listen. Contrary to the poster above me I find Variety pretty decent but Sports is the one that's terrible. Daihakken is incredibly uneven - I love 'Sora ga natte iru' but Onnanoko is indeed atrocious. I believe Color bars wasn't as bad as people make it.

Since this thread was posted I've been going back and listening to some of the later Jihen stuff - from the live performances instead of the albums - and I find I'm actually getting into a lot of stuff that I had previously dismissed. Of course Ringo's live vocals are a big factor, but I think there's a lot to be said for presentation too. Somehow the albums just feel jumbled, but in the live performances each song seems to have its proper place.

Color Bars was worth it just for Konya wa Karasawagi, IMO.

[zeroryouko]

Uh, can I change my vote now?

[K__]

Nah. I'm not a huge Jihen fan anyway, but it'd feel regressive to me. Obviously given that Ringo can put Sanmon b-sides on SUNNY and release albums like Heisei Fuuzoku (which I liked) and Reimports (which I didn't particularly like) then she's not afraid to retread old ground, so it wouldn't be totally out of character for her, but that was never really the Ringo I was interested in. The cynical, post NIPPON/coca cola ad me thinks a Jihen reunion would end up being something tacky like a 2020 Olympics tie-in, but the optimist in me that really loves her hopes that she's not particularly interested in going back to whatever she was doing 5-10 years ago.

I haven't really followed the rest of the band (aside from Hata being on the last tricot record) but I'd hope they all have more interesting things to be doing anyway.

edit: that said, if they wanna release a studio version of that one version of souretsu then I can tolerate a hundred more NIPPON-esque singles.

Gesu no Kiwami Otome more than fill whatever void Jihen left behind. I only really go back to Adult when I feel the need to re-listen which isn't often.

Izawa might need the reunion though? I haven't seen much of him since the breakup. Kameda's doing well (Turtles album was fantastic), Uki's showing up just about everywhere and I'm sure Hata's doing session work. Ha, I even saw Micky with Superfly the other day! HZM had some good stuff out recently as well. They generally seem to be doing okay away from Jihen.

They shouldn't reform. They had their time.

[Scribble R]

Originally Posted by anonlurker

Gesu no Kiwami Otome more than fill whatever void Jihen left behind. I only really go back to Adult when I feel the need to re-listen which isn't often.

Izawa might need the reunion though? I haven't seen much of him since the breakup. Kameda's doing well (Turtles album was fantastic), Uki's showing up just about everywhere and I'm sure Hata's doing session work. Ha, I even saw Micky with Superfly the other day! HZM had some good stuff out recently as well. They generally seem to be doing okay away from Jihen.

They shouldn't reform. They had their time.

Oh plz =P I see what you're doing here. I bet that if I listen to that Turtles album it will be some Beatles throwback stuff that neatly fits into whatever you feel that Shiina Ringo SHOULD be producing at the moment. I'm willing to be proved wrong when I do get round to listening to it, but I doubt it =P

Fuck no! Turtles music is not what I would want Ringo to ever do but it is a really good solid record. Seriously, nothing to do with Ringo. It verges more towards L'arc and VK sounding stuff. It's fun!

[FadedSun]

Originally Posted by Vorpax

This makes me terribly sad. Her early carrier is in an entirely another level compared to anything TJ has releasead, and even comparing to most of the japanese music industry nowadays, and they don't even know "Shouso Strip"? Meanwhile, I'm here 19000 km away, I can't go to any of her concerts, buying her material is expensive as hell. This world is not fair

Unless they're fans, I don't think many people in Japan know about Shiina other than her big singles like "GIPS", "ここでキすして" or "本能". I had some older women as Japanese language partners before and I asked them if they knew Shiina. They said of course they know her, and said they knew a couple of her singles from the SS and MM days, but never listened to her beyond that.

As for TJ. I enjoyed Adult-Sports, but nothing beyond that. A couple songs from "Color Bars" were good. I see no need for them to return other than a short reunion tour.

[Vorpax]

Didn't you enjoy education? I mean, the production is garbage but it's a great album overall. But then Dynamit Out destroyed it in any way possible, so...