ORDINARY VENUS

「ORDINARY VENUS」　・　Ordinary Venus

01. I Don’t Know!｜02. 赤道小町　ドキッ｜03. 白いパラソル｜04. 慟哭｜05. 愛が止まらない｜06. はいからさんが通る｜07. CHA-CHA-CHA｜08. スローモーション｜09. DREAM RUSH｜10. 夏色のナンシー

ORDINARY VENUS is the eponymous debut studio album by indie electro unit Ordinary Venus, released in Japan on 12/17/2008. The album officially marked a change in sound for Sayaka Nishiwaki (known as “Cha-pon”), who had been in the idol group 9nine before. Having nearly non-existent promotion, it failed to chart on the Oricon Top 200 albums chart.

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Imagine this: you’re in a magical virtual reality, surrounding by translucent bubbles, swirling inside your own dreamscape of imagination. Nothing can touch you, and you don’t touch anything. Just you and the limit of nothing-ness…in a bright field of digital flowers, and everything seems at peace…then suddenly a massive explosion of incredibly cute (and do I mean cute) synth bursts out of nowhere and leaves you both confused, excited, and curious. ORDINARY VENUS is a lot like that.

Originally, I suppose I was behind everyone else in not knowing A-chan (of Perfume, duh)’s sister Sayaka sang. So I searched her all over the net, and what I found was Ordinary Venus, a two-part technopop unit that had Nishiwaki on vocals and famed underground electronica producer Shuji Ishii in charge of music and production. Naturally, I was curious. I mean, after all, the band’s name and look was eye-catching enough (or the fact that she was A-chan’s sister…/cough). So then I set out on the task of finding their album on the net for a quick listen. And I found nothing. It took me forever to find anything, so eventually I went through every Google page until I found them. After it was finished downloading, I quickly threw my headphones on, eager to sample the new artist I found. Let’s just say, I was very surprised at what came up.

In many respects, Sayaka is in every way a watered-down clone of Ayaka: she sounds practically the same since they both use over-vocoding, if not cuter. She has the same cutesy charm that makes Perfume so appealing. And the music could easily be Perfume demos. But, ignoring all of that, Ordinary Venus can very well be the anti-thesis of Perfume. While it’s evident in many of the Perfume hits we’ve come to love that Nocchi and the gang like to “fight” against the music, in a metaphorical sense, with their voices pushing against the synths and with the high ups and low downs, times three… Sayaka, when paired for a dance with Ishii’s upbeat, sonic style of electro, seems to do the exact opposite. Instead, her voice seems to embrace the music instead of pushing it away, becoming a musical instrument in the pulse. Most electronic artists are like that, many would argue, including Perfume. But what’s different with Sayaka is that her voice is…literally an oxymoron: an amiable, fun, interesting instrument, easy to manipulate; a chaotic, sharp-turning voice that’s fully aware it’s being manipulated but controls in a sadistic sort of sense. On paper (or in this case, blog post), this sounds incredibly strange. But I believe this is one of those rare instances when the music truly speaks for itself. 

The strongest point of the album is definitely the melody. Almost every track on here (except the instrumental) is a delectable, near-bubblegum state of song; a perfectly crafted dance-pop techno confection. This is most apparent in none other than the club-rotated opening track, I Don’t Know!, which literally sounds like Saori@destiny on steroids and a good, high dose of helium. The songs here are guilty-pleasures, with Sayaka’s squeaky-clean high pitch making you not want to enjoy it, but you end up enjoying it anyway. Other songs like 慟哭 show off a sadder tone for a change, but crank up the sound effects meter and show how well monotony works in technopop. Then there are the more deviant tracks, like 夏色のナンシー, which sounds like a kaleidoscopic mess, with the yelps in the background and the sparkling synths mixed in like a cocktail. The lyrical content here really isn’t important, as I said, the melody is the strongest point. By letting the music take control, Sayaka takes the oppurtunity to focus on making her vocals as energetic as possible. Ishii’s smartly-made compositions here are really surprising; many may feel it’s a step-down from his solo work – but I felt that he really shone here with his versatility. Not only did he sensationalize an otherwise too bubblegum style, he also made Sayaka aware of her musical surroundings, further solidifying her place within the electro world. This album not only savored my taste buds, it left me wanting another bite. This is a group to look out for in the future. Check them out!

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PRETTY GREAT

Best Song: I Don’t Know!｜慟哭

Best Medley: I Don’t Know!~赤道小町　ドキッ~白いパラソル~慟哭