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A Little Glance Back: Reviewing Make Believe Melodies’ Favorite Music Of 2010 About Two Years Later

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One of my biggest concerns about the online music community is the unflinching push forward. Plenty have said it before me, but the advent of music blogs, Twitter and other platforms that emphasize the all-valuable “firsties” have turned music listening into a never-ending dash. Everyday, blogs from all corners of the world celebrate new tracks from artists both known and unknown. The next day – whole new cast of characters, a whole new list of songs one needs to hear if they want to stay up with the pack. We, as listeners, aren’t taking the time to really think about the music in front of us – in the same way the recent HBO show Girls let many down because the characters didn’t “click” with some viewers (this opinion is all over the place, Google it), music listening has become an activity hurt by lowered attention spans.

I’ve thought about this a lot recently, because I haven’t been keeping up with new non-Japanese music. A combination of a new job and lack of Internet means I haven’t heard anything from Death Grips or Peaking Lights or whatever else I should be listening to according to various online sources. Rather, I’ve been thinking about the past, and all the great music I’ve listened over the last five years. And surprisingly enough – it feels great to ignore the new and revisit the songs once hoisted up by blogs but now turned into relics lining “best of” lists nobody revisits that often.

So, with the past on my mind…and no Music Station to serve as the end-of-week feature…I’m going to do a little bit of looking back, specifically at the songs and albums this blog called “favorites” in 2010 (our first year-end list-o-mania). It’s not that much of look back – not even two years! – but in the digital age, that actually does feel like an eternity. Let’s go!

She Talks Silence Noise And Novels – Lets start with the big one, and I’m happy to say opinions on this one haven’t changed – Noise And Novels remains the best Japanese album I’ve heard since starting Make Believe Melodies, one I still wish people outside of Japan would have stumbled across and given a listen. Listening back to this one in 2012 hasn’t changed the sense of urban isolation running through Noise And Novels that seemed evident the first go through. More impressively, STS sounded sorta ahead of the curve – at it’s lonely center, Noise And Novels is an indie-pop album, but not a walking stereotype (which, as much as I dig it, is sorta how a lot of current Japanese indie-pop bands come across). STS summoned the best parts of Black Tambourine…and somehow predicted Frankie Rose, whose Interstellar traverses a lot of the same paths STS did…and made a simple yet strange album truly deserving of the now-exhausted adjective “Lynchian.”

Halfby The Island Of Curiosity – Nearly everything else this dude has released after The Island has been a wet willie aimed squarely at his listeners, meant to be goofy and funny but ultimately just uncomfortable. Now, though, for the big reveal – in 2010, The Island was the only Halfby album I had heard, his back catalog completely alien to me. Now I’ve mostly caught up and…I don’t know how Halfby managed to put together an album as fun and warm as The Island considering he spent most of his career parodying music. That’s harsh, but seriously those old Halfby albums blow. If everyone one has one truly great idea in them, here is Halfby’s.

Kimonos Kimonos – In my year end blurb for Kimonos, I promised an actual review of the duo’s album in the near future. That never happened for whatever reason, and it was probably for the best as otherwise I would have needed to also comb through that to explain why this record would fall the furthest down the list if I redid it. It’s not a bad album – and I stand by the singles being amazing, especially “Soundtrack To Murder,” with its borrowed-from-Deerhoof drummer and all – but when I sit down and wonder when I last listened to Kimonos I realize it was…back in January of 2011? Whereas every Zazen Boys’ release still has a home on my dusty iPod, Kimonos sits somewhere near the bottom of my CD case. Again, not a failure, but 2010 had way better releases like….

Miu Sakamoto Phantom Girl – Lost J-Pop classic, right here. I’m currently pecking away at a post about J-Pop in 2012 and how it’s having a creative renaissance (though after reviewing the Kimonos paragraph above, keep your fingers crossed), and Phantom Girl seems like an artsy release that impacted at least a few of the folks making great pop today. Besides being a great influence, it’s also a hell of a great pop album still demanding attention in 2012.

