Here is my idol song top 10. I wish I had something witty to say to introduce my list, but I’ll bare my heart in each song’s description instead. I’d just like to say that with the exception of my top pick (somehow!), I have all these songs taking up precious space on my phone because I know I’ll never get sick of any of them. If I could get them into my body for easier listening, I would. That’s how committed I am to each item of this list.
Let’s get to it!
By Cal and Daemon
The recent completion of the very first WACK Men’s Audition means that we are closer than ever to seeing what may be the first serious attempt to launch an all-male punk idol unit by an A-list, independent agency. While recent years have seen more and more underground idol units welcome men as members, the almost complete lack of male idols or a prominent alternate idol boy band has always been a curious aspect to the genre. It is actually one of our favorite recurring discussion topics both in Team chat and over on the Homicidols Discord Server. So, before WACK (or YOSHIKI) usher in a boy band wave to wash over the alternative idol world and drown us in guys, we figured we had better put down our thoughts for posterity while also making note of the trailblazing men who have already made a mark on the genre.
We have hit the half-way point of our attempt to capture some of the greatness that the alternative, indie and underground idols of Japan have contributed to the world over the past ten years. If you would like a recap of the methodology we used to arrive at the album rankings, please visit week one’s installment. If you missed last week’s post or want a refresher of the albums that placed 31st – 40th, you can find that here.
Now, on with the next ten albums in the countdown plus one honorable mention that fell just a little bit short of the top 50:
Cinema and Boy CQ just released their latest MV and it’s a phenomenal one.
The song is Tranquilizers no koibito (translated, as shown several times in the MV, to “The Lovers of Tranquilizers”) and the song was written by Yoko Hamasaki of Urbangarde fame.
The weekend is supposed to be a time for relaxation, not uncertainty and difficult decision making. Unfortunately, there’s a fair share of both on The Calendar for this weekend. We’re still awaiting ticketing details on a few promised shows while several A-listers are streaming lives head-to-head. I mean, it’s nice to have so many options but, a person should not be put in the position of having to choose between MANACLE, FRUITPOCHETTE and MELON BAT. That’s just cruel.
For a preview of the next few days of torment, here’s some of what’s being livestreamed from Japan this weekend: Continue reading
Our number-one favorite coed-experimental-theatre-art-idol duo, Cinema and Boy CQ (You may call them Densho to shorten it.) have graced us with a new release! Following up their groundbreaking album The Soundtrack of Different Dimension Travel”, the pair have digitally unveiled their second full-length. due out on a physical disk on May 18.
For the more adventurous masses who yearn for bold, left-of-center experiences that push the edges of what one typically considers to be within the “idol” genre, this is the far and above one of the most eagerly awaited albums of 2020. However, due to the recent historical-scale health crisis, this album was actually delayed slightly, but like all great art, it just simply wasn’t right to suppress work that yearns to be heard. And so Densho and TRASH-UP!! Records have generously gifted us this release in advance courtesy of digital streaming platforms, and you should by all means immerse yourself in this rich audio/visual journey…
♫This is Cinema and Boy CQ’s new album. “The Picture Show of Chronic Deja Vu”
Apple Music: https://t.co/j3v4pFeERR
Spotify: https://t.co/l9CCNXyvJU
LINE MUSIC: https://t.co/OOV0YzTQSa
Google Play: https://t.co/ifSCFDHkah pic.twitter.com/92wTXgZMyF— 【電影と少年CQ】Official (@cinemaboycq) May 1, 2020
The new album is called “The Picture Show of Chronic Deja Vu”, which right off the bat is a pretty cool sounding title that conjures up feelings hallucinatory projected images that match up (or even clash) with relaxed moments of solitude. It wouldn’t be the first time visual and audio art colluded to make for a serious headtrip, y’ know?
Anyway, right on cue with the new album, there’s also a couple of MVs to help get you in the Densho mood. First up is “No. 9”, directed by Yukkyun himself…
Sokichi Osada had a plan for his own idol group that would be a unique and daring take on the genre and he created, produced, and managed a group with that mission in mind. That group, Shoujo Kakka no International, was probably born too soon to really enjoy the fruits of the underground boom of nontraditional, experimental idols, but they were certainly legendary among those in the know. As many great and daring projects go, the financial stress of running an idol group proved to be unprofitable and difficult, and so it came to an end. Sokichi took time to write a series of essays titled “The Idol Suicides” about his experience for a web-magazine that’s no longer around, but thanks to some reaching out from our very own Papermaiden, we were given the privliedge of republishing the essays on this very blog.
But despite Girls Excellency International’s collapse, Sokichi’s creative idol bug wasn’t out of his system yet. Almost immediately, he began work on forming a new idol group that was even more experimental and unique than his first brainchild. A group with an intriguing vision, or has he put it into his own words…
About the “CINEMA AND BOY CQ” …we are idol unit of man and girl duo who sing fictional movie soundtracks mainly active around Tokyo.
The members are Ruan and Yukkyun.
We will take you to a journey into another different temporal dimension travel.https://t.co/R7ux9ty5ox— 【電影と少年CQ】Official (@cinemaboycq) June 1, 2019
Cinema and Boy CQ make some of the most consistently interesting art in the entire idol genre, and on multiple levels, they challenge and shatter nearly every pre-conceived idea of what idol music is. Continue reading
Welcome to Homicidols Archives, an attempt to capture and document the ephemeral and ever-changing entity that is Idol.
Here is the reprint of the first instalment of The Idol Suicides, a column originally written for now-defunct 20hz magazine by Sokichi Osada, the producer of legend-worthy disbanded group Girls Excellency International & currently the producer of Cinema and Boy CQ (Den’ei to Shounen CQ), movie soundtrackers extraordinaire duo.
The Idol Suicides #03 was originally published in March 2017, in the fourth issue of 20hz.
For an introduction to the series, click here. For the other installments, it’s this way.
The text of the article is untouched and as Osada-san sent it to me. However, considering the original layout of the article had images and video content to supplement documentary appartés. I was linked to all idols videos, they are presented as they were. All other hyperlinks have been added by the contributor posting this.
Continue reading
One of the more enjoyable and exciting things in the bold new world of non-traditional idols is the continuing openness of personal self-expression nurtured into the performers. While there’s always been a creative streak within the scene even in it’s more “commercial” days, I really started to take notice of this new emergence of experimentation with the debut of Maison book girl in 2014…
Those first press photos of Koshouji Megumi’s post-BiS group, with their modernist fashion style and aesthetic, seized my attention immediately, and I’ve never gotten that impression out of my mind since. With MBG and other bold new groups taking the stage, the “alt” prefix started being applied to this emerging trend, but to me, I saw their efforts as being more about personal expression and a desire to take idol from a product market into high art. To this day, I refer to Maison book girl as an art project, and their genre as being “Art-Idol.” Continue reading
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