featured review #84: siraph - siraph

[Zeus 7997]

 

 

| A promising band creates an instant classic with their first release.

I smell a rivalry brewing within the depths of indie pop.

 

It all follows from the implosion of the still revered pop quartet school food punishment. A source of joy for many, internal and external pressures slowly tore the band apart. There was an overt sense that during the latter part of their career some members of the band were restraining their talents. We hoped for the best, but we saw it coming when vocalist and lead composer Yumi Uchimura suddenly left the band to pursue her own vision of music via la la larks. For all intents and purposes, la la larks filtered out what remnants of early school food punishment were left, opting for a ho-hum sleeker major label sound.

 

I looked forward to the solo efforts of Masayuki Hasuo, but I never thought he would team up with Haisuinonasa's Yoshimasa Terui. Undeterred, the duo found Argentina-born vocalist Annabel, who is probably the closest sounding person to Yumi that isn't Yumi, and returned to their roots with siraph. Their self-titled release immediately brings to mind the soundscapes of riff-rain that I fell in love with many years ago. The similarities are more than uncanny. I would call them an almost outright challenge to Yumi's new band, except Terui's compositions take the band into places Yumi would only dip her toes into. siraph sounds as if you teleported air feel, color swim into 2016, with six cuts brimming full of energy and craving to be heard. "時間は告ぐ" (Jikan wa Tsugu) alone is enough to convince me a few of them were composed with a not-so-different vocalist in mind.

 

The mini album is an earworm of catchy tunes for sure. The unpredictable drum rhythms and thick bass suit Annabel's rougher vocals like a glove, so much so that I'm willing to overlook her vocal imperfections as just another element to the track. If the progressive opener "in the margin" doesn't snag you immediately, "時間は告ぐ" follows a more conventional song structure that is sure to please. My personal favorite is "thor", which combines the chillwave and pop elements with a progressive rock touch for one hell of an awesome track, but I'd be lying if I said they all aren't good. Even the mellow closer "想像の雨" (Souzou no Ame) leaves me immediately wanting more.

 

It's rare to find a band establish their sound so firmly with their first release, but it doesn't surprise me that siraph strike gold on their first try. la la larks is cool, but it never filled the hole school food punishment left vacant since 2008. siraph is the band I didn't know I needed. It remains to be seen if la la larks will respond to the challenge or remain in their hemisphere of electro pop. As promising as this is, I believe siraph has enough chops to grow into their own band and expand their sound into places we have not yet seen. For now, this band has my attention.

 

 

Support the band!

✹ This release is available for purchase online via JP iTunes. Thanks for the information @Pho! ✹

[CAT5 9075]

Yasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. I fucking love this album! One of my favorite releases this year hands down. I can't tell you how much time @Pho and I have spent fanboying over this release and the fact that this band exists in general.

 

Obviously the school food punishment we knew will never be again, and even though I do enjoy la la larks, the six songs they've released are just a lukewarm continuation of sfp's major label sound and pale in comparison to the six songs by siraph so far. I do prefer Yumi overall to Annabel - though only by a hair because Annabel's vocal melodies can be a bit awkward at times, but it doesn't even matter - Hasuo + Terui is a fucking genius combination. With Haisuinonasa's fate up in the air (they lost their vocalist and haven't released an album in 4 years), this group forming has been one of the coolest things to happen in music for me in a good while.

 

As for favorite songs - I can't even choose. It would be easier for me to point out a least fav, which would be the opener "in the margin" - It's still a good track, and obviously composed by Terui, but honestly that contrast between the vocals and the music can be a bit offputting. That's the only real low point for me here, which isn't much of a low at all tbh.

 

Really hope this unit sticks around because their potential is just through the roof. They've been releasing demos of new songs that also sound amazing. We need a new release soon!

 

 

 

[Original Saku 1593]

Yes! awesome release that came out of left field foe me. Totally a ten star album, agree 100% with your review @Zeus Terui and Hasui is such a good combo and I can hardly believe these two genius' are working together on something this great. The biggest surprise to me was that Annabel was involved, I'm so glad she is though because she rocks. 

 

I hope we can get some new music from them soon and that they don't go the way of SFP and get too big for their own good.