New House “Disturb” – Honesty first – “I’m waiting for The New House to release a non “demo” version of “Transparent Box,” to the point where I kept the current in-work version streaming on their MySpace off this list, holding out hope 2011 will bring a polished version that would be guaranteed to crash at least the top 20.”

Lot of statements in the above paragraph did not pan out – New House didn’t release a polished version of “Transparent Box” until 2012, said 2012 version will not be touching the top 20 and MySpace now exists as a .GIF file graveyard. This year’s Burning Ship Fractal highlights everything good about New House – the globally-aware blend of styles, the confidence to balls out with experimental sounds – but it’s also a debut suffering from really bad sequencing (shouldn’t have put the two Animal Collective-ist songs back to back, and shouldn’t have made the back half of the album the boring drone comedown) and bad timing. It was way easier to get jazzed about “Transparent Box”…or the skeletal “Disturb,” which would have been a welcome bit of minimalistic rock on Burning Ship Fractal…back in 2010, when Animal Collective’s pop tribalism still sounded like a brave new frontier. Now, even Animal Collective moved on from that.

Asian Kung-Fu Generation “Shinseiki No Love Song” – Context is everything for some of these songs and albums. In 2010, an existential rock song about being an adult but feeling lost in a rapidly changing world courtesy of Asian Kung-Fu Generation sounded great. And it was! Unfortunately, Sakanaction evolved into the Japanese Radiohead (here not referring to their sound so much as their merger of smarts with angst) and made “Shinseiki No Love Song” completely outdated.

MIR “TV 2010” – “TV 2010,” meanwhile, remains as vital as ever, and maybe even more important as Japan continues embracing social networks and smartphones and other world-altering electronics. It’s still a buzzing modem of a song, all social isolation and chilly New Wave keyboards crossing together to create something that sounds like the perfect soundtrack to opening eight Firefox tabs at once.

Even heavier, the world probably won’t ever hear anything else from MIR, a truly gifted outfit that left us with a great collection of music. Hell of a bow, “TV 2010,” though.

Nu Clear Classmate Lick The Star – This past January, at a live show featuring Canopies And Drapes which is a project born out of the ashes of Nu Clear Classmate, a friend explained the idea of foreigners living in Japan “adopting” bands. To paraphrase – when they come to Japan, people from outside the country tend to “adopt” a Japanese band, going to a bunch of their shows and in general supporting them. They also tend to not really support any sort of scene, but rather just one project. Eventually, this conversation reached the point where my friend said that the band I sorta adopted was Nu Clear Classmate.

He’s probably right.

I mention this as a sort of disclaimer for the second half of this sentence, the part right here where I say the group’s Lick The Star should have been in my top five albums list and probably could have creeped up as high as number two on the right day. Nu Clear Classmate’s “suicide pop” (their term, not mine, though I wish I could have thought of that) didn’t get wishy-washy with emotions – rather, they fucking blew that shit up into size 96, the sad songs feeling like the end of the world while the happy songs sound like pure sunshine injections. Few projects anywhere in the world since have been so maximalist about feeling while still making great pop music.

Personally, though, Lick The Star has become the CD from 2010 I revisit the most, like a scream therapist who wants me to purge all my emotions out on a monthly basis. I’ll spare you the goop, but Lick The Star helped me through some pretty bleak times, giving me a soundtrack to be completely consumed by bad feeling while also offering the sort of concentrated hope you should need a prescription for. Today, Nu Clear Classmate doesn’t exist, the members of that group transforming into Canopies And Drapes (a really good project worth bandwagoning on, but also one with a lot of potential waiting to be unleashed) and…well, a good Twitter feed. Nu Clear Classmate themselves probably wouldn’t gel with this idea – they loved the promise of the future – but albums like this make looking back necessary.

Hotel Mexico “It’s Twinkle” – Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit I didn’t put this in the top ten? That was stupid of me, this song still kills.

Perfume “Natural Ni Koishite” and “575” – The narrative post Game has been about Perfume becoming more “pop,” with a few brave souls (read: misguided high schoolers I hope) claiming they “sold out” at some point in the last few years. Ignoring the bizarre thinking that an idol group wouldn’t immediately rack up whatever commercial endorsements they could with the onset of success, I’d also be a little hesitant to say Perfume have been trending exclusively pop since “Polyrhythm.” Case in point – this pair of singles from 2010, two of the trio’s best. “Natural” makes a case for Perfume to try selling music in international lands what with its nail-polish-slick sheen and weirdo touches, while “575” finds the trio nudged into sexy minimalism…until the post-chorus rap hits.

