ILM Listening Chamber 5

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― David Raposa, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Also, some suggestions & comments (regarding the frequency of these chambers & such things) would be appreciated.

― David Raposa, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i liked the sexy pop pingponging synths in the begging but then it cut out and the cutesy started . The woman sigihng ice in thebackground is great and at about 46 seconds in the multitracking switches on and its this juggling act between the j pop , the ice back vocals and something else . Its like having an orgy in Shibouya (sp). I really love the low and mellow parts that interspese at at the two minute mark. But it should end at about 2:25 because after that it starts to grate.

― anthony, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with Anthony--but still, what a neat track! Woohoo!

― Mickey Black Eyes, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ack! The music of my worst nightmares! STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!

― Melissa W, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As soon as my eye accidentally grazed across Melissa's comment, I knew I was going to love it. And I did. ;-)

This is by far the best one to date. Tremendous opening followed by a catchy, pleasantly euphoric handbag-house dancefloor filler. Great swoony chorus. Lots of fun.

BUT I might not listen to this too much after this, because I generally don't enjoy listening to music in a language I don't understand. Not that I listen to songs for the lyrics... but getting snatches of understandable words and phrases helps me connect to the song. (The only exception to that rule is the Russian version of "Barbie Girl" which should be a future listening chamber.)

But I rather imagine she's singing something like: "Academia girl, her life's a gas, she loves the trash, inside his world..."

― Ian, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, I take it back. I will be listening to this in the future. In fact it's going on the next mix CD I give out to my hapless friends.

― Ian, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Super cheesey. I like the bits where the girl shuts up and the synths are front and center, but otherwise.... gag.

― bnw, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is the greatest song ever and I don't have a clue what it's saying, but the melody over the first few words reminds me of something else. Best listening chamber yet, by a mile.

― EdwardO, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ian and EdwardO are both right. Not just becquse this pisses all over Nos. 1-4 but because (for me) it meets the criteria we laid down at the start. I know next to nothing about J-Pop, if that's what this is. In fact, I think the only record I own by a Japanese artist is a couple of Shonen Knife albums. If this is representative of a genre, I shall certainly want to check out more of same.

And before anyone chips in with accusations of nippophilia/nippophobia, you're probably right, but I like this in the same sense that I like the best of Kylie and Saint Etienne.

― Jeff, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, I thought about that. Is this what is classed as J-Pop? I've heard the term bandied around quite a bit, and I always imagined it as being execrable. If this is J-Pop, more please! If this isn't J-POp, then this is surely what it oughta sound like.

― EdwardO, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, so that's what that sounds like. I had been told to listen to a certain J-Pop group, and I suspect that this is them. If it is, it's curiously being handled in the U.S. by a mostly indie PR company.

The song: I like the verses far more than the chorus. I miss the bubbly little synth which sort of sounds like "Little Fluffy Clouds" to me right after the beats kick in. When the beat is cut up right after it comes in and the rising and falling vocals are my two fave bits.The chorus is way bland, very canned boy/girl pop but overall I quite like it.

― scott p., Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is good just because it's J-Pop, but as J-Pop goes, it's too mellow, and definitely not crass enough. I like it, but it definitely sounds compromised, like J-Pop for indie kids.

― Otis Wheeler, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Very nice on first listen, but might lose some appeal after the 5th. This would be a good track to hear at a party, having it slide by and then dissapear. Doesn't need to be archived, IMHO.

― Mark, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It is, indeed, too long. Mind you, it might be an advantage if you can't understand the words. This is a very cute record, but I guess you wouldn't want to hear a whole lot of this type of thing in one go.

― JoB, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How about we keep another folder called ANSWER to ILM Listening Chamber or sumptin'... and that way anyone would wants to go look it up can do so without ruining it for the thread?

― Mickey Black Eyes, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Christ, is this a foreign version of Savage Garden? Chintzy, cheesy, chalky, and way too busy. Comparing this to St. Etienne is a severe insult to the Etienne punishable by listening to the Don Johnson album. If this song is representative of J-Pop, then said genre can suck my left one.

