Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pikapika Fantajin

[Pretsy 1343]

Additional note by me: I know that many people around here have a lot against this artist - I do get it of course (sometimes it's either a) her vocals or her overboard, quirky and naive "musical status"). But seeing as fortunately some people manage to get over these pretexts - and see that she definitely deserves her own position in Nakata's "girl-vocal-group-trio" (Kyary-Perfume-Capsule these days), who for their part deserve respect for being able to convey Nakata's lively world of electro music. Those who are quite interested - AND acknowledge "the man behind Kyary", know certainly what I'm saying.

 

Tracklist with romanizations:

1. "Pika Pika Fantajin" (ピカピカふぁんたじん)

2. "Kira Kira Killer" (きらきらキラー)

3. "Yume no Hajima Ring Ring" (ゆめのはじまりんりん -album mix-)

4. "Mottai Night Land" (もったいないとらんど)

5. "Serious Hitomi" (シリアスひとみ)

6. "do do pi do" (Capsule cover)

7. "Family Party" (ファミリーパーティー -album mix-)

8. "Ring a Bell"  

9. "Tokyo Highway" (トーキョーハイウェイ)

10. "Koi Koi Koi" (こいこいこい)

11. "Sungoi Aura" (すんごいオーラ -album mix-)

12. "Explorer" (エクスプローラー)

 

Now that we have a producer, who's definitely on fire release-wise - we have a chance to look at his...or in this case, Kyary's new full-length called "Pikapika Fantajin". Some people felt that Kyary's release tempo was getting too fast, and thus some singles ended up being quite "effortless" according to the general critic fanbase (especially in Japan, hm). But in the end the album itself managed to reveal some truly welcome surprises , and I am going to take them into account as well as I review this piece...

 

After we get past the majestic-like intro, the album kicks out with three single tracks - "Kirakira Killer" ,"Yume no Hajima Ring Ring"'s album mix and "Mottai Night Land". "Kirakira" is a full-on, upbeat and typical Kyary track, so there's not really much to say about it - other than that it's quite great, and works well as a possible "indicator of typical Kyary-istic sound". Yume no Hajima Ring Ring on the other hand caused some "small ruckus" in Japanese netizens' part due to various plagiarism/"zero effort"-crapstorms. Quite unfortunate that this child-like, but nicely nostalgic piece got too much hate - and in vain. Yes - the song itself was way too straight-forward as a Kyary's single song, but Nakata interestingly enough took some notes from general reaction towards his piece - and rearranged some parts (especially the final chorus which sounds much more...nostalgic and epic, hehe) for this album. My positive opinion didn't change at all even after some "obvious renovations" in this album mix - best single out of "Pikapika" over here! "Mottai" instead has nothing much to pinpoint - very straightforward effort as well, but I think ragtime-y piano saves it from becoming a dull filler.

 

Then we move on to the song, who deserves a lot more than just this lousy paragraph - "Serious Hitomi". Quite a shocker for those familiar with Kyary's earlier repertoire, seeing as the song heavily relies on "real band sound": you can hear and jam freely along to the guitar soloing, dynamic bassline and nice drums. I cannot come up with any proper comparison for "Serious", but let's make a bit faraway fetch anyway: imagine if Kyary covered Tokyo Jihen's "indiest" songs - a la "FOUL" or "Noriki" for instance. Might sound too biased to be true, but at least it gives you a general idea about awesomeness happening here. Possibly the best song of Kyary? J/k, j/k...very good one though.

 

Rest of this album still needs more "digesting" - but on the other note, it makes you think whether Nakata was getting too lazy while making this album: "do do pi do" and "Tokyo Highway" are definitely the stars of "latter half", mainly thanks to their nods towards Nakata's other projects (Capsule and Perfume, respectively), but in the meanwhile we have songs like "Ring a Bell" and "Koi Koi Koi", which are just wayward silly - and Explorer, despite being quite an okay track (retro-y strings  ) , is definitely nothing close to the proper closer material, and thus leaves a listener confused. Where did "Chan Chaka Chan Chan"-like closers go, Nakata? I'd personally put "Yume no Hajima" here, thanks to its obvious farewell-like message.

 

I have nothing much to say about remaining single mixes - they are okay, albeit very straightforward efforts.

 

The release in general starts out quite solidly, but ends up quite lazily (the same problem occured in "Nanda Collection" as well). Positive thoughts-wise though, there are many tracks worth pinpointing - and my personal picks are:

 

Standouts: Serious Hitomi,  do do pi do, Tokyo Highway, Yume no Hajima Ring Ring

Cool tracks: Kira Kira Killer

Okay tracks: Mottai Night Land, Family Party, Sungoi Aura, Explorer

Tracks worth the big fix:  Ring a Bell, Koi koi Koi

(I won't rate the title track - intro, duh)

 

- Not really perfect, but still very solid release by Kyary...and Nakata. Might come back here to edit more if I have more to say/fix.

[Tetora 625]

What do you mean by `Man Behind Kyary`, is her music all supposedly made by the producer and she has little input?

 

Would appreciate more info.

[Pretsy 1343]

^Oh, sorry for the lack of that exact info - and if I were to respond:

Believe it or not, but the only input that Kyary has in her music is basically her vocals - producing, composing, lyrics, mixing and mastering is SOLELY done by the same guy throughout her career (Yasutaka Nakata, as I mentioned). It's not a stretch then - read the liner notes/credits in release booklets

Of course there are also news about two artists contributing to her music (on a later phase) , but that's unrelated to this matter...