Basically, I’m just reassuring ya’ll that my opinions of Perfume haven’t changed, thanks for listening.

Review: Perfume’s “Spring Of Life/Communication”

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“Spring Of Life,” Perfume’s 20th single and first for Universal Music Japan, sold 49,448 copies on the day of its debut, giving the techno-pop trio their highest first-day sales ever. The song also saw digital release in 50 countries, and coinciding with “Spring Of Life’s” release, Universal gave Perfume their very own label, Perfume Records. All of this movement pretty much kicks off Universal’s attempt to turn Perfume into a global name. It is, needless to say, a big release.

What’s funny about all this hubbabaloo is that the song ushering in all of this change breaks no new ground for Perfume. “Spring Of Life” finds everyone in the Perfume universe – the three singers, producer Yasutaka Nakata, the people who decide what flavor of alcoholic pop to hustle the song out to – doing pretty much what they always do for the big A-side singles post Triangle (2009). And, even though many in the Japanese media (at least the English side, which is what I understand) criticize the group for clinging to the same sonic blueprint while edging closer to pure pop, it’s the right decision. Instead of altering themselves to maximize worldwide appeal…a decision that helped to torpedo BoA and Hikaru Utada’s forays into the Western market…they have decided to stick to what has already worked in Japan and just introduce it to a potentially larger audience.

“Spring Of Life” really does come off like a scientist-constructed song, featuring everything that makes Perfume sound like…well, Perfume. It’s a hyper-upbeat song packed with Willy-Wonka-colored electronics, all playing out over a beat midway between the pop charts and the dance club, Nakata flexing his populist songwriting abilities. The members of the group sing as they always do, flowing with Nakata’s digital wave and sometimes allowing it to envelop them in ones and zeroes. It has a killer chorus. It even functions as a seasonal treat in the same way “Chocolate Disco” appeared on Valentine’s Day, coming out around the time Japan transitioned from glum winter to spirit-boosting Spring, “Spring Of Life” not so much background for the entire three months but the sound of this specific moment when people can start peeling off layers. Some dude in promotions deserves a promotion.

“Spring Of Life” functions as a great gateway to the group’s digi-pop onslaught, but simply writing “standard-issue Perfume” over it comes off as a little unfair. One of the complaints aimed at the group over the last year has been the belief Nakata has been mailing in his production duties for the trio. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but “Spring Of Life” finds him trying out some new ideas right in the open. The most obvious comes late, when the sun rays vanish for a second and a throbbing bit of dance music overtakes the song. It adds a touch of tension to an otherwise candyfloss tune, and Nakata wisely lets it go long enough so that when the somehow-brighter-now music bounces in, the whole song becomes even more ecstatic. On a subtler level, check the squelchy lines of synth crawling down “Spring Of Life’s” side during the verses – a small touch that gives the track a little extra personality.

This single also comes with one other new song, called “Communication.” It’s a throwback to the trio’s earliest work, a time when Perfume weren’t signed to a major label and constantly on the verge of being disbanded due to lackluster sales. It’s a cute idea – hey longtime fans, remember this style! – except Nakata already did it last year, and did it a whole lot better. That song was “Have A Stroll” off of (the still-dominating-time-on-my-iPod) JPN, which mimicked the cutesy looping of stuff like “Vitamin Drop” while still being very much the product of Perfume circa 2011. “Communication” sounds cute in a way more annoying fashion, one where the group’s trademark digital vocal manipulation gets turned down a bit (DANGER DANGER) and the backing bleep-bloop pigeon sounds mirror the sounds of French children’s show star Pigloo. Tellingly, you can only download “Spring Of Life” from iTunes, “Communication” relegated only to the physical CD as a hook to convince people to spend 10 bucks. It is especially frustrating considering that the other new track teased, “Point,” sounds fantastic.

