Somewhere Between Creation And Chaos, There Is SOZELICA

/ supremenothing

“I Feel Torn Between The Desire To Create And The Desire To Destroy.”

Lucy Van Pelt

Previously I covered the charming idol unit for the garage-rock set, Melon Batake A Go Go, and while I most certainly think they’re totally awesome, fun and terrific, there’s another facet connected to the group that I’m even more intrigued by. Melon-leader Nakamura Soze also has an up-and-coming solo career going on under the stage name SOZELICA.

How does one describe this project? I took my sweet time writing this piece because I wanted to try and figure that how to answer that. After watching a bunch of her videos several times, a few thoughts entered my mind: Experimental DJ? Oddball idol upstart? Performance artist? Chaotic destroyer of stuffed animals and train sets? The best answer I can offer is….yes.

SOZELICA just isn’t about to allow me or anybody else to pigeon-hole her art. It’s better that you just take in these videos and enjoy the experience. One thing I really enjoy here is the way she casts herself rather differently in her solo act as opposed to Melon Batake A Go Go. It’s like a switch comes on. In Melon she projects the outgoing and fun persona of a girl having a complete blast on stage. (Of course, there’s really no way to cover a Cramps song without enjoying it.)

As SOZELICA, on the other hand, there’s this challenging indifference to her approach. SOZELICA barely acknowledges the audience. Heck, at times, she barely acknowledges that she’s putting on a performance. Nakamura wanders about the stage, plays with her train set, pauses to sit down and read a book or eat a snack, sometimes she even leaves the stage and explores the crowd for props to use…

But ultimately, there’s the chaos factor that I especially love. In the improvisational spirit, Soze doesn’t let equipment glitches or unexpected malfunctions get in her way. If the train set won’t cooperate, she’ll destroy it with the wrath of a displeased god and make that part of the show. When her music isn’t queuing correctly, it doesn’t matter cause she’ll continue on and make it work in a different way that creates something new out of the unexpected. She’s the Yamantaka Eye of the idol scene!

While much of SOZELICA’s work is essentially performance-DJing weird songs and even singing an occasional cover (Avandoned’s “Feedback Friday”!!!), she’s got some really great original pieces too…

I’m really hoping that she releases some tangible music at some point, (cough, cough.. Bandcamp please…) cause there’s a ton of personality and potential going on here. At the moment, like Melon Batake A Go Go, Nakamura’s solo project is pretty under the radar, even by chika standards, but I’ve got a very positive feeling that bigger things are about to take off, and I can’t wait to see that happen.

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