Review: PLASTIC – Aira Mitsuki. The Deconstruction of Plastic and The Tragedy of Aira Mitsuki.
For the purposes of this review, I shall only be reviewing the CD only version of this release. Many thanks to Selryam for providing with the album in the first place.
Artist: Aira Mitsuki
Title: PLASTIC
Catalogue No: VUZD-1/VUZD-2/VUCD-60005
Tracklist:
01. ロボットハニー [Robot Honey]
02. Summeeeeeeeer set (feat. AYUSE KOZUE)
03. ニーハイガール [Knee High Girl]
04. BAD trip (feat. Terukado)
05. CHANGE MY WILL
06. HiGH SD スニーカー [HiGH SD Sneaker]
07. distant STARS
08. プラスティックドール [Plastic Doll]
09. サプリ [Sapuri]
10. 夏飴 (feat. □□□) [Natsu Ame (feat Kuchiroro)]
11. Time is (feat.shigeo (SBK/the samos))
12. サヨナラ TECHNOPOLiS [Sayonara TECHNOPOLiS]
13. BARBiE BARBiE
14. Re:†
PLASTIC was quite an anticipated release, considering the amount of promotion to buy! buy! buy! Two limited editions – one with a DVD, one with a remix disc and a regular CD edition. High profile guests such as Ayuse Kozue, Kuchiroro, Shigeo from SBK. Remixers such as 80kidz and Yuki Saito from HiGE. Lots of help from lots of friends. But Aira, inevitably is the star of the show. I hoped that this release would give me an Aira release I can invariably proclaim “This is awesome, with no technical gripes!”
The earliest draft of this review had me writing out track by track reviews and I noticed that I was repeating myself in regards to the mastering of this album. Messy. Distorted. Overcompressed. Not clear. Headache inducing. I scrapped it and went for this.
Hence the title of this review: The Deconstruction of Plastic and The Tragedy of Aira Mitsuki.
Review: BAD trip – Aira Mitsuki
For 200 yen, people who can access the Japanese iTunes store can buy this song. A modification of the PLASTIC cover completes the deal with the title of the song emblazoned on the right and it seems like this track is being released in advance to whet peoples appetites for the full album.
(Because I do not like low quality images, there will be no images of the BAD trip album cover. Have an alternate image instead of Aira Mitsuki found in a compromising lesbian position with a mannequin in a toilet.)
Aira Mitsuki wrote on her mixi account that BAD trip was influenced by fidget house. And I can safely say with that in mind that this song’s title is pretty much descriptive of what the track is – a BAD trip.
I would say the problem with BAD trip is that Aira Mitsuki’s vocals pretty much ruin what is an interesting electrohouse track. It’s very clear that Terukado is being experimental with his music and drawing upon different influences (Fidget house artist Hervé’s influence can be heard in this track, but it is firmly rooted in it’s electropop sensibilities). If this track were instrumental, I would find myself liking it more.
Aira Mitsuki’s vocals are just processed really badly. Yes, the rip I have is from imeem and while it may lose bass and some of the treble as these mp3 rips tend to go – Aira Mitsuki’s vocals have been through side chain compression and the vocals were processed in such a bad manner in general that the track is a headache to listen to. I believe that to make this track better Aira’s vocals should not be in it and I would have preferred it if Terukado released this track himself as an instrumental. It seems as if Aira’s voice was pretty much a last minute addition to the track and really, it really is Terukado doing the beep count fantastic and showing off his mad skillz.
We do come to a bit of a paradox though, as dance music is firmly rooted in using short vocal hooks and vocal songs don’t really make the best dance music in some instances (just look at the majority of vocal trance, for god’s sake. A lot of it is shit and uses some really horrible vocalists.) However, Aira Mitsuki’s voice is the selling point with these albums because she is the artist being sold so Terukado has the paradox of using as much of Aira’s voice as he can but still keep it respectable enough dance music so that Aira isn’t written off as more pop than dance. All things considered though, he didn’t do a bad job but he didn’t do a spectacular one either.
Terukado put his name on to this explicitly but one can’t help but wonder whether he used the same project and template that he used for Saori@destiny’s EZ DO DANCE cover for Aira’s BAD trip, albeit with a bit more originality for Aira. A handful of the synth loops and sounds found on BAD trip are easily found in Saori’s cover of the TRF classic. That tinge of recycling is understandable considering Terukado does have a lot of producing to do on his plate.
As for what this means in regards to Aira’s upcoming album PLASTIC… I am still very interested in buying her album. I just hope the rest of it is better produced.
Truth be told, at least Terukado and Aira Mitsuki are being experimental and more creative in their music compared to Nakata Yasutaka playing it safe with Perfume. Even if they don’t get it right all the time.
(For an alternate take, see Selryam’s review at What is DISCO?)
Aira Mitsuki, what in the world are you up to?
I remember when I first heard about Aira Mitsuki and her entry to the Japanese Music stage. It was an exciting time for electropop because it seemed that everyone was gripped with Perfume mania. They had released the highly popular Polyrhythm and followed that up with Baby crusing Love, then their album GAME was highly anticipated. (Even I was, I had to admit because I spent a large amount of money for two tickets for Perfume’s GAME tour at Yokohama since that was the time I was going to be in Japan. I remember posting a picture on my personal blog flaunting my tickets.)
Similarly, loads of electropop acts were cropping up due to this Perfume, or more correctly Nakata-mania. Yasutaka Nakata was on a roll – he was bringing fallen idol Ami Suzuki back into power with FREE FREE and the vocoded and auto-tuned vocals that he made heavy use of were emulated by the engineers of pop singers in their attempt to say “Hey, look at us! We can do electropop too!” as if by emulating the essence of Perfume, they would get just a little smidgeon of that popularity.