What’s refreshing about Perfume’s adventure into Western markets is the low-stakes game they are playing. Whereas Utada and BoA did a lot to try to get over in America – the latter did a collab with fucking Flo-Rida, for God’s sakes – and current K-Pop supergroup Girls’ Generation seem hellbent on making it in the States, Perfume seem to be approaching this with a detached approach that ends up being a swagger all its own. Sure, they launched a pretty website and are upping their social-media game, but they are pretty much (at least for now) just releasing songs they would have dropped in Japan to other country’s iTunes Stores and then sitting back. Besides being a good way of not getting hopes up, it also shows a strange confidence that feels wonderful in the face of relentless marketing – we are Perfume, and here is a Perfume song, hope you enjoy. “Spring Of Life” is one of the most significant singles they’ve released, but it’s Perfume just being Perfume.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWFGTH8K5g”]

Review: Capsule Stereo Worxxx

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Stereo Worxxx is the sound of Yasutaka Nakata giving all of Capsule’s fans something to like. For those who enjoyed last year’s World Of Fantasy, Nakata still brings 128-bpm bangers tailored specifically for a Friday night. For those who loathed that last album (picture me, two thumbs gesturing to my head), Nakata has made sure to include more direct pop into these tracks, pushing vocalist Toshiko Kojima further into the spotlight on the dance tracks and including some singles-worthy material as well. To save you a couple hundred obvious words, Stereo Worxxx either sounds like a less obnoxious World Of Fantasy or a more Player-friendly version of World Of Fantasy. As someone who hated World Of Fantasy, this new Capsule album is a big improvement, albeit one still bogged down by Nakata’s obsession with the sort of “coolness” he can’t harvest as a producer in Perfume.

I don’t want to talk about that, though. Let’s talk about supermarkets and pachinko parlors.

When you picture either establishment, what sort of music do hear? When I go grocery shopping, I’m usually met with chintzy Muzak imitating the pop hits of today or actual pop songs, albeit ones leaning towards acoustic, feel-good pap. As for pachinko, I can’t even imagine what music they play inside those, because my experience with such joints (fun fact, I currently live three minutes from one such establishment, and always walk by it after grocery shopping) is pure noise. It’s the oppressive sound of metal balls smacking against various doo-dads, which in turn trigger all sorts of electronic howling that should be investigated by the United Nations. Once, I saw a guy trying to play a concert on the floor of a crowded parlor. That most of been a horrible show.

I bring this up because the night “Step On The Floor,” the joyful pop heart at the center of Stereo Worxxx, hit the Internet, I saw two Tokyo producers talking about Nakata’s work on Twitter. One noted how “bad” a producer he was because his music isn’t dynamic (a fair point, more on that in a bit) and the other dude agreed. One called it “supermarket music” while the other argued it was “pachinko music.”

Thing is, they are right about the “dynamic” part. Nakata’s work in Capsule has always sounded like one steel cube of noise, pushed as loud as can be without turning into Merzbow. He’s only gotten less dynamic over the course of 13 albums. Capsule’s songs don’t benefit from being heard in headphones, and they are really simplistic.

Now here’s my contentious point – who cares?

What bugged me about this Twitter exchange wasn’t so much the position of Capsule’s music being bad – something something opinions – but rather the air of superiority leaking out of those posts. They might be right about the dynamics (or lack of) in Capsule’s work, but people don’t just approach music as homework, a music theory textbook cracked open to accompany every new download. People come to music as an escape, as a way to connect to something emotionally, to just have fun sometimes. Capsule excels at that stuff. If I heard this playing while I bought milk or played slots I’d be fucking ecstatic.

Take the opening two track on Stereo Worxxx, “Feelin’ Alright” and (especially) “Never Let Me Go.” They are the strongest one-two punch Capsule has constructed in a while, yet neither do anything particularly groundbreaking for the duo. The prior mashes guitar with X-Wing-worthy laser blasts with what could very well be digitized butt sax. The latter coasts on reheated Daft Punk noises and some other uncomplicated sounds, peaking with a pretty simple chorus courtesy of Kojima. Writing that out doesn’t sound fun, yeah? But Nakata arranges everything just right on both tracks so that they are at maximum catchiness and impact. “Never Let Me Go,” in particular, ends up being the highlight of Stereo Worxxx because of the pacing, those uncomplicated (but catchy!) grooves building up to Kojima’s big moment. And what a moment – the chorus might be super simple (“never let me gooooooo”) but hits at just the right time and is delivered so well (obligatory “Kojima is great” note) that Capsule manages to wring a lot of pleasure and emotion from something so simple. I bet it sounds even better at 3 A.M. with some tequila hit back.

