Where is the LOVE for Perfume?

ie. Most of the songs on FRUITS CLiPPER > 'Electro World'.

'EW' is effectively 'Dreamin Dreamin' off FC with a drop-off in pop song skills and an upping of tempo and electro bass. Therefore, this is likely one of the few occasions I can agree with you on Nakata writing the same song twice (see also Capsule's 'Glider' > Perfume's 'Computer World'). Not something that bothers me in principle, since all the best alternative Japanese producers deliberately refer to their own sounds in later work, mind.

They just have more indie cachet because they dress mod and rock analog synths.

Which has what to do with anything?

PS. Capsule don't have an ILM thread.

PPS. It has nothing to do with Capsule being cooler (or "less pop") and everything to do with Nakata diluting his best ideas and giving them to Perfume.

PPPS. I'd do Perfume.

PS Srsly? I was going to make a Capsule thread and then I thought that there was one already and then I was listening to Perfume and I wanted to make a Perfume thread.

PPS STILL NOT LEGAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyEHQTVNnkc

I'm getting the 2009 album "Triangle" right now, but until then, enjoy this, my favorite song.

I wish 1:50 to 2:01 could loop forever. That'd get my sailors jumping!

also WOW I LOVE THESE GIRLS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6TV-ztJlJc

screw the j-pop thread, i'm posting this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKMaFR2mtU

i mean this is a year-old b-side but it's still massive and i'm glad they made a video for it

I'm all about Point at the moment, potentially my pop song of the year.

I never saw this 2006 thread! ILX on top of it

sandbox detour for reference - http://sandbox.ilxor.com/sandbox/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=142&threadid=1671

The 'Fake It' clip in support of their new compilation for international markets - http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=TKCA-73840 - which I was looking forward to being a true best-of but in turns out to be a rather odd cross-section from their albums / singles, so it's missing quite a few of the songs I was hoping to be able to have on a CD like 'One Room Disco', but it's got 'Polyrhythm'

More like "Where is the LOVE for Yasutaka Nakata?" is OTM. I've only recently started getting into Perfume and Meg, but I love Capsule and just about everything else the dude has had anything to do with. Copter4016882's 2D2D (which he had some level of involvement with and may have produced...?) is underrated even beyond the extent to which most of his stuff is underrated 'round here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqEg-Vs31Cg

what are they up to now?

:D http://www.songkick.com/concerts/16342874-perfume-at-o2-academy-islington

great extended version of Spending All My Time from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0x5vA7fLo

That performance is fucking fantastic. If they ever play New York I will be there in a heartbeat.

Let's gear up for their next album, out October 2nd.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BSkrZcrCcAAiGfb.jpg:large
01. Enter the Sphere
02. Spring of Life (Album-mix)
03. Magic of Love (Album-mix)
04. Clockwork
05. 1mm
06. 未来のミュージアム
07. Party Maker
08. ふりかえるといるよ
09. ポイント
10. だいじょばない
11. Handy Man
12. Sleeping Beauty
13. Spending all my time (Album-mix)
14. Dream Land

A great new track was revealed, 1mm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OANDqgw9qU

'spring of life' is one of the 10 best song-video combinations in human history

I prefer the 'Spending' routine / video.

yep digging '1mm'. hope 'Spending all my time (Album-mix)' is the extended version from the recent live shows

And when I said I prefer 'Spending' I meant the original, not the new one, which I forgot and is a whole new level of awesomeness in itself. The original had its own superhuman charm in the perfectness of the sync hand movements.

i hope it's more "spring of life" than "spending all my time".

Yeah, "Spending All My Time" is one of the greatest singles of the 2000s, and the video is amazing/hypnotic/creepy/brilliant. New song above is great, too—this is one of my most anticipated albums of 2013.

"1mm" is good.

"1mm" is good.
--EZ Snappin

yeah, it is. I'm excited.

still think "spending all my time" was a weak attempt to try to break into non-JPN territories. kinda edm eurotrash garbage imo. gimmie the bouncy, blue-skied instead perfume instead plz.

Yep, seemed slight to me. Magic Of Love was a massive return to form.

