The Ayumi Hamasaki Maxi-Single: H/\L

♫ End roll (HΛL’s MIX) / appears (HΛL’s MIX)
kanariya (HΛL’s Mix) /vogue (HΛL’S MIX 2000)

Ayumi Hamasaki is probably the most remixed artist on the planet. Not only has she churned out nine original albums in under seven years, but she has also released seventeen original remix albums, forty singles (seventeen of which are packed full of more than eight remixes of the title track apiece), and six German released trance singles. However, in this article, what concerns me the most are not even the compilations, but the wonder that was the Ayumi Hamasaki Maxi-Single. R.I.P 1999-2002.

In 1999, Hamasaki released her ninth official single and first official maxi-single that was to set the precedent for later maxi-singles. While most singles are rather expendable promotional discs, Hamasaki was determined to make her singles sell and worth the exorbitant $12 price tag by including an endless stream of remixes. These remixes ranged from the techno, to the trance, to the house, to the club, to the ambient strange; there was no territory that both Japanese and foreign remixers weren’t willing to cover. During the course of three years, before Hamasaki succumbed to the drab title track, two remixes, and an instrumental that patterned the usual fare of Japanese singles, not only did the songs featured cross the spectrum of genres brilliantly, but they also featured well-known to the not-so-well known DJs. Many of the DJs made continued appearances and even came to be expected to provide a worthy enough rendition of the original.

Aside from having their own band and working on numerous arrangments of Hamasaki originals, HΛL is also credited for providing some of the best remixes on the maxi-singles. This is probably because the songs were not just “remixes” in the general sense of the term; all of the HΛL remixes sounded like original, new compositions, a talent quite the feat in an endless strobe of trance and euro remixes. Their first appearance was on the maxi-single Boys & Girls and unlike the poppy original, HΛL incorporated an ominous sounding guitar set amidst a techno-industrial brigade of digital audio. On their next attempt, via “End roll,” they provided a hyper-genki rendition of the subdued ballad, infusing it with flavor and a dreamy synthscape. Each of their remixes extended beyond the obvious of the original, implementing mostly synthetic instrumentation alongside the occasional organic guitar, although you wouldn’t know it by the way it had been digitally tweaked. I don’t think I have ever heard one HΛL remix that I disliked, aside from one of their last endeavors on the forgiveness single, “HANABI~episode II~.” That was the end of HΛL’s career as one of the most fabulous contributors (amongst huge overseas names like Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren) to the Hamasaki remixography and the end of the prominent role of the remix in Hamasaki’s career that gave her a name in even the tiniest corners of European clubs where she would have otherwise remained unheard of.

The 80s in 4:29

After viewing countless reruns of I Love the 80s on television, it is almost a given that I’m going to go ahead and listen to some 80s synth pop, if only for nostalgia’s sake. So now that we know I have zero excuse for doing so because I haven’t seen an episode of I Love the 80s in at least a year, I think it’s safe to admit that I do enjoy stereotypical 80s synth pop all days of the week. Even the annoying classics like “Don’t You Forget About Me” and “Drive” and “Dance Hall Days” and any song by New Order or Pet Shop Boys or Alphaville. I don’t know why I like 80s synth pop so much; I just do. I like a whole lot of genres of music and “pop” doesn’t usually come into play, but 80s synth pop? Totally OK. It’s not logical, but it’s nice. It’s safe. It’s home.

Getting into a discussion on the merits (or lack thereof) of popular 80s compilations can leave one breathless. Compiling a list of some sixteen tracks of Forever Gold: The Best Songs from the 80s!! seems a bit ambitious: can we really sum up an entire decade in eighty minutes? Furthermore, how can one say one “loves 80s music!” which everyone somehow understands unspeakably refers to synth and maybe some new wave, but excludes most post punk, glam metal, and smooth jazz tracks from the same era. More illogics, but this time without reason; nothing can be reduced so simply. Or can it?