The highlights of Stereo Worxxx milk this ability to peak at just the right time well. That’s why “In The Rain” ends up the worst song here – the climax doesn’t justify the build up at all. The other dicey moments come from the songs that could be World Of Fantasy holdovers, like “Motor Force” which imagines the soundtrack to the level where Mega Man has to fight Nightclub Man. Yet the other club-centric moments tend to improve on last year’s miscues – “Tapping Beats” would be unbearable at five minutes, but thankfully it’s just over three, saying everything it needs to and then bowing out. Even the hate-bait that is “Dee J” is totally tolerable, mainly because the sample of a baby is just of a cute baby rather than (what I initially feared) a crying one. That’s good editing!

Include the two big pop efforts (the still-great “Step On The Floor” and the slow-burning “Transparent”) and you have a pretty good album from a duo who have released 13 (!) albums to this point, and for good reason. Strangely enough, it parallels the state of mainstream American rap. Rick Ross’ music is similarly far from dynamic – big ugly beats that would make a backpacker vomit – but he’s poised to be the biggest rapper of the year because he does stuff like “B.M.F.” perfectly…and a song like that is a thrill to listen to and shout along with. Wacka Flocka Flame has achieved similar success with this sound, while Gucci Mane’s entire career has revolved around rapping over ugly Casio beats. Capsule sounds nothing like that…though Nakata should try making rap beats just for kicks one day…but his big bleating sound works in a similar way.

So that’s Stereo Worxxx – a pretty good, uncomplicated album that might not be a producer’s fantasy. If you don’t like it that’s cool, but don’t castigate those who do. OK, I’m off to the supermarket to get some bread.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KHsMb-UTCw”]

Reveiw: INNIT On February 11, 2012 At Osaka Nuooh Featuring MFP, Daisuke Tanabe And More

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MFP. Photo by the author.

I’m moving to Tokyo in April. This decision came together thanks to a dominoes-line chain of events – looming unemployment, original housing plans suddenly up in smoke, convenient apartment options popping up at just the same time. It also came about within the span of a week, scrambling up the part of my mind that can sit down and think out a pros-and-cons list and instead forcing my brain to make a rapid-fire checklist. Good location? Check. Cheaper rent? Check. An actual kitchen? Check check check as my eyes look at the burn marks from a recent effort at making fried chicken.

So I spun my plans around and am now looking at moving company websites. Yet with this decision now cemented, my surroundings have now become sentimental landmarks doomed to become mental dust. Every class I teach is one less before I’m gone and this school becomes just another note. I visit my old home of two years every weekend now, fitting in time with good friends and playing basketball with a mix of schoolchildren and college students before I have to say goodbye. I’ve eaten at my favorite Osaka burrito restaurant three times in the last week alone.

I’m also going to miss witnessing the growth of Kansai’s music scene, especially the electronic music scene that has bloomed over the past year. INNIT, an event aimed at gathering electronic music makers from all around the region, held their fifth incarnation this past Saturday and this edition felt special, a step forward for a young scene. Whereas past parties drew moderate crowds, the fifth INNIT packed up the small interior of the basement-like Nuooh. Back in November, getting to the bathroom situated in the back corner of the venue was simple. Saturday night, though, featured gridlock as folks lined up to buy drinks, looked at array of CDs on sale and listened to CD-Rs folks brought to try and grab the attention of the folks in charge. Long-running electronic producer Daisuke Tanabe, who has had a heavy influence on INNIT, played the event and even gave a special lecture before the live portion started. It felt like he was giving his approval to all those in INNIT as they took their next steps forward.

Magical Mistakes. Photo by the author.