Spending All My Time is my fave single of this period. Not remotely un-Perfume-y but still something kinda new and fun for them to try, adding some sounds they usually don't have in their arsenal without ever fully stepping into another genre. Spring of Life and Magic are both the definition of safe to me and not as good as their b-sides but being Perfume that still makes them very listenable indeed.

One of the new album tracks is over 7 minutes so it's all looking good, with the promise of a flashy video for 1mm as well.

Oh and one thing that's made the safer recent Perfume singles interesting as well is Nakata experimenting with close to no vocal effects at times.

"Magic of Love" is OK but yeah, a pretty safe bet; it kinda sounds like a rewrite of "Natural ni Koishite." I think "Mirai no Museum" is the weakest single they've released from the upcoming album.

yeah, I haven't been blown away by anything released since JPN really. largely competent and fun and listenable but pales a bit compared to the more adventurous stuff nakata's been doing with kyary.

still, i can't imagine i won't listen to this new one like crazy!

oh wait, I forgot about "hurly burly" - that one rules

Quite a few fans are pissed that Hurly Burly isn't on the tracklist.

I thought Kyary's latest album was pretty great and she has a few masterpieces under her belt. In general I think Nakata's work with Perfume's got an emotional core and melodical genius to it that gives it weight compared to Kyary's fun time tunage, even when playing it safe.

Everything is relative, I would give all Perfume albums 10/10 and no song less than 8/10*.. then you get a couple of 8 singles in a row and it can come off as doomsday. But all the vibes I'm getting from this album is that it might work very well as an album indeed, and actually be a bit on the experimental side outside of the singles. Putting album mixes of singles there is a great choice. (The members talked in a recent interview about a few 'light' Perfume singles having been released in a row, and they have actually been their lowest selling singles in a few years)

* well, maybe.. http://youtu.be/ZMy_2UaQb-c

This on the other hand is definitely a solid 8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuPwFMTTYPo

those early tracks are hilarious.

In general I think Nakata's work with Perfume's got an emotional core and melodical genius to it that gives it weight compared to Kyary's fun time tunage, even when playing it safe.

yeah, I can see that. as much as I like kyary, she doesn't have a song with the emotional whallop of "electro world" or "polyrhythm" or "chocolate disco" or "dream fighter" or etc. etc. (not yet anyway)

and yeah, omitting "hurly burly" is a weird move for sure.

also, I don't really hate "mirai no museum" like everyone else seems to. it's... pretty likable, I think? def on the generic side but kinda gives off pleasant serani poji vibes that I can't really hate on.

and how does his work with Capsule compare? I feel like it kind of gets the short stick re: the recent albums (though honestly outside of Fruits Clipper I dunno if I've heard a Capsule album that's been good all the way through)

yeah, the capsule stuff is all really spotty but worth digging through for the gems in my experience. but I haven't heard it all.

sugarless girl is the best of what I've heard. love the title track and "starry sky". things get progressively more EDM-ey from that album on.

mirai no museum was done for a children's movie ne?

i listened to abt half of "stereo worxxxx" or whatever before turning it off due to shitty rapping

I only made it through Stereo Worxxx once, but I love the album before that, World of Fantasy. When I just want huge head-crushing sound, I put on the title track at ridiculous volume (this does not make my co-workers happy).

will get that one then — i love nakata in sensory-overload mode :)

I've found that my favorite Capsule album is probably L.D.K. which is the one that precedes Fruits Clipper, and is a more of a transitional album between their earlier stuff and the more EDM/Electro House influenced material.