I’m not one to tout lowest common denominators and all (I don’t even like using this metaphor, for I am bad at math and still can’t do fractions without a calculator), but when I heard Yu Hayami’s “HEART wa Modorenai” I thought, “This is it. This song is an 80s pop compilation unto itself.” Truly.

Japanese pop acts are huge on taking influences from the West and magnifying each aspect to a ridiculous extent. Boy bands? They still have ‘em. Rappers? They think they are Dr. Dre. Hip Hop? Ms. Namie Amuro can glean more references to Britney Spears pre-Federline than Christina Aguilera. The influences cross borders of humans and often elope with musical genres, although there are some allowances for time; although Japan is years in advance in technology and fashion, some things take some time to gain popularity there. Like 80s synth pop, which worked its way well into 1994 and beyond. In 1987 Yu Hayami released “HEART wa Modorenai” which would never have even been brought to my attention had Ayumi Hamasaki not covered this song on a Japanese Star Search-esque performance in her teens, before she became fashion conscious and synonymous with “Jpop Queen.” This song is everything 80s. The electronic beats, the synth strums, and inundation of echoes and stylistic reverbs on the carry-overs; it all screams electronic keyboard gone postal. It’s like a seven year old receiving a karaoke machine on Christmas morning; she will sing the shit out of every single track that came with her first sing-alone CD and furthermore, the reverb effects? Switch every one on to its fullest amp. That’s what “HEART wa Modorenai” is. It is every 80s synth pop melody ever written times fifty. It is every digital effect used subtly in songs like “Opportunities (Let’s make lots of money)” and “Venus” used eight times in a row plus five. Simultaneously. Does that make sense? Fuck no, but I guess most 80’s pop culture doesn’t either. Pay close attention at 2:35 when she really breaks it down into classic 80s hip pop, needle scratching “dance time!”

There is no further need to buy 80s compilation CDs, just download this song. It is every cliched 80s synth pop song you have ever heard. This excludes post punk, some new wave, glam rock, metal, etc. But when I say “80s music,” that’s, like, totally a given, right?

New Aya song “OVER NIGHT”

OVER NIGHT 

It’s a shame that not much activity seemed to be coming from Aya since she released Baghdad Sky in June of 2004. After Ayumi Hamasaki started turning towards pop music again, I needed someone to fill the female pop rock void I had missing and Aya was doing a pretty good job of filling it. In fact, she surpassed most of my expectations. The result of composing all of her own music (with the help of a trip to Seattle and several veterans, Adam Kasper, Krist Novoselic, Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil, John McBain, and Glenn Slater), managing to keep her vocals serenely sweet against riffs and grunge resonances and playing amazing guitar, is one hell of a girl that can rock with no grrrl rocking stereotypes attached.

Since her last phenomenal album, Aya has mostly been content to play local clubs around her native Japan and work on perfecting her English, which comes in handy with her first release since 2004. Instead of releasing “OVER NIGHT” as a single, Aya decided to allow it to be used as an exclusive on the Chevalier soundtrack, released November 22.

In my last post about The Shanghai Restoration Project, I lamented on my growing inclination towards American/European electronic groups. However, this song has inspired in me a newfound rock phase that I can feel creeping up faster and faster as I listen to more Placebo, +/-, and The Butterfly Effect. Unlike most of my favorite songs by Aya, the song is slow and more subdued. It uses plenty of guitars, both acoustic and electric, as the backdrop to the breathiest vocals Aya has ever incorporated in her style. The song is entirely in English and in two years, it’s apparent how much better her pronunciation has gotten, which finally adds to the experience rather than detracts from it. Overall, one of the best songs released in 2006. Highly recommended!

