Hello Everyone, Nice To Meet You...

Even taking into account the buzz Midori had swarming around them following their first two releases, it was still a little shocking to discover they had signed with mega-label Sony. There's something just a little too severe and unsettling about their psychotic jazz punk, and seeing the band on promotional posters for Tower Records ranks among the weirder moments I've experienced since moving to Japan. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a good thing. But it's also a weird thing, like hearing a Black Flag song on a commercial selling SUVs.

Well, OK, it's not that weird.

Anyway, the obvious first question is whether the move to a major label caused a calming effect, maybe a reduction of venom and a smoothing of the edges. Well, after a brief lo-fi acoustic intro, Midori welcome you to their new label with vocalist Mariko Goto screaming "DESTROY!!!!" loud enough to bust a blood vessel. So no, losing the edge is not a problem.

In fact, not only are the first two full fledged tracks full on noise assaults, they're the least accessible on the album (barring the instrumental noise jazz closer,) as if to assure their fans the band's attitude remains intact. That's a relief, although they are getting dangerously close to repeating themselves: not only is a formula beginning to show, the album includes a more or less identical re-recording of "お猿" ("The Monkey") from their debut EP (link goes to the original version.) Fortunately, this stuff isn't a deal breaker: there's still plenty of territory to explore in the group's singular aesthetic, and the relative brevity of the album (just over half an hour,) combined with moments of obvious growth, suggest the issue lies with rapid deadlines rather than a diminishing of the creative spark.

The basis of the band's approach...put a jazz trio behind a cute but psychotic girl in a school uniform and act like a punk band...once again allows for some surprising twists. The "cute girl" thing isn't just to make the boys drool, it's the contextual basis for their entire world. "根性無しあたし、あほぼけかす" ("I Have No Guts, My Family Is Scum,") title aside, would be nothing more than a childlike little piano ditty without the knowledge that the girl singing it likes to kill people (as in the video for "Summer Romance.") In fact, it's this context that allows the relatively relaxed tracks that comprise much of the second half to be the most exciting, creatively, on the album. "5拍子" ("The Fifth Time") is a moody, almost shoegazery tune with a breakdown that borders on pretty. It's this side of the band that elevates them above mere thrash merchants, and the track that takes their severe rumble and infuses it with a completely unexpected sensitivity. It can only be described as dark resignation, with a sense of melancholy that allows Goto's monsterish persona a much needed touch of humanity.

Live!!

Speaking of jazz trios, "Live!!" discards with Goto's electric guitar (likely due to the fact it was recorded outdoors, in the rain,) leaving nothing but drums, upright bass, and keys for Goto to lay her trademark conniptions upon. However, it's not just the removal of the "rock" instrument that emphasizes Midori's non-rock roots: the band takes the opportunity to luxuriate in free jazz. "The Monkey" is more than half finished before it's identifiable, the opening dedicated to a deconstructed, smoky free form workout that could have easily been played in countless jazz clubs in the early 50s. While this element has always been one of the things that made the band unique, hearing it in this raw format drives the point home with added clarity, prompting the question: could Midori could have come into being without rock at all? The song structures, the intensity, even sometimes the vocal phrasing owes nothing to rock 'n' roll.

Granted, it's difficult to think of any jazz chanteuse trying the guttural roars, arrogant trills and confrontational moments that are key to Goto's delivery, and it's those which have put Midori on the same live bills as Guitar Wolf, Sheena and the Rokkets, 9mm Parabellum Bullet and others. Ultimately, it's where they belong, for as much as many styles flex and stretch their boundaries, rock is the only genre...the only scene...that can accommodate their particular brand of insanity. The performance is raw, ferocious, and much too reckless to fit anywhere else.

Hopefully, Midori will continue in their own vein, exploring both the more subtle nastiness of tracks like "The Fifth Time" and the thoroughly unique aggro-jazz-pop on display in "Live!!" While the thrashier stuff might be what made them graspable enough to the mainstream to land the Sony deal, it's ultimately what they need to grow out of. Lots of bands can pummel, but absolutely no one can take their level of frenzy and tone it down just enough to make it genuinely unsettling. Their ability to take utter chaos and wrap it up in a wholly original but immediately accessible and easily graspable package is the stuff legends are made of.
 

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"Hello..." and "Live!!" are available at Amazon Japan.