Despite bringing artists from all over the area together, INNIT doesn’t have a defined sound. Rather, each music maker brings their own style to the party, creating a little musical universe valuing individual creativity over anything else. Kyushu-based Magical Mistakes, for example, plays the headiest stuff within INNIT, music often seeking to recreate the movement of nature or incorporating samples of the outside world alongside electronic beats. He sounds nothing like Madegg, a Kyoto student still in his teens, who creates space-ier fare, jazzy touches and unorthodox percussion (sometimes it sounds like clanging spoons) floating in some far-off nebula. Yet both fit in comfortably in this young scene, the pair creating forward-thinking electronic music.

The fifth INNIT party featured some new nooks to their ever-expanding sonic galaxy. A guy named Tomato Soup served as DJ before the show started and, in the biggest musical departure up to this point for the event, featured a singer named Mei who sang over thumping beats while two dancers joined her. Finally, Daisuke Tanabe played a special guest set, seamlessly stepping into the INNIT universe.

Yet the most exciting stuff flowed from the artists who have part of the event for a long time now. Seiho played buffed up versions of tracks from his recently released Mercury, the most exhilarating album in Japan so far in 2012. Following him was And Vice Versa, who has his own release forthcoming on Seiho’s label Day Tripper Records, and who on Saturday delivered a thumping and colorful set that raised my personal interest in his album substantially, his music (which sometimes seems like some of the more straightforward within INNIT) injected with extra oomph and energy.

The best acts Saturday, though, were pure Technicolor wonder. Avec Avec, playing his first official INNIT party and recently signed to American imprint Mush Records, sounded like melting Saturday morning cartoons. He played all three tracks from last year’s Plastic Soul EP and they predictably banged, and those tracks were greeted with Ric-Flair-like woos of familiarity. Yet it was his new material that floored me the most – it’s built around the same Cornelius-like collage of sound meets Lifesaver-colored synths, yet these songs hit even harder while retaining a pop edge. The crowd went bonkers for this stuff.

Closing out the night was MFP, and his set stood as the other highlight. MFP – also with a new album on the way – takes the most inspiration from hip-hop producers like the late great J. Dilla (he honored him, one night after the sixth anniversary of his death, by closing the night out by spinning the Donuts’ track “Bye”). Yet he also dashes in huge, bright synths over his beats, giving his music the feel of coming from the most sensuous video game ever made. His closing set ended the night on an energetic, triumphant note.

I might be packing my bags soon and leaving the region, but I am lucky to have seen what felt like a particularly important event for this growing community. People who I normally only see hanging out at indie-rock leaning concerts, the type who count Hotel Mexico and Teen Runnings as top acts, showed up at this event, two music communities overlapping. Plenty of people I’ve never seen also showed up, making this in my estimation the most popular INNIT yet. Just as important, though, is that the music keeps evolving too, the artists playing that night continuing to create something that stands out in Japan. Up until now, it seemed pretty easy to compare INNIT to fellow forward thinkers Brainfeeder, the LA label run by Flying Lotus. Now, though, that comparison seems silly…INNIT is making music that sounds like INNIT.

Review: Love And Hates’ L.A.H.

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L.A.H. does something few Japanese albums can – divide. Folks who follow the Japanese music scene – especially the indie community, to which Love And Hates members Yuppa (of HNC) and Moe (of Miila And The Geeks) certainly belong – rarely get riled up about anything. People have differing opinions sure, and it isn’t like everyone laps up whatever sonic water dish gets placed in front of them, but rarely does something inspire real critical venom (ignoring obvious J-Pop targets – hating AKB48 or Arashi are certainly justifiable, but also as predictable as hating Nickelback).

Love And Hates though…these two can fire people up. Coke Machine Glow’s Mark Abraham gave them the “Extra Special Yeah Award For The Best Hip-Hop-Ish Album Of The Year” and placed L.A.H. in his personal top ten list, going as far as to compare them to the “most commercial parts of OOIOO” which isn’t faint praise. Yet I also know people…names withheld…who hate this album and everything Love And Hates do. This isn’t a simple “not my thing, sorry dude” but rather a reaction like this album is an affront to music. Abraham also notes how he thinks his “colleagues would have laughed at it and then laughed at me” and then questioned whether it was hip-hop or “a fucking joke.” Hell, this thing came out more than two months ago but the stuff going on in this record deserve some sort of write-up.

