Vampillia Teams Up With Idol Outfit BiS For “Mirror Mirror”

BiS are an idol outfit who have done wonders in making whatever they do seem not particularly shocking. A primer: they are sorta an “anti-idol” group within the world of J-Pop idol groups, although they still partake in plenty of idol activities. Though many times, they blow those actions up to an absurd degree, so that (if you give them the best interpretation) it’s like they are reflecting all of idol culture’s worst behaviors from a cracked mirror. Fans can practically grope them at meet-n-greets (they are “idols you can touch”), you can rent them out to clean your house and they made this video, which is like Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” but maybe actually criminal. For the most parts, their actions have been more interesting than the music – across their first two full-length albums exist some solid songs, but plenty of dreck too. Though this year, they went and released my favorite song thus far, the borderline-gabber terrorpop of “STUPiG.” Sonically, it pushes what one expects idol pop to be to the fringes…while, critically, still managing the most catchy hook I’ve heard in 2014 so far…and might be the most subversive thing they’ve managed yet. Thanks to them exploiting an idol culture where fans buy multiple copies of singles, they managed to sneak an Atari-Teenage-Riot-esque song that has no business in the same music ranking list as Arashi to number seven.

One of BiS’ other tricks are unexpected team ups, most notably with the group Kaidan. That’s the one that got international coverage for its bizarreness. Welp, they are at it again – they’ve hooked up with Osaka theatric metal group Vampillia for two songs on Vampillia’s forthcoming album, which has some sort of concept about “bombing” the music industry or something. It also has Jun Togawa on it! Anywho, the first taste of that album can be heard above, BiS sliding into the outfit’s typically dramatic music. This one goes from soft and pretty to…well screaming…complete with spoken-word sections and dramatic background voices. It might be the best constructed song BiS have ever been part of – Vampillia are very serious about the structure of their own black parade, and they aren’t changing just because idols are involved – and its various stages are quite compelling. Watch the video above.