Dispatch, Week 0

Final Fantasy VII, trance music and idols reviewing white rice

Hello! I write about music time to time, mostly in my newsletter but also in other places. But those outlets can be limiting when I just want to discuss something real quick, like about a new album I checked out, a movie I liked, a neat quote from a post I read, a funny thing I found on my social media feed or just an idea that should be left alone as a tweet at best. I basically want to blog, and so that’s what this… whatever this is. I’m just here to blurt about things I come across during the week to an audience of no one — or maybe someone? — in these times of isolation.

Shokotan Plays Final Fantasy VII

Have you seen Shokotan, or talent and idol Shoko Nakagawa, freak out about any of her obsessions? I’m sure she’s a living meme to somebody thanks to this old TV segment with her interviewing Araki Hirohiko, the author of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. She’s the same pretty much with her commentaries while playing the Final Fantasy VII remake. A choice moment so far from the 2 out of 29 hours of video available is when she talks about Cloud’s armpits; she adjusts the game camera angle so she can observe while she does this. It’s also nice listening in about, like, her not-so-secretly imitating Aeris’s hair style in high school only to get embarrassed when someone actually noticed?

Shoko Nakagawa: “Flying Humanoid”

(from the 2010 album Cosmic Inflation)

I had thought “Flying Humanoid” was an old BiS song I never heard since I saw a cover of it included in Wack & Scrambles Works. But then I saw a news post about the latest album by Buzz72+, Scrambles head Kenta Matsukuma’s old band, where it also mentioned how he wrote “Shoko Nakagawa’s ‘Flying Humanoid.’” This being a Shokotan song, it’s less unhinged than a BiS or a BiSH track, but it’s still classic Scrambles-made punk pop.

The Future Sound of London: ‘Accelerator’ (1991)

(“Expander,” from Accelerator)

I’m going all over the place in the Future Sound of London’s catalog, though I appreciated Accelerator, the house group’s first album, a lot better after getting the gist what they were known for in the ’90s first. I only listened to Dead Cities (1996) in full while I sifted through some of Lifeforms (1994). The former has some club-friendly cuts, like “We Have Explosives,” also featured in the Wipeout 2097 video game, but Accelerator’s more straightforward dive into techno still felt like a breathe of fresh air. A good chance you already know their classic “Papua New Guinea,” so why not go with the starter track?

Above & Beyond: ‘Tri-State’ (2006)

(“World on Fire,” from Tri-State)

Working backwards to trace the sounds and ideas behind trance gods Above & Beyond’s debut album, Tri-State, was an interesting exercise. The more vocal-led ones sat somewhere between the shamanistic raves of Underworld and the chillout staples like Everything But the Girl’s Walking Wounded. And the whole impulse to seek out euphoric transcendence via beats is old as rave itself after all.

Ebi Chu Give Bowl of White Rice “Best New Meal”

Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku have started a game where each of the six does a two-minute food review of a bowl of white rice. Point get deducted if you repeat a comment, leave an awkward silence or show that you’re running out of stuff to say. Two actually got perfect scores, but Ayaka Yasumoto already starts stressing 30 seconds in, staring into the camera like, “oh, god, I still have how much time left over?” All she can think of is that it’s delicious and it’s sweet and it’s delicious, just desperate to buy any time she can. Who knew you can torture someone with a bowl of rice?

FINLANDS’ Fuyuko Shiori on Her New Song “Heat” and Love During the Time of COVID-19

“You know how you can ask questions on Instagram Stories? On there, I posted ‘how have you been?’ And then I got messages like “I just started dating, but I can’t see my partner because of the corona” or “I was hitting it well with someone, but I can’t see them anymore so I’m not sure if it’s going to continue.” That’s when I really realized how the corona is also having an effect on relationships. There’s love that won’t last if you can’t be together to check up on each other or love that goes away once you’re face to face. On that note, I started writing ‘Heat’ while being fascinated about the temperature shared between people, but it ended up becoming a really, really dark song (laughs).”

(from 自ら考えて選んでいくことの尊さ、気力を──FINLANDS、1年ぶり新作「まどか / HEAT」[On Willpower, and the Preciousness of Thinking and Choosing Things Yourself — FINLANDS’ “Madoka/HEAT,” The Band’s New Release in a Year] via Ototoy)

“Heat” is the better song out of the two from indie-rock band FINLANDS’ new single. You can listen to it here.

Protect Chii-chan from Karin at All Costs

The quarantine has brought out Karin Miyamoto: Unleashed. While the rest of her Hello! Project friends participate in easy, innocent activities to broadcast on Instagram — like English courses, showing off a pet lizard, and magic tricks— Karin decided to brainstorm at length about her favorite Hello! members if they were her girlfriends as a recurring segment.

Her second session about Morning Musume’s Chisaki Morito stretched to 10 minutes, half of it spent going in great, specific detail about her dream situations, like spoiling her at an amusement park or talking on the phone while in bed. “I don’t think I need to eat dinner,” she says at one point, letting out deep, fulfilled sighs. The video editor is over her talking for so long, complaining in the captions. Fellow Juice=Juice member Sayuki Takagi is straight up scared in the comment section. Chii-chan has yet to respond.

This one-of-a-kind storm of chaos will graduate from Juice=Juice in June, and I will miss putting up with her antics.

Congratulations Sailer, You Made It to Friday

See you next week!