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Ni-Hao!Red Blue Green Tenzenmen/Independent I used to feel slightly uncomfortable reviewing records by Japanese bands. It felt like my oh-so-Western ears were continually stereotyping them as a stew of weird-ass time signatures, shouty-cutesy female vocals, distorted guitars often mixed with an off-kilter keyboard/dance influence and perky day-glo sensibilities (cf: Limited Express (Are Gone?), Belters*, Ex-Girl, Metalchicks etc etc etc). Since then I've learned that not all Japanese bands fall into this caricature - just that most of my favourites do. All-female trio Ni-Hao! have all the above qualities and, to be fair, don't exactly add any strikingly new elements in this compilation of their first two Japan-only releases. However, the songs are great: Romantic Scratch is a syncopated mix of shrieking vocals and a sweet pop chorus, while I Love Smurfy is a demented, stuttering techno drum machine interspersed with what sounds like shouts of "monkey!" Ta-tatata-ta Hand Clup vir. is a short burst of layered, repetitive harmonies not a million miles away from some of Buffalo Daughter's work circa 'I', while the gentle opening of NECESSARY sets up the big chorus for the meat of the song, casting my mind to Mercury Rev at their 'Boces'-era best. Furthermore, some of the poppier moments (Candy, for example) suggest that should locals Brunatex ever get over to Japan, they would make off like bandits. There's some DVD-ROM content too, including a brilliant no-budget rabbit-puppet clip to SAJIKAGEN. In essence, you'll either enjoy this sort of music or it'll sound like high-pitched harridans yelping over an art-jazz car crash. As an inhabitant of the former camp, 'Red Blue Green' has day-glo brightened my life.  |
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