Artist spotlight: The Shanghai Restoration Project

♫ Miss Shanghai Close Up / Pudong New District
Babylon of the Orient

About a month ago, someone asked me what I thought were the best albums released this year and I actually stated that there were too many good releases to pick just two or three. However, when I sat down to begin making my list of best releases as the obligatory end of the year editorial, I skimmed the list and came up with basically nothing. Maybe that isn’t 100% correct, though. Maybe it’s just that as the year prorgressed, my musical tastes changed dramatically and looking back, the things that once impressed me immensely now just feel mediocre. At the beginning of the year I was still very heavily into rock, post hardcore, and acoustic indie like Letter Kills, The Receiving End of Sirens, and Death Cab. However, since the end of summer, my musical tastes have taken a sharp turn to the electronic, synth, and post-punk. Cut Copy, Junior Boys, Joy Division, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, The Changes, Venus Hum, Jesus & Mary Chain…these are the bands that have taken the heaviest rotations on my mix CDs and iRiver playlists. And of course, the Shanghai Resoration Project.

The Shanghai Resoration Project is headed by David Liang, and if you completely ignore his reason for producing this music, you will enjoy it. “There is a void of Chinese American music given all the recent political and commercial attention on China. My aim with this project is to capture and reflect that tension while introducing new sounds that result from the fusion of the two cultures.” If you look at the music that way, all you see is American hip-hop/electronic mixed in with stereotypical Chinese elements, such as ethnic lutes behind catcalls of “Just holler. C’mon and holler back,” which just makes David Liang seem like he honestly has no idea that modern electronic and hip hop is already being produced in China and they don’t need a foreigner to show them how to write what would have made an equally stereotypical soundtrack to Rush Hour 2.

But if you ignore all that and just appreciate the cultural backdrop set admist good electronic beats, then you end up with a phenomenal album, Reinterpretations, a likable candidate for the greatest 2006 release. “Miss Shanghai Close Up” is a beautiful serenish groove with light female vocals that invite you to sing a long to the “Lalas” as you play it at an obnoxious volume in your car. “Pudong New District” is another beautiful dance rhythm to compete with “Li Xun Revisited (Watch Me Dance)”’s own late night sound. Good shit, man.

And bcause I can work Ayumi Hamasaki into every blog entry this week, check out some of the Princess China Music Orchestra’s traditional, yet modern take on her tunes. They are an authentic Chinese musical group, by the way.

♫ M / INSPIRE / ourselves

♫ The Shanghai Project Official Site / Buy their albums
♫ Buy Ayumi Hamasaki Meets Princess China Orchestra

Gwen Stefani’s “The Sweet Escape”

Gwen Stefani / The Sweet Escape / December 05, 2006
01. Wind It Up / 10. Don’t Get It Twisted
12. Wonderful Life

While I sit here, waiting impatiently for the new Ayumi album to leak (it’s released in eight days and still remains more elusive than that guy who stood you up and whom you’ve never heard from since. I pretend he died), I am at least gifted with the new Gwen Stefani album. To say expectations were high is like saying the Chicago Bulls are sort of having a bad season at the moment. Love.Angel.Music.Baby was one of the first genuinely good American pop albums I had heard in years, and that’s saying a lot considering the whole album was basically one huge Harajuku gimmick and at least half of the tracks were superfluous at best. The single “Wind It Up” had me worried right away, mostly because I was looking for new material and I got “Hollaback Girl Part II” instead. So how does Stefani fare on her follow-up album? Calling it a sophomore slump would be too nice.

Most of the album is listless, slow, and missing that synth presence spanning much of L.A.M.B. Instead of being inundated with pop, the album is peppered with hip-hop/rap. Did I say peppered? I meant smothered. “Orange County Girl” is Stefani’s attempt to prove she’s still Jenny From the Block while “Now That You Got It” attempts to prove, no really! she’s still Jenny From the Block. By the way, “I know you’ve been waiting, but I’ve been out making babies“? Pure poetry.