Never liked that one much, though I do appreciate the Hosono ref in the title :)

the World of Fantasy video is a thing of wonder http://youtu.be/W4h8m74pyC8
there's a new Capsule album out the end of next month btw

That video is what sold me on them.

yea that video is awesome

Full video for 1mm http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Perfume---1mm/623c95ae935400520ba744d102d12f37

on revisit catch me thinking that cosmic explorer is the worst perfume record but really enjoying future pop

“let me know” still the most brilliant edm song i’m aware of

xp what about Tokimeki Lights?

idk i feel like it's telling that "tokimeki lights" is part of the second half's run of singles-i-already-enjoyed-before-the-album-came-out on cosmic explorer

future pop and cosmic explorer were both fairly uninspired. they have their moments but it felt like nakata largely ran out of interesting things to do with the edm sound palette after level3

nakata's really been on a roll lately though, the single he produced for ado for the latest one piece movie is great, & pretty distinct from his usual productions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FliVTcX8bQ

it's such a rock song but i'm not sure any of the "guitars" are even real

I hope we can agree the one about “tiny baby jumping up, eyes open naaaniiii” is the absolute worst Perfume song.

hahaha no argument here

some of EDM era CAPSULE songs might be even worse tho. truly dire. glad nakata finally grew out of this thing.

even tho it didn't seem to help with her fading status, the last KPP was quite good as well.

nakata's back, baby!

Capsule only got bad when Nakata would bounce in English-language vocal tracks from sound banks or wherever he got them from. Although yes about 30% of most of their albums consist of generic EDM run-throughs, more dull than terrible though.

listened to plasma like five times in a row today nbd

I had accepted that - excluding GAME and Triangle - Perfume were a singles/track-by-track group for me. Even the Cosmic Explorer and Future Pop eras have some of my favorites ('Toumei Ningen,' 'Ijiwaru na Hello,' 'FUSION,' 'Chorairin,' 'Tenku'). I really liked the minimalist and sleek feel of the Future Pop tour, which really let the choreography shine.

To be honest, 'Nananananairo' and 'Challenger' are where I really started to get nervous...haha. Anyways, I absolutely love PLASMA! It really works as an album.

album of the year for me at this point

Listening to the album properly today, Android & (アンドロイド&) is very much my jam… but it appears I have been sleeping, it was a track on the Polygon Wave EP last year!

Full-length review tomorrow.

My full review, as part of the weekly Burning Ambulance newsletter (subscribe! it's free!):

The new Perfume album, Plasma, came out last week, and I’ve been listening to it a lot. I’ve been a fan for more than a decade at this point; seeing them live at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2014 was one of the most fun concert experiences of my life. Their last two albums — 2016’s Cosmic Explorer and 2018’s Future Pop — were just OK, though. So I kind of expected more of the same this time: cybernetic pop tunes produced as always by Yasutaka Nakata, with the three women’s voices blended into a pleasant, slightly uncanny valley-ish ensemble sound, chirpy at times and vaguely melancholy at other times.

And yeah, vocally, A-Chan, Nocchi and Kashiyuka sound much like they always have. But Nakata has delivered some of the best music of his career on this album. It begins, as Perfume albums often do, with a short intro. This one is also the title track, and it has an almost Perturbator-esque feel, with drums that punch hard and synths that wheel in the sky like cybernetic vultures. You would be forgiven for thinking they were about to make a turn toward industrial, or at least EDM. But the first actual song, “Time Warp,” is ultra-chirpy electro J-pop of a type they’ve done many times before, one of several moments that made me say to myself, Yes, this is what a Perfume song sounds like.

There’s another left turn coming fast, though. “Polygon Wave,” a pre-album single, sounds like Daft Punk-esque filter disco. More accurately, it sounds like “Music Sounds Better With You,” the one-off 1998 single by Thomas Bangalter’s side project Stardust. “Spinning World” is another highlight, a cool track set to a hip-hop/funk rhythm. This recent TV performance showcases the impeccable, posthuman choreography that’s been a Perfume trademark forever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pFIkLEXINU

The most striking track on Plasma, though, is “Drive’n the Rain.” At 6:17, it’s one of their longest songs (only the stomping techno anthems “Party Maker” from Level3 and “Edge” from Triangle, at 7:22 and 8:43(!) respectively, are longer), but what really sets it apart is its mood. It’s not a dancefloor banger; it’s an uptempo but still internally chilled-out mood piece that begins with the sound of rain and is constructed to sound like silky jazz-funk or ’80s “city pop.” It’s so slick and smooth, with what sounds like live funk bass and some ultra-AC keyboard soloing in the second half, that I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to hear Michael McDonald crooning on the choruses. I’ll come right out and say it: Plasma is the best Perfume album in a decade, and maybe their best album-as-album ever. Their records are usually somewhat bafflingly sequenced, full of jarring transitions; this one works from beginning to end. There’s not a bad track here. Give it a chance.

the "spinning world" choreography is wild

sidechain compression suck is doing my head in

Generally the use of compression seems more restrained than the last few albums.

