Having now seen this shared in a great number of public fora ever since I caught it while walking into a restaurant for dinner on Tuesday, it’s probably not news to a lot of you, but still. Koutei Camera Girl Zwei may not have made the final cut in the Best/Worst of 2016 nominations, but they still deserve your love and respect in their fleeting remaining time together.

おはようございます。本日はコウテカ2の 3rd album "Night on Verse" リリース日です。MVアップしましたので是非ご覧下さい。
【MV】Lil Tomte / 校庭カメラガールツヴァイ https://t.co/stPVODOdze

— tapestok records (@tapestokrecords) December 7, 2016

Somebody give them lots of money, then book them with Oyasumi Hologram and the three-headed dragon named Bell Melt Mute that I sometimes like to pretend exists, and send them on a world tour of student unions and coffee shops

This bizarre fusion of EDM, alt rock, hip-hop and idol is the kind of thing you should just sit and listen to for a while. To borrow how I once described Hauptharmonie, this is music for music lovers. Like, edgelords and genre snobs always want to be the gatekeepers for what counts as “good,” and the irony so often is that what’s “best” is what lives on the fringes of their manufactured authenticity.

Idols are uniquely suited to push boundaries of genre and convention because they can be whatever they or you want them to be. Little pop punk princesses? The literal undead? Clowns? All, and more, possible. That’s sort of the space that your Koutei Camera Girls occupy, almost like a hipster DJ’s dream come to life.

Idol in general is branching out into lots of exciting places, but we’re losing this one particular spot of creative brilliance, and we’re going to miss it.