As a final farewell to 2021, we compiled this short tribute to some of the idol units we lost but will remember forever.
Owaranaide
Owaranaide, Yoru: the Neverending Night is Breaking with “Momentary Light”
Although Owaranaide, Yoru is ending their current system in less than two weeks, the nocturnal foursome are embellishing their legacy with the release of a new song and MV, “Momentary Light”.
UPDATE: Perhaps “Momentary Night” was indeed momentary? The MV now seems to have been made private.
UPDATE 2: It’s public again!
The song and MV were produced as the result of a successful crowdfunding campaign from earlier in the year. Owa Yoru have consistently operated on the high end of production and performance values, and “Momentary Light” provides an appropriately dark and opulent bookend to the tenure of the current lineup.
Let’s Talk about This New Owaranaide, Yoru Album
It’s Christmas Eve, and while I know* that most of the International Idol Communiverse is terminally online, really and truly the last thing we should all be doing right now is, well, what we usually do. But you know, I have this big-ass stack of late-season idol stuff that I didn’t get to make blog posts about, and I have some free time, so let’s catch up.
Owaranaide, Yoru! We here at Homicidols Dot Com have always appreciated this cool project, though circumstance meant that we haven’t covered them directly in a while. Sorry about that! They actually did a lot of great work this year, which I encourage you to check out, but first and most trenchantly is this latest from their just-released EP Kore wo Ame to Yobunonara:
Owaranaide, Yoru Like You’ve Never Heard Them Before
So as I mentioned the other day, one of the perks of being a fancy idol blogger is that you get into communication with the behind-the-scenes folks, both to build personal relationships (people like each other, imagine!) and to share information. So it is that we know about Owaranaide, Yoru in the first place, in fact, and how their latest single (dropped yesterday) came into my life.
I warn you: If you follow OWAYORU at all, you may have an idea of what it is they sound like, what they do, etc. Put aside those notions, friend, and think to yourself, now why would Maniac be so coy about this and so excited all at once? What is it about this strange person that I should turn into an inference about what I’m about to hear? And if the answer to that question happens to land you on such things as “Dance for Philosophy” and “Especia” and “what could have been for Hauptharmonie,” which is to say, how about a little smoothness to your day, wouldn’t that be a nice way to close the year and start a week all at once?
Yes:
What a pleasant surprise. And the best part is that it’s by Candye Syrup’s composer-san, too, which goes to show you that talent is talent and that some people simply cannot be contained. I just wish there were more than the one track! And maybe some video! And then another thing like this in short order!
We’re Going to Be Able to Get the New Candye Syrup Single
Confession! I feel really guilty about being kind of late on this, but fortunately being a step late meant that I could share better, and unconditional, news — in a few days, Candye Syrup will be issuing a new single (well, new.5), I think the first official physical release by the new regime. When this was first shared with me by a very helpful and friendly and no doubt fun-at-parties insider, the record was definitely venue-only, but things changed a little bit shortly thereafter.
Here’s the official announcement:
【重大発表】
8月10日に渋谷Milkywayで開催されるCandye♡Syrupワンマンライブから、新体制初となるシングルCDのライブ限定販売を開始します。
CDには「Syrup」のリマスターバージョンと「Strawberry Milky」の二曲を収録。
ライブ会場にて是非ご購入ください！ pic.twitter.com/HdhNyozMv6— iDOL Candye♡Syrup (@CandyeSyrup_) August 1, 2019
That’s Senanan’s artwork, btw; KOUICHI on the composition
We Over-Analyze Things: BABYMETAL | “Elevator Girl”
It was about time BABYMETAL paid homage to David Bowie. I mean, while Bowie crushed just about every pop genre on the planet except Heavy Metal, he was largely responsible for the early creation of Glam Rock.
- Without Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, we have no KISS.
- Without KISS to influence a young Yoshiki, we have no X Japan.
- With no X Japan, we have no BABYMETAL.
So when BABYMETAL’s new single, “Elevator Girl”, opens by directly channeling the piano riff from Bowie’s early 80s classic, “Modern Love”, the circle of life seems, in some ways, complete. In truth, the direct influence on this single is probably less Bowie’s soul and groove-flavored New Wave, and more the J-Pop fusion of acid jazz, funk and techno that coalesced around the same time period into the broad City Pop genre. City Pop has seen a lot of attention lately with interest from Vaporwave aesthetes, YouTube channels streaming curated City Pop feeds 24-7, and it’s own brief “I didn’t know [insert name here] put out a City Pop album” meme.
City Pop is also heavily influencing a number of current groups in the alternative idol world including early album-of-the-year contenders Atarashii Gakkou No Leaders, GuGu-LuLu and the fledgling OWA Yoru.
(This is a lot of words so far just to talk about a three-minute song. What we are seeing here is an unfortunate side effect when a group as musically fascinating as BABYMETAL only releases three pieces of new material in a twelve-month span. In the absence of an “Elevator Girl” MV to talk about, let’s continue the over-analysis:) Continue reading
Owaranaide, Yoru Takes Us Beyond the Night Sky Indeed
Misanthropic post-pop nightstalkers Owaranaide, Yoru are very much on the move, gang, and I feel like a group that’s been teasing a ton of potential since their debut last fall in the aftermath of the original Candye Syrup is reaching that point where their pot bubbleth over. Today is a smorgasbord of good things.
First, and frankly quite importantly for getting a better feel for their total aesthetic, their first real-deal MV:
Here’s Another New One from OWA YORU
And in my last bit of sharing for the day, I’d like to revisit Daemon’s reveal of part of the post-Candye Syrup world, which is OWARANAIDE, YORU, about which Starlight Signal-senpai themself has been kind enough to reach out.
Like the others, we’re looking at an instrumental, and all composed by the same cat (Kouichi), who is also the same cat behind Candye Syrup and SENANAN. This unofficially places Kouichi in the same realm as, say, syva, in the totality of range to be employed. May the day come when we good-naturedly complain about the emergence of Kouichicore, thankful nonetheless for an overall-delicious body of work while griping for the sake of having something to gripe about.
That I very much like where this is going should surprise nobody — if we split the hair finely enough, we can determine idorock, idol rock, idol rock that is really good rock, and idol rock that is really good rock that Maniac in particular like because it agrees with his biases — and, really, I just want the whole tracks out, vocals added, and a good multimedia debut to show us what this group can be about.
Say “Hello” to the Night, and Owaranaide, Yoru
“People who like the night hate people”
This is the motto of Owaranaide, Yoru, the new project Sha-Yan asked us to look out for as she was winding up activities with Candye Syrup.
The concept of the group is to convey the conflicting feelings of young women who come to Tokyo and struggle in pursuit of their dreams: the loneliness, excitement, and nostalgia for their hometown while surrounded by the chaos of the city.
They have released the instrumental to their first song on Soundcloud:
I’m intrigued. Continue reading
