Perfume - Relax In The City / Pick Me Up

A new single from the continually excellent Perfume girls is always cause for celebration, and this week saw their latest hit UK shores. And what's more, you get two for the price of one this time!

The first of the tracks - Relax In The City - is pretty gentle fare by Perfume's recent standards, though perhaps that could have been to expected from the title. Between playful, nursery rhyme-like melodies, the track feels pretty interchangeable with a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu album cut - charming, certainly, but you came here for the all-out party bangers, didn't you?

It's on Pick Me Up that we get to the real meat of the package here though - it's by far and away the better of the two songs, flipping between delicately rural acoustic elements and a chorus that fizzes away like a firework mainlining on Pro Plus. The song feels like a natural continuation on from the likes of Spending All My Time, and already feels like a future live-favourite. Top marks on this one, girls.

The double A-side single also comes backed with the track Toumei Ningen (Invisible Man) thrown in for good measure - the song seeing the Perfume girls taking up a sleeker synth sound before exploding into the hi-energy EDM-fest that comprised much of their Level 3 album; arpeggiated synth lines practically dripping off a mix of layered, sultry harmonies. Definitely not among their best tracks, but competent nonetheless.

Relax In The City / Pick Me Up is available on UK iTunes now via Universal J. The tracks are also available to stream on Spotify.

moumoon and PASSEPIED to play London live show - 13th May

If the recent Scandal gig at Islington Academy got you itching for you next fix of live Japanese music in the capital, then fear not as The Pipeline plays host to both moumoon and PASSEPIED on the 13th May in an exclusive warm-up show that precedes the bands' appearance at this year's Japan Rising show as part of Brighton's Great Escape festival.

With moumoon's latest single currently featuring in anime-of-the-moment Assassination Classroom, there's never been a better time to check the act out. Headed up by vocalist YUKA, the band's style is dizzyingly eclectic, blending dance, pop and rock influences alongside a heady mix of English and Japanese lyrics.

PASSEPIED, meanwhile, offer up an arguably more clean-cut blend of styles, tracks like Matatabistep pairing a whirling electro riff to a sprightly pop-rock melody. It makes for an energetic combination, and with the show touted as PASSEPIED's first performance outside Japan, it should be make for quite the event. The band were previously featured as part of CMU's regular 'Approved' feature and we were intrigued to hear about the band's policy of only revealing their faces at live shows - something somehow wonderfully quaint in an age of social networks and widespread media saturation.

We attended the pre-Japan Rising event at the Pipeline last year, and it makes for a thrillingly electric night - the basement venue dashed in neon graffiti, whilst the bar upstairs serves good food and drink. With this year's event arguably upping the ante with more prominent acts, it makes for a bit of a gotta-be-there show for fans of Japanese music, especially if you can't make it down to Brighton for the Japan Rising event-proper.

More details on the May 13th show are available here.

Claris ~Single Best 1st~ (Yup, Claris' best tracks are finally available in the UK!)

To give you a general idea of how much I love Claris, I used to check iTunes/Amazon every other day or so to see if SME Records had finally uploaded their other albums. For quite some time, their Party Time album has been available, but many of their best tracks - including their iconic OP themes for Madoka Magica and Oreimo - had been glaringly absent.

But no longer. Swiftly following its Japanese release, the duo's Greatest Hits compilation has been added to UK iTunes. Rejoice!

Why does this matter? Four years ago, Claris broke through with a swift one-two of singles, 'Irony' and 'Connect' - from Oreimo and Madoka Magica, respectively - seeing them land a duo of Top 10 hits. The two tracks offer up something of a template for the two sides of the coin that represent Claris' sound - Irony opting for a deliciously whistful, glossy futuristic dance-pop sheen, whilst Connect plays to a more organic blend of strings, acoustic guitar and piano.

Bringing the two together is an incredible command of melody and clarity - some of the best I've ever heard on OP themes. Whilst the current trend seems to be for feisty pop-rocker stormers, Claris take a prettier, bubblier approach - the perfect match to the brightly coloured aesthetic of shows like Madoka.