[CAT5 9075]

13 hours ago, Original Saku said:

The biggest surprise to me was that Annabel was involved, I'm so glad she is though because she rocks. 

 

Yeah man, I imagine you're more familiar with her than I am, but I remember watching Canaan back in 2009, hearing that ED like "o.0, what's thisssssssssss!". Apparently Hasuo had produced a few tracks for her in the past. This was one of them (which sounds super SFP-ish imo):

 

 

I'm not sure how Terui came into the picture, but I'm really glad he did. It seems like all of their separate aesthetics lined up perfectly.

[enyx 903]

I generally avoid hyping myself up too much whenever a promising new J-indie act comes along. Bands in this scene have a habit of cropping up, releasing an amazing EP, then trailing off into obscurity or just shitting the bed entirely. This case is a special one though; the reality right now is that this group is looking like the primary successor to two of my all-time favourite musical projects (unless ハイスイノナサ can salvage their current situation somehow), and for them to have kicked things off in such brilliant fashion just fills me with joy.

 

I'm curious to see how they develop stylistically. Right now it's extremely obvious which tracks are written by Terui and which ones are written by Hasuo; the two's compositional styles do compliment each other for the most part, but at the same time it can feel a little disjointed so it'll be interesting to see whether their writing tendencies start to converge as time goes on. I'd argue that Annabel is the weak link at the moment; she's fine as a Yumi-clone but it's precisely that fact that keeps making me want to hear Yumi singing these songs instead. Hopefully she can start to come into her own a little as the band progresses.  I'll concur with @CAT5 that in the margin is their one notably weaker track right now. It could work quite well as a ハイスイノナサ song with Ai Kamano providing vocals, but Annabel doesn't suit that song at all, and it feels rather at odds with the rest of the EP. Otherwise Terui does a really good job though, his other two tracks on the EP are brilliant. As for Hasuo... well let's just say that my biggest criticism of late-era sfp was his apparent disappearance from the band's creative process. I don't know whether he was pushed out, lost interest, or what (and let's be honest, none of us will ever know), but the band's music sorely missed his input in their last couple of years if writing credits are to be taken at face value. I've been enjoying his stuff with LAGITAGIDA and 385, but this is what I've really been hoping for.

 

The demo songs they've been releasing on Soundcloud also sound brilliant, so I'm extremely optimistic for whatever they release next. Here's hoping they put out a full-length before too long

 

EDIT: Just a heads up, the EP is available for direct purchase on the JP iTunes store. @Seimeisen made a great tutorial on setting up a Japanese iTunes account here if anyone's interested.

Edited October 22, 2016 by Pho

[Zeus 7997]

Perhaps I'm a sucker for dank rhythms, but in the margin is one of my favorite tracks from the EP. The disjointed rhythm is what got my attention, but I do agree that Annabel struggles the most vocally on that track. She strains to hit notes just out of her range a lot. I revisit the album a lot and Jihan wa Tsugu and thor are still my favorites.

 

 

2 hours ago, Pho said:

@SeimeisenAs for Hasuo... well let's just say that my biggest criticism of late-era sfp was his apparent disappearance from the band's creative process. I don't know whether he was pushed out, lost interest, or what (and let's be honest, none of us will ever know), but the band's music sorely missed his input in their last couple of years if writing credits are to be taken at face value. I've been enjoying his stuff with LAGITAGIDA and 385, but this is what I've really been hoping for.

 

It's so hard to resist inferring. I believe that there was musical differences and that it broke the band apart. The two main composers could not see eye to eye and the sound engineer had way too much influence. The entire liner notes of Prog-Roid are credited to Yumi and Ryo, as if she ceased asking for input from her band members and wanted to do things her way. The other band members are barely credited at all. Her message for leaving school food punishment sounded in line with that as well, describing the sound the band was chasing as "distorted". Now Yumi and Ryo are in a band together, Hasuo has his own band and his three compositions sound like indie school food punishment songs. Too much lines up for me to think much else.

 

[togz 2004]

Honestly hadn't heard this group until I checked out your review... absolutely checking them out. 

 

Great review @Zeus!