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm kinda siding with the Daver on this one. Uhm, Nice Things:
1.The Gameboy-isms. Initially, at least
2.It's in er, Japanese, and Savage Garden aren't really, so it's a bit more interesting like that. They could be talking about Cute Boys or Ice Cream or Nietzche!
3. I dunno, it's bouncy, it's got synth-strings, it's not a dirge, the verses are a little better than the chorus, something. If I was in a casino in Japan winning money and this was playing, I might start dancing badly to this. Icy? Ice-key? I Ski? Not Nice Things:
1. The Chorus.
2. The Gameboy-isms.
3. It goes on too long.
4. I *like* dirges.
5. You can play it more than once.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

also, would it be possible to know who donated the song itself?

― jess, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

[sp] Nietzsche. Actually, I hope they're singing about vectors to the totality.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld., Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's got no hips. I feel strangely dirty after hearing this. It's like Limahl's Neverending Story but with more bounce and less swooping. I loved the Limahl song. Oddly enough, I hate this.

― Kim, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You could even add an answer link to the page. Maybe hold off on activating it for a day... IMO, a day or two is probably long enough to wait before revealing.

― bnw, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

David, that's it exactly: The beginning sounds like "I Want You" by Savage Garden. Except, unlike "I Want You", this song does not suck monkey scrota.

― EdwardO, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It sounds unlike the other J-Pop I've heard - but more Eurodisco not more Indie. Compromise is GOOD, Otis (all the genre-splicing people here wuv so much is basically one genre compromising another, or at least getting into a compromising position with them). I was thinking of a compromise, then I saw the beauty in your "ice...ice...ice...". The cheap houseyness makes it: it's the only one I want to listen to more than once (proof: I am listening to it more than once). The verses are terrific. And Saint Etienne should have started making stuff like this instead of turning into drywank France Gall fetishistes. Thankyou unknown benefactor!

― Tom, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The strings make the song for me. I think it would be pretty nondescript otherwise but the counterpount of the perky, up J-vocal and the sweeping, mournful Celtic (Blue Nile) strings end up making it pretty good. 7.5/10.

― Billy Dods, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dave - are you ready for a new MP3?

― m jemmeson, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm always ready. FYI for all interested postees - just send your MP3s in when you want. And make sure they're not labeled (if that's possible). E-mail to ilmlisten@popshots.org. Yo.

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This time I did not read any posts of the thread before. Is this Japanese? What was this Japanese girls group called again which made/makes some kind of easy listening music? Anyways definitely not my cup of tea. Extremely boring and leading nowhere. The music flows from nowhere to nowhere. Quite asian religion like. I was thinking of the Nirvana in Buddhism. I think I am happy that I do not understand the lyrics. Just like with Sigur Ros. But that is another story.

― alex in mainhattan, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This one is a lot more to my taste than most of the others (for instance, the one with the buzzy synth in chamber 4). I really like that analog synth part, and the intro is appealing, even though I'm not so much a fan of that whisper saying "ice". I like the "verse" of the song, too, especially its first half; the drum programming is pretty stock at times, and is much too trebly for my taste, but the quieter parts (especially at the start of the second verse) are intriguing. It's got some interesting twists, and the sheer kinetic energy of it is a definite plus. I wish the house beat were a little less heavy-handed, though -- I like it at first, but at the the change that comes in at about :30, it starts to get a bit old. The "chorus", though (the part that starts at 0:50) is a big let-down -- very conventional and obvious. There's something to the comparison to "Neverending Story" when it comes to that part, but it lacks the charm of NS -- the "grand theme" feels contrived and out of place, and lacks profile. It could've gone off in a wild and surprising direction, but the one they took is just too by-the-book for me, and to my mind falls glaringly short of the rest of the song. Unfortunately, that mars it pretty badly, since we don't get the big payoff that choruses are generally supposed to give...

I do like that intro and verse, though. Lots of goodies there; it vaguely reminds me of what I like about the first LP of Pizzicato Five's Happy End of the World, though that's kind of a cheap analogy for me to make.

― Phil, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wish the house beat were a little less heavy-handed, though

That is, I like the house-ness of the song, but I think it needs more breakbeats in the verse, or more stuff going on in the snare.

― Phil, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is more entertaining than Morning Musume's stuff. J-pop needs more whispers, house/IDM rip offs, and Gameboyisms. Anything does, really. J-pop is generally easy to condescend upon and think "aww ice ice ice.. that's really cute" but then.... I can't imagine what other response these people would want. I think it's fine... saturate the tracks with enough of this cutesy sunshine and it may even get transcendental in ways a group like Aqua could never achieve.

― Honda, Sunday, 14 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

An answer and explanation is requested, please.

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Already posted here

But suggest discussion continues in this thread.

― Jeff, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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