So quel shock to learn that as the disc progresses and you’re just about to pass out from sheer boredom and/or you just can’t take anymore psuedo-street talk and/or you’re positive there’s an ironic joke somewhere here about “the sweet escape,” you just can’t be bothered to find it, you uncover two of the most impressive songs of Stefani’s career. “Don’t Get it Twisted” screams radio play louder than Usher’s “Yeah” as the beats come in behind snazzy digital rhythms and computer bleeps that command you to find your inner hot and drop it. “This is the most craziest shit ever,” is the worst set of filler lyrics since Coldplay released, um, any song with lyrics ever, but it’s trademark Gwen and that’s what we like about her; her innocuous ability to coin a phrase like “This shit is bananas,” and turn it into a statement that summarizes 2005 more than we ever wanted it to (you scoff now, but fifteen years from now, ya’ll know you’ll be sitting around shooting the shit and remarking to a friend, “Hey, remember when that shit was bananas?” and you will chuckle at the absurdity of the song’s popularity but then go home and download it for nostalgia’s sake).

The other song that stands out is “Wonderful Life,” a L.A.M.B. inspired look at the memory of a dead relationship. It’s irony at its best and the way she bitterly croons, “It’s a wonderful, wonderful life” speaks more than the other thirteen tracks on the entire album. If Stefani had stuck to more pop tunes like this beautiful number, I’m sure I would have fallen in love with her all over again, but as such, the album is simply what I imagine a quick three day writing session in the studio might conjure before the crew pat themselves on the back and and go home to watch the money roll in.

♫ Gwen Stefani Official Site
♫ Buy The Sweet Escape

Artist spotlight: The Changes

When I Sleep / Such a Scene

I happened to stumble across The Changes as if in a dream. I was sorting through some old files I had downloaded but never got around to labeling when I took a listen to “When I Sleep.” I’m not usually big on the whole mellow groove reminiscent of what some call The Police or some call new wave with a jazzy feel, but this song hit the spot oh so blissfully. Most of their songs don’t actually sound like this, which makes it a rare pleasure. Songs like “When I Wake” and “On A String” have more of a boppy pop feel, not unlike The Boy Least Likely To or The Russian Futurists or perhaps whatever a band with a late 60s or 70s influence wants to protrude on a serene, city evening. Need a song to listen to as you linger on the city sidewalk and press your jacket closer to trap in heat? Hit up “In the Dark,” a classically indie tune tailored to fit that city sequence perfectly.

The Changes released their first full length, Today Is Tonight on September 26 and it’s a perfect addition to any autumnal mix tape or playlist your grooving this season. Don’t believe me? Check out this delicious sound sample page and note the subtle changes in the image and tell me that’s not clever. Furthermore, The Changes are now on tour again and for those in the Chicago area, they’ll be performing two shows on the 25th of this November; get ready to spend the most useful $12 of the Christmas season (granted you’ve already bought Dir en grey tickets, but that’s a given).

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy Today Is Tonight

New look for the site

As much as I love designing and coding my own layouts, archiving all of the entries by hand became a huge hassle. Converting to WordPress should save me a lot of time and will now allow me to do more actual writing. Unfortunately, all of the comments were lost in the move; sorry for the inconvenience.

Ayumi sings “JEWEL” to promote new album “Secret”

♫ JEWEL / Lyrics Translation 

I love when Ayumi Hamasaki sings piano ballads. Not since “teddy bear” have I heard such a heartfelt, open and sincere song that upon reading the lyrics, shattered my heart into a million sticky pieces that I could never glue back together. This song is that amazing.

One of the most beloved talents Hamasaki has (besides the music, of course) is that every set of lyrics she writes is beautifully and brilliantly composed with the soul of a true poet. Each song is an honest and open look at the failures and sometimes, victories, of the human being. The feelings, thoughts, and emotions that reside deep within us all but usually hide away because seriousness and sharing of our most hidden, yet heartfelt thoughts, are simply unwelcome in today’s age. And so it takes someone like Hamasaki to expose those thoughts, a place where we can go to feel we are not alone, that someone understands. When she wrote she was born alone and would go on living alone, we felt her pain. She brazenly admitted that if the world were split between winners and losers, she’d rather be a loser. She openly proclaimed that at times she has suffered deep wounds, yet at times, she has been the one to close her eyes and turn away, and advised that it’s the darkness in our hearts that prevents us from living as we wish.