With the band's members remaining a mystery, hidden behind constructed personas - an extra dimension is added to the band's feel and tone; a kind of blank slate projectionism similar in vein to Hatsune Miku and her vocaloid pals. We have their voices, and a vague artistic impression, but beyond that, Claris can become anything we want them to be - a pretty, enchating mystery in line with Madoka and her magical girl chums.

Offering a third take on the Claris aesthetic, there's also the Supercell-penned Naisho No Hanashi (Secret Conversation), which served as an ED theme for Shaft's Nisemonogatari. Opting for a more straight-up rock vibe, it falls neatly in line with Supercell's other famed Monogatari composition Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (The Story You Don't Know).

Three elements, then - three disparate sounds brought together with a perfect sense of melody. Through the virtue of being a Greatest Hits, Claris' 'Best' collection has a lot to recommend it - although if you're looking for the veritable cream of the crop, I'd start off with Irony, Connect, Reunion and Click - here, the duo reach their deliriously catchy peak.

I've had the album as my commute listening for around the past month now (partly because I've been trying to save money and avoid downloading too much else) - and it still doesn't feel like it'll get old anytime soon. If there's anything better than walking out the door in the morning with Connect blasting on your headphones, I'm yet to find it.

Claris ~Single Best 1st~ is available on UK iTunes now, via SME Records.

Eir Aoi - Lapis Lazuli

Continuing her first-rate run of form, the excellent Eir Aoi has released her latest single Lapis Lazuli in the UK. Those following The Heroic Legend of Arslan will recognise the track as the anime's ED theme, and it's rollicking, anthemic feel certainly fits the high fantasy themes of the series.

With four singles released over the space of the past twelve months, we imagine the singer's hotly anticipated fourth studio album can't be far off now. Personally, we still rate 2014's Ignite (from Sword Art Online) as the best of the bunch, born out by the fact the track is still hanging round the Top 5 most downloaded J-Pop tunes on UK iTunes.

The single comes backed with the similarly fiery Utsusemi Ultimate (The Ultimate Being) and the gentler mid-tempo Rindou No Hana (The Flowering Forest Road) - on both, Aoi's vocals remain at their impassioned best, delivering the kind of epic, apocalyptic scope I feel her songs always encapsulate so well. Music to go out and take on the world, if you will.

It's worth mentioning too that Eir Aoi will actually be performing in the UK for the first time ever at this year's Hyper Japan event - something of a coup for the show if we do say, as the show shifts to the larger O2 arena from its previous Earls Court venue. With a veritable host of other J-Pop acts on offer at the event, Hyper Japan is fast shaping up as *the* definitive event of the year for fans of Japanese Music. Basically, don't miss it!

Lapis Lazuli is available to download on iTunes now, via SME Records.

Mashiro Ayano - Vanilla Sky (Gunslinger Stratos OP)

Following hot on the heels of her fantastic Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works OP theme Ideal White, singer Mashiro Ayano is riding high on the back of this season's Gunslinger Stratos, with the OP theme Vanilla Sky getting an official UK release.

While I don't think the track is as good as Ideal White, I'll always offer praise for an act actually being able to get an OP theme out in the UK while the show is still airing in Japan. This is how it should be, instead of fans being forced to listen to rubbish, sped-up streams on YouTube or Soundcloud.

Packing the same punchy pop-rock pulse as Ideal White did, Mashiro Ayano's latest effort is typical action OP fodder - a heady blend of beats, guitars and euphoric strings combining to deliver the kind of giddy energy fans of the likes of Eir Aoi will lap up.

The track comes backed with b-sides Turn To You, Gentou and the instrumental version of Vanilla Sky. I'd argue that the b-sides actually have somewhat more charm to them than the lead track, dressing themselves up in sparklingly retro-synths. Turn To You in particular sounds like it could have accompanied a Gundam OP back in the mid 90s.

