Help, I'm addicted to Japanese techno-pop
A few days ago, I came across some videos by the Japanese pop group Perfume on a blog called Online Music Phenoms, and I watched them.
Big mistake.
Perfume is very, very addctive. Once you've heard songs like Sweet Doughnut, Chocolate Disco, Electro World, Linear Motor Girl, Monochrome Effect and Polyrhythm, you won't be able to get them out of your head. They will invade your mind and stay there, infecting it with their strange blend of cute cheeriness and retro-electronic soundscapes. You'll play them endlessly as you read the English-language fansite, Perfume City, and you'll find yourself hunting for downloads and seeing how much it would cost to buy Perfume CDs from mail order companies in Japan.
And the surreal animated videos have to be seen to be believed, especially Monochrome Effect (which features a grinning pink shark that could be straight out of The Life Aquatic) and the etherially beautiful video for Polyrhythm.
I gather that, after several years of bubbling under, Perfume have become very popular in Japan over the last year or so, Polyrhythm being their first breakout hit. So if and when they become better known internationally, remember that you heard about them here first. Unless, that is, you didn't.
Big mistake.
Perfume is very, very addctive. Once you've heard songs like Sweet Doughnut, Chocolate Disco, Electro World, Linear Motor Girl, Monochrome Effect and Polyrhythm, you won't be able to get them out of your head. They will invade your mind and stay there, infecting it with their strange blend of cute cheeriness and retro-electronic soundscapes. You'll play them endlessly as you read the English-language fansite, Perfume City, and you'll find yourself hunting for downloads and seeing how much it would cost to buy Perfume CDs from mail order companies in Japan.
And the surreal animated videos have to be seen to be believed, especially Monochrome Effect (which features a grinning pink shark that could be straight out of The Life Aquatic) and the etherially beautiful video for Polyrhythm.
I gather that, after several years of bubbling under, Perfume have become very popular in Japan over the last year or so, Polyrhythm being their first breakout hit. So if and when they become better known internationally, remember that you heard about them here first. Unless, that is, you didn't.