However, with the release of (miss)understood, some of her work started to become very familiar sounding. Though none of her lyrics seemed out rightly recycled, it’s only natural that a sudden leveling off of creativity may develop on a seventh album. But when I heard this song for the first time, I felt the same sense I felt when I listened to “Memorial address” for the first time three years ago. That piano bit entered and before the guitars and drums kicked in, it was one of the sweetest moments because I listened and I felt someone understand. When I read the lyrics, it just made sense with everything that was going on at that time in my life. It was almost unbelievable how much those lyrics summed up what was going on. Just like that.

“JEWEL” gave me that same feeling. It is one of the most beautiful works of poetry Hamasaki has created yet. Maybe it’s true. Maybe there is some corner of this city, where there are still things left that aren’t smudged. I don’t know. But when someone tells me that there are places to go and that I should go because there is something beautiful out there, then maybe it is true. Maybe there are yet undiscovered jewels in this city.

Ayumi Hamasaki / Secret / November 29, 2006

Hamasaki‘s new album will be released in Japan on November 29th and features “JEWEL” and singles “Startin’,” “Born To Be…,” and “BLUE BIRD.”

Green Day + U2’s “The Saints are Coming”

Green Day + U2 / The Saints are Coming / November 14, 2006
01. The Saints are Coming

Any credibility I have racked up writing somewhat decent reviews on somewhat indie bands or obscure East Asian artists will be thrown out the window when I say, I love this song. Bono is basically all the things I hate about an immodest, egomaniacal man with a serious stadium complex. The only song by U2 I have ever truly, truly loved was “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” I still love that song. The guitar parts and interludes make me shiver and break out into tingly goose bumps. However, there are still parts of the song, like everytime I have to hear his voice, that I still cringe. There is something completely self-serving about Bono and his belief that he is a rocker who will change the world by trolling around diplomats and starving children. Green Day, by coupling themselves with U2 seem to be saying the same.

After the phenomenal American Idiot record, they have pretty much been on tour nonstop for two years, refusing to retire the insta-acclaim the album received and instead, beat the dead, overplayed, Jesus of Suburbia horse. But somehow, this Skids cover just works for me. Sure, it’s no longer the simple punk composition it once was. What was simple instrumentation has been amped up full blast by two of the biggest live acts in the past few years; a loud, arena rock quality has been injected with the side effects producing incredibly soft piano lines offset by guitar and drum build-ups a plenty. Moderation is not the key to this single, though it’s unbearably short. I don’t even think moderation is something U2 or Green Day can put into their vocabulary anymore without being hilariously mocked. Ascends, descends, all heavy, pile up to make a huge mountain out of what was once just a mole hill of a song. Almost obnoxiously so. But I still love this song.

♫ Green Day Official Site / U2 Official Site
♫ Buy The Saints are Coming

Catch-up: Tommy heavenly6

Tommy heavenly6 / Lollipop Candy♥BAD♥girl / October 11, 2006
02. Lollipop Candy♥BAD♥girl (short version)

Just in time for Halloween, Tommy heavenly6 comes prepared with a Halloween anthem for the ages. Sort of. Even though the “Pray” PV left us with lifted hope as heavenly questionningly picks up february’s microphone, we are instead, treated to this child-like epic rock(ish) number that leaves much to be desired from the punk rock alter ego that is Tomoko Kawase. With not even a B-side (instead, it’s c/w cop out shorter version of the song…which is probably the only version you will be able to stomach), the single is expendable and barely scrapes the barrel of useful. Unfortunately, heavenly will be returning this December for another seasoned song, this time centered around the most useless and commercially driven holiday; Christmas. That’s fucked up, yo. Instead of singing pumpkins in the PV, will we have dancing holly? I shudder to think.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy Lollipop Candy♥BAD♥girl