Vanilla Sky is available to download on iTunes now, via Ariola Japan. (It's also worth checking out Ariola Japan's entire repertoire on Amazon, via this handy link)

Sawano Hiroyuki - X.U (Seraph of the End OP)

This guy just keeps knocking it out of the park, doesn't he? Fresh from his mindblowingly good soundtrack for glossy mecha action show Aldnoah Zero, Sawano Hiroyuki has come up with the goods once again for Studio Wit's vampire thriller Seraph of the End.

I was a fan of the original manga version of Seraph from the start - following it chapter by chapter in the digital version of Shonen Jump, and so far the anime adaption is exceeding my expectations with its gorgeous, painterly backdrops and surprisingly fluid animation for what could have easily been another lazy Shonen workout.

I've always admired Hiroyuki-san's ability to not only pen fantastic, tension-raising traditional soundtrack moments, but actual 'songs' - the kind of stuff that actually helm up a show itself and become a trailblazer for its themes and tone. While you could argue that elements of his composition have a tendency to become quite samey (X.U certainly shares considerable DNA with Aldnoah Zero track No Differences) in many ways it suceeds precisely because of that. Like the best pop music, Hiroyuki's most memorable moments are the ones that offer up the cleanest, loudest choruses - those nuggets of melody that have you reaching to up the volume each time the theme plays out.

Elsewhere in the Seraph soundtrack, we hear more of Hiroyuki's usual playbook - the grandoise strings and horns put to such good use in Attack on Titan and Kill La Kill. But, for me, most interestingly, we also get new elements - dissonant post-punk chords, and reverb-heavy guitar lines reminiscent of The Cure. Deliciously apt, given the show's gothic aesthetic.

Suffice to say, I'd bend over backward for a proper UK release of both the Seraph and Aldnoah Zero soundtracks in the UK. Anime Ltd's did a fantastic job on Hiroyuki's Attack on Titan soundtrack - securing both a digital and physical edition.

With Anime Ltd also responsible for bringing Seraph to streaming service Viewster this season, I've certainly got all my fingers crossed that they can somehow do something with the soundtrack too...

 

Could PC Music help introduce the British public to J-Pop?

It's been kind of difficult to ignore the talk around 'PC Music' recently - from an entire Radio 1 show devoted to it, to a flashy piece in the Guardian. The next 'New Rave'-esque flash-in-the-pan, or a tantalising glimpse of the future sound of pop? Only time will tell, of course, but one of the things I've come to admire most about the movement is both its open admiration of J-Pop, and the potential the movement has for potentially introducing it to the mainstream.

That said - I think without some subtle tweaks, PC Music - as a label or a wider 'genre' will struggle to achieve true mainstream crossover. While musically it falls neatly in line with some of the material the likes of Charli XCX are putting out, the childlike vocals present the same issue as to why I think a Hatsune Miku hit in the UK anytime soon is unlikely too. The problem: to the casual music listener, it sounds like a gimmick. A Crazy Frog-esque bit of computer wizardry cooked up in a Hoxton bedroom between trips to Pret.

There's scope though - I think - for the sound to at least on some level infiltrate into the mainstream. Whether that be through the more commercial-sounding acts like Kero Kero Bonito (who are often tagged as part of the movement, but take a far more straight-up pop approach), or a collaboration/sample by an already well-established EDM artist, it feels like a track could hit it big, if - and isn't this always the way - it was lucky enough to be picked up by daytime Radio 1.

Part of me wonders - considering the groundswell around movements like this is often largely subsumed by the music blogging community, that following this early handful of pieces, more and more will natural snowball and follow. Just as with the dreaded triumvate of hipsterdom: pulled pork, craft beers and street food in general, it seems only a matter of time between reading something on an achingly hip indie blog and it popping up in Time Out, Shortlist and the likes. It's a 'concept' that thrives on its own perceived freshness - until everyone moves on to the next thing, that is.

That said, if even one person listened to a PC Music track, or read about Charli XCX praising Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and then went on to listen to some actual J-Pop, I'd count that as a victory.

If you're interested in sampling a little PC Music first hand, the newly released compilation disc from the label itself is well worth checking out. Or you could just listen to Kero Kero Bonito, because she's awesome.