Enjoyable album. I liked the branching out into new styles and sounds on "Spinning World", "Flow", and "Drive'n the Rain", which are my three favorite tracks. the flute in the chorus of "Drive'n the Rain" is subtle and awesome!

at this point i think this is likely second only to game in their discography. there are higher highs elsewhere but across-the-board as an album this one's so good

Listening to Spinning World as Enter the Sphere came up on shuffle today and decided to stick on a playlist. Spinning World is a) great and b) the bouncy synths/beat remind me of the music from Spring Yard Zone in the original Sonic which, btw, is a compliment.

Just seen they are playing for the first time in 10 years in London (and I can’t make it ;_;)

https://www.perfume-web.jp/news/detail.php?id=3920

Happening 2 months after I move overseas! I am destined never to see them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJA-W3G_BV8

oh shit, they are still absolutely bringing it
my favourite Nakata production in a long time, too.

moon moon moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUiA1nhqXe0

b-side is fantastic

Always love the Nakata instrumental mixes too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu0iF6WJIKU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7h2MoRfujQ

Been really enjoying these. Enjoyable performance of Love Cloud here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udX4H-1Cals

just gave Cosmic Explorer a listen, was scared off by its reputation (I'm not a huge fan but I like 'em fine) and think it's actually quite good? I mean this is a pop band, what do you expect? plus it has an incredible cover. I mean they all do but I really like this one.

It’s solid and I like the intro along with some of the tracks - I guess just less flashy and arresting than LEVEL 3, GAME or even Future Pop.

New album announced!

https://www.perfume-web.jp/news/detail.php?id=4102

First instalment of a two-part concept release called "Nebula Romance Part 1/Part 2". Hopefully it'll sound more like Magma than they usually do if they've gone conceptual.

new album out friday... who's fuckin hyped

plasma still rules, could make an argument for it as their best album

very hyped
triangle still my personal favourite but plasma right up there

Audio previews: https://www.perfume-web.jp/20x25-anniversary/album/

Pretty horrible cover art though with the dread hand of AI looming over it.

i did wonder if it was a.i. slop... i do think it looks kinda cool tho sry

i’m a complete best man myself. that ship has sailed but still psyched for the new one obv.

cover sux tho

It does, but the chances of a group with such ironclad image management using AI in a country packed with extraordinary illustrators seems … low.

i still haven’t heard the new one but i wanna restate how much i love future pop… whatever we lost when nakata devoted himself to stock edm sounds he was still great in arranging them in an unusual (and on this record in particular, undeniably melancholy) way, e.g. the drop on “if you wanna” is soooooo funky

insane perfume pox that was impossible to put together:

spice
kasuka na kaori
dream fighter
edge
i still love u
saisei
clockwork
plastic smile
let me know
drive’n the rain

new one plays like a slightly lesser plasma but it's still nice to feel like nakata hasn't run out of ideas. "starlight dreams" pretty amazing, lives up to its title

already growing on me a lot in the second listen

insane perfume album ranking

plasma
level3
three-way tie: game / jpn / triangle
complete best

future pop

cosmic explorer

I don't really disagree with that order. Plasma is securely in 1st place for me at this point.

New one sounding really good on first listen!

I'm four tracks in and really liking it so far — and my wife really likes it, too, which was not guaranteed. She loves its 80sness.

Haven't heard the new one yet but I'd rank the albums like this:

JPN
Triangle
Plasma
Game
Level 3
Future Pop
Cosmic Explorer

I spent the first few months of this year listening to them obsessively. Excited for the new album.

new one isn't as strong as plasma but is solid enough

Loving this album, but absolutely obsessed with IMA IMA IMA at the moment which sounds like one of their most YMO-inspired tracks to my ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwaYVpWfyq8