Aibeck

This Is What AIBECK Sounds Like Now

/ Homicidol Maniac

It was with a heavy heart that I had to acknowledge, from a time of my not-quite demise, that AIBECK — somewhat-longstanding not-quite-doyens of the chika scene, gamely ambitious and well-supported — had a mass graduation and was now moving forward as a duo. It gave me a sad, especially at the thought that I wouldn’t be seeing my girl An’z around anymore, probably, and she was the first idol to ever tweet an English phrase back at me, which practically means that we were bound at the soul.

Nevertheless, idol never truly rests, and it was good and necessary that the resultant “new” duo version of the group would make good on a release in October. Maybe this is where we land today!

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AIBECK Would Love It If You’d Check Them Out

/ Homicidol Maniac

Well look what the cat dragged in! It’s not every day that the chika wrecking crew that is AIBECK treats us with even so much as a pro-cut live video, let alone something that’s been storyboarded and shot with things like “takes” and “dubs” and “editing,” but lo and behold it’s 2019 and yes they did it; here’s the short version (because why not) of the MV for “ANTHEM”:

What’s the occasion? New single? New album?

Nope! They just needed a promo ahead of their expedition to Osaka and aspirations beyond, I guess. I can appreciate that moxie. AIBECK’s just lousy with chika, a unit with a baseline setting of “loud” that frankly runs the gamut but tends to do their more interesting work at the metal end of the scale but does just fine at, see above, in more comfortable rock spaces. As a regular glance at the Weekender will tell you, they thrive in the live show, where their big personalities and addictively participatory style can really take over. Should you find yourself both in Japan and intrigued at what you’ve seen, go to an AIBECK live and tell ’em — especially An’z! — that ol’ Maniac sent you.

I Love Idol Collaborations!

/ Homicidol Maniac

I really, really do. Why, I don’t know, because normally putting together Artist A with Artist B is a hit-or-miss proposition, and I get really tired of half-baked attempts to either match likes by putting their butt ends together, or jamming the negative ends of magnets together until space-time rips and we fall into an alternate universe where all performers are contractually obligated to include Zac Brown in at least one track per album. Not with idols, though! Even when it “doesn’t work,” which is a subjective measurement of impossibilium — how can anything that adds idol to idol to make more idol be bad? — a collaboration between individuals or units is just about always worth tuning in.

And so it was that sentimental site fave AIBECK (hi An’z!) hooked up with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them unit Sola Sound:

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I Am Just All about This AIBECK Song

/ Homicidol Maniac

I wish I had all the time in the world to dig into this post, but time is alas short and I’m going to share this with about half of the commentary that it warrants: AIBECK, long a weekender stable thanks to their copious live video output but rarely one to wind up getting the full post treatment because … this was the last one, actually. Semiannual feature appearances aren’t uncommon among the most chika idols of the homi variety, but I always thought that AIBECK, with their “Idol Counter Attack” thing and BILLIE IDLE-esque insistence on being something beyond idol, would have been more of a catch-on.

At the very least, maybe this new tune will get you onto the bandwagon: Continue reading →

I’m Down with New AIBECK

/ Homicidol Maniac

What a busy morning! I’m going to do stuff for today, I swear it, but time is of the essence and … say, do you know what’s a great and easy thing to do? I can share the new AIBECK track from Soundcloud!

“FLASH BACK” … I wonder what they’re flashing back to? When An’z was Twittersponding in English? When they were hell-bent on getting into TIF despite being just a few months old and, you know, chika as hell? There’s another thing, but I won’t say the thing because it’s a really good pun and I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste it here? Sure.

The song! It’s just a demo version, but that’s fine, it’s not “just” anything other than well-executed J-rock, which is exactly what it claims to be, with the only real exception being that it’s a song performed by and ostensibly tweaked in favor of idols. I’d give it a high five!

Producer-san is down as well, but also has a specific goal in mind for future work:

I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see that last part, actually.

AIBECK’s Latest Is Sufficiently Loud

/ Homicidol Maniac

Hey, it’s time for more AIBECK! This is another one that’s actually been out for a few days, and shame on me for putting other priorities first for the week.

This is a good song, though! It continues AIBECK’s up-and-down approach to loudness, and is likewise from the IDOL COUNTER ATTACK party, now just a week away. WHERE HAS THE YEAR GONE?

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We May in Fact Dig AIBECK’s Upcoming Album

/ Homicidol Maniac

Because AIBECK loves us, they dropped the first track from the IDOL COUNTER ATTACK album, coming out in three weeks’ time.

I warn you, give this time; it has rock in it, but at the bottom, like some dastardly musical form of old-school Dannon yogurt.

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Oh Sure, AIBECK, You Can Come Along, Too

/ Homicidol Maniac

In all seriousness, there was supposed to be a recap/pre-voting Best Of nominations post going up in this very time slot this morning, but it won’t because I’m not done with it yet. It did get me thinking about some things that may have been left out so far, for various reasons, especially around debuts (there were a lot of them!), and one that I kept half-remembering but not so well that I wanted to make some big intervention was (drum roll) AIBECK.

Serendipity thereupon ensued:

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AIBECK Added a Fresh Track

/ Homicidol Maniac

So AIBECK, potentially exciting and fairly busy new idol project and home to the … I actually can’t quite place exactly why I like An’z-don, but An’z! went ahead and added a new song to Soundcloud last night, a song that I almost definitely would have missed if I hadn’t been on Soundcloud for entirely different reasons:

All right, for real, come on. Continue reading →

Oh, So This Is What AIBECK Sounds Like

/ Homicidol Maniac

What a surprising little blessing! I had just been complaining to myself about the sudden lack of new material on it over the last little while (well, idol material — there’s plenty there otherwise), and then a happy confluence: Following a day when a few quick passes at Twitter turned up a genuine interest in how AIBECK was going to turn out, along comes our old pal Pure Idol Heart with, well, what AIBECK sounds like:

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