Despite the downcast tone of yesterday’s post, Tuesday turned out to be the first day of my week not bogged down by clouds or rain. As such it was also the first time I’ve felt like venturing out on the streets and sidewalks of my neighborhood for the sole purpose of personal enjoyment this week as well.
It wasn’t until sunset that my lady-friend and I both found the time to go out and enjoy the warm breezes and catch last few rays of sun the day had to offer. At one point our leisurely walk-n-talk was interrupted by a young woman shouting unintelligible, ass-backwards, wanna-be-Rasta-speak (like “skiddly-bum-woy,” “praise Haley Joel Osment, mon” or some other nonsense) out the window of a vehicle. Apparently she was so non-plussed I didn’t turn around and give her a thumbs up that she turned down her Reggaeton and shouted “hater” as she sped off. But dusk in our part of the city was so splendid that even that exchange couldn’t dampen our spirits.
That sort of unshakable splendor is precisely the feeling evoked by Sunset Girls the new album from De De Mouse, an avant-garde Japanese Electro-Pop artist from Koganei, Tokyo. I know, the words “avant-garde” and “Pop” don’t often go together. But like previous Nippon-bred Blogarhythms featurees YMCK (whom De De Mouse has shared stages with), his music encompasses styles as varied as Jazz, Classical, traditional Asian, Drum-n-Bass, Techno, New Wave/Synthpop, Glitch/IDM and more, while being firmly anchored in an Electronic Pop milieu.
I wish I knew more about De De Mouse, but my knowledge of Japanese is non-existent, and Google translate isn’t worth a goddamn, so all I’ve got to go on is his music. Luckily, his exuberant compositions speak for themselves, and music is, thankfully, a universal language. The first of his works to engage me in conversation as it were was album-opener “East End Girl (Keeps Singing),” a sunny slice of dancey Pop built around percussion loops, claps, heavy kick-drums, uplifting synth melodies and heavily-effected high-pitched vocals. It’s something like one of those Timbaland-produced chip-tune-meets-Synthpop Nelly Furtado joints re-imagined for Neo-Tokyo Shibuya and filtered through T-Pain’s auto-tune plug-in.
De De Mouse “East End Girl (Keeps Singing)”
This sound — equal parts ’80s Electropop, contemporary radio/club-friendly R&B, Indietronica and Electronic Dance Music, steeped in the sophistication of Orchestra Pop, ’60s Radio-Pop, Jazz & Classical — permeates the album. But comparisons to the Art of Noise, particularly their classic slow-jam “Moments In Love,” and Sébastien Tellier’s recent Sexuality LP, in addition to the aforementioned Timbaland/Furtado team, not to mention a whole host of other modern Electro revivalists, would be apropos as well. That, and it’s also the sort of stuff that would sound rad in a video game or on the soundtrack of an animated film.
A great deal of Sunset Girls‘ novelty though stems from the vocals, which have a clipped, warped feel to them that, when coupled with the fact that they’re sung in a foreign tongue, makes them seem otherworldly and even a bit eerie (think: Enigma’s “Sadeness (Part 1)” and “Age of Innocence”). In fact, I first thought they must be pitch-manipulated samples, but I’ve no evidence beyond my initial reaction to bolster such a notion. Regardless, they’re so sweet and high-toned that I can’t tell if they’re provided by De De Mous himself or some collaborator.
Alas, the lack of English-language promotional materials and press on De De Mouse means I’ve yet to figure out exactly how he put Sunset Girls together. One thing I don’t need words to figure out though, this record from the land of the rising sun is a perfect soundtrack for sundowns in the city this Summer.
3 Comments
M from S.T.B Japan
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I’m really surprised that De De Mouse is featured on your blog.He is getting big in Japan.
I love your blog.I always learn about new & good music that I don’t even know.
If you have some article that need to be translated,please let me know.
El Keter
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Good lookin’ out M., I might have to take you up on that translation offer some time.
M from S.T.B Japan
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Anytime!
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