It was reflexive, the way my teeth gritted this morning when I saw the tweet from BiSH:
【MONDO GROSSO新曲のボーカリストはアイナ・ジ・エンド！】
TBS系火曜ドラマ「きみが心に棲みついた」挿入歌である
MONDO GROSSO新曲『偽りのシンパシー』
ボーカリストとしてアイナ・ジ・エンドが参加。#mondogrosso #BiSH #アイナ・ジ・エンド #きみ棲み #偽りのシンパシー https://t.co/Fa0MIYfgC9— BiSHオフィシャル (@BiSHidol) January 16, 2018
“Oh cool!” I thought at first. “Another Aina collaboration with somebody that I’ve heard of!” And then came the gritting, as such a notion recalled Aina + TeddyLoid, a project toward which my first reaction was tepid enthusiasm (“Good for Aina, though!”) and has since aged like unpasteurized milk. So it followed, then, that when I finally got to press play:
Oh that’s good work! One could be forgiven for hoping that Watanabe would put that TeddyLoid pile of meh right into the memory hole and spare us another electronic collaboration for Aina (or anybody, really), but this is nice. Like, really nice. And seeing how deep have gone the disses toward Mr. Loid lately, I’m beginning to understand why. Also why I should be adding MONDO GROSSO to my personal list of things to catch up on!
But this is about BiSH collaborations, not just Aina’s, which means that there must be more, yes?
How about something with Mr. Marty Fargin’ Friedman himself?
It is very appropriately titled!
Look at these quotes:
The music was written collaborating with some of the absolute top heavy music artists in Japan who also sing on the album.
If you are even slightly interested in the unique world of current hard music in Japan, it would be hard to find a stronger sampling of the cream of the crop.
Considering that Marty was one of the key voices in giving Babymetal their credibility among Westerners in the earliest days, that’s a hell of a lift for you, BiSH. How appropriate that you send up lots of flares that might suggest that you’ll be touring in at least the United States in the not-too-distant future! It’s almost as if you are employing a strategy!
Now get with announcing the dang tour dates.
My only real exposure to MONDO GROSSO was that wonderful ‘ラビリンス’, so when I saw that AiNA was working with him, I was hopeful but still a bit apprehensive just because of my lack of familiarity.
However after hearing the clip of his collab with AiNA and then going back through and listening to more of his work, I’m really excited to hear the full thing. It’s abundantly clear that he knows how to fit different vocalists with the sounds that suit them really well, and that soul/funkpop sound is going to pair great with her vocals.
And definitely interested to hear how Mr. Friedman slams all of those vocalists into one song and has it not feel like a giant clusterf***, but holy hell that musician lineup is INSANE. Can’t wait to hear that track.