Thing is, this album doesn’t seek to stir anything up (though, it sort of does at the same time, maybe unknowingly). It’s the side project from two of the smartest minds in Japanese indie music at the moment, one of them responsible for one of the most hairs-raised-on-skin songs of 2011 (HNC’s “I Dream I Dead”) and our favorite album of the past year (Miila And The Geek’s New Age. Here, they put on Burger King crowns and dig out kazoos from their toy chests to make something I’ve seen described as “twee crunk.” For them, it is probably a fun diversion from the grimmer material pumped out by their main projects as of late, a chance to make silly songs and pretend to be hip-hop superstars.

Hip-hop. Those two syllables hit on why I think people loathe…or are at least skittish…around Love And Hates. Just reread some of the ways I described these two – “twee crunk,” kazoos, goofy outfits. Sounds like joke rap, right? And very few things in the world are worse than fucking joke rap. Have you ever listened to Goldie Lookin Chain? Don’t. Love And Hates frequently sound on the verge of cuing up Keyboard Cat and revealing this project to be a gag, the majority of L.A.H. finding the two “rapping” over beats choking with twee signposts. On the track “Party Trash,” they kick off the tune with a chopped-n-screwed vocal declaring “WE LOVE ICE CREAM VERY MUCH.” To be totally honest, I understand why someone would be suspicious of all this.

I don’t think it’s a punchline, though. What makes most joke rap infuriating is the implication that rap as a whole is a joke, that it’s all “thugs” and “hoes” and “bling” and other buzzwords the Parent’s Television Council probably throw around. Joke rap paints hip-hop as not being “serious” music, which is why acoustic covers of songs like “Bitches Ain’t Shit” sound so irritating – not only is it a big ironic “ha ha, look what I am doing here,” it also hints at rap being inauthentic because…there aren’t real instruments? This sort of music can fuck right off.

Love And Hates aren’t poking fun at hip-hop though. If anything, L.A.H. sounds like an album that respects rap music, its creators wanting to give it a shot the way they know how. It reminds me of how other elements of Western culture sometimes get remade to an extreme in Japan – see the McDonald’s Japan menu, or KFC for Christmas. Only one track on this LP comes close to being joke rap – “Money,” which is about the titular subject and veers a little too close to Larry The Cable Guy jab, and ends up the worst number here because of it. Everything else, though, sounds like a rap sandbox. The chopped-n-screwed intro of “Party Trash” just a cool vocal delivery to Love And Hates, the “London Bridge Is Falling Down” portion of the title track a bit of fun no worse than, say, Jibbs. The same goes for “Eeny Meeny” and the jump-rope chant of “Wooper Looper.” Love And Hates aren’t laughing at hip-hop, they are laughing with it by interpreting the sound of hip-hop through Love And Hates.

And they interpret it as a good time. L.A.H. is above all else a really fun record, one that’s tempting to dissect in order to find a nice, gooey thinkpiece but really just wants you to get stupid for a little bit. For God’s sakes, Love And Hates recruit Hideki Kaji to play this guy in their indie-pop cover of The Muppet Show classic “Mahna Mahna.” It’s silly yeah and nowhere approaching Ghostface territory. But rap is full of silly characters and songs. What Love And Hates do really isn’t that ridiculous, and hardly a mockery of rap.

(Quick aside that couldn’t really fit anywhere else – “The Drum” is just a great slice of tropical pop, and almost feels out of place here. Best song on the album, but also the most out of place.)

It’s strange that L.A.H. seems to push people’s buttons, because this is an album that is pretty upfront about it being a fun escape. I wouldn’t go as far to say they resemble OOIOO in anyway, but Love And Hates’ debut release is a fun little collection of songs that are certainly goofy, but endearingly so. Really, more artists in Japan need to be like Love And Hates – unafraid to try something that on paper seems ridiculous and bound for ridicule, but somehow works in the end.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhNdzWIqCBw”]