Takako Minekawa
Fun9
[Emperor Norton]
Rating: 8.3
When I reviewed Takako Minekawa's last full- length Cloudy Cloud
Calculator, I lazily referred to her "female Cornelius." Seeing
how I was under a tight deadline at the time, this comparison adequately
conveyed to the Pitchfork audience that Minekawa was all about classic
pop, and that she had the multi- instrumental and arrangement chops to
realize her syrupy- sweet musical dreams. Imagine my surprise when I
read in Giant Robot that Minekawa is not only going steady with
Cornelius, but that she would be writing and recording with him for her
next record. Man, I love being right, especially when I don't have to
work hard to do it.
And so it seems, with her new beau at her side, the already talented
Minekawa can't be stopped. This record easily surpasses everything else
she's done, with newfound production sophistication and better songs to
boot. Gone are those grating moments of excessive twee; instead, our ears
are treated to extended passages of warm musical bliss, where modern
technology is gracefully deployed in the service of the pop song.
See, this is where Minekawa and her Japanese ilk have a real leg up on
the American indie pop crowd: Elephant 6'ers know a thing or two about
melody, but their deep block on all post- Kraftwerk musical developments
continues to disappoint. Those neo- hippies can be as narrow- minded as
your average beer- swilling mullethead: "Where are the fucking guitars?"
is always the dismal refrain. Artists like Minekawa and Cornelius realize
that a drum machine, when used correctly, has more soul than Ringo Starr
and Charlie Watts combined. It's the ideas that matter, not the
alleged "purity" of the delivery. And Takako Minekawa has musical ideas
to burn.
The fuel on Fun9 (pronounced "funk," mysteriously) is provided by
a breadth of influences that somehow blend into a singular sound. The
opener, "Gently Waves," showcases Minekawa's dreamy voice, multi- tracked
into a five- part Wilsonian symphony. "Plash" (one of the four Cornelius
collaborations) effectively combines a Brazilian acoustic guitar shuffle
with choppy beats. And "Fantastic Voyage" is one of three tracks featuring
the sampling artistry of DJ Me DJ You, featuring a great vocal riff
shamelessly lifted from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side."
Though all the melodies on Fun9 are strong, a few songs prominently
feature a more complex electronic ambiance. "Flash" (also featuring
contributions from Cornelius) shows that Minekawa listened carefully to
Oval's deconstruction of "International Velvet" on her remix album: the
distorted, distant sound of her vocal transmission undercuts the loping
Hawaiian feel of the background music to sublime effect. And "Fancy Work
Funk" features a trance- inducing Moog pattern that would do the German
electronic crowd proud. With or without her main squeeze, Minekawa has
got vision.
-Mark Richard-San