Review Summary: The shape of pop to come?

While 2019 hasn’t exactly been lacking in subversion and surprise, I don’t think anything I've heard this year has landed as squarely in the what the fuck did I just hear pile as 3776’s latest, Saijiki. There’s no time to waste on introductions here, as the audacity of its premise speaks for itself: this is a 73-minute art pop monolith that dissects more or less the full spectrum of pop over a single piece of music. The first few seconds lay out out a spoken word track consisting of vocalist Chiyono Ide counting off an entire year's worth of days, played over the course of the whole album and overlaid with more contortions of tones and styles than you’ll have the time or patience to keep track of. Some of it sounds like the work of an insane genius rerouting impossible oppositions into a new, unlikely synergy, some of it sounds like a bored child making a dysfunctional sound collage to distract themselves from parental neglect; more often than not, both impressions are concurrent. Terming this glitch pop doesn’t come close to summarising the level of turbulence that flow both within and between tracks. Some will find this album completely unlistenable, others will be intrigued by its wealth of creative ideas, and still others will possibly consider it the Holy Grail of contemporary pop. The individual loops on show here are without fail straightforward and digestible, but the rate at which the album phases them in and out and plays multiple layers (especially vocal tracks) off against each other carries such a deep-running sense of structural instability that the way the it sustains itself across such an intimidating runtime is nothing short of breathtaking.

This is all the more impressive for the fact that 3776 is essentially the two-handed project of Chiyono and producer/arranger Akira Ishida, but such gargantuan undertakings from groups of small personnel are hardly without precedent. Just as Kashiwa Daisuke’s landmark track Stella astounded listeners in how it sustained a diverse sequence of ideas across a staggeringly cohesive 35-minute runtime, Saijiki feels like an impossible triumph that staves off casual listeners just as much as it rewards focus and attention. Despite being split into individual tracks, it is clearly meant to be heard as a single piece as the divisions between tracks are fairly trite compared to the continuity that runs throughout its span (the album might as well have mixed into a single track, named after its central vocal loop, and left at that). This invokes comparisons with Fishmans’ legendary effort Long Season, which was performed as an album-long song but broken down into movements for ease of access. However, whereas Fishmans orientated their piece around a small handful of cyclical motifs, 3776 opt for a gradual overload of loops that are introduced, played almost to the point of burnout and then abandoned, never to be repeated. Some of these ideas are naturally more engaging than the others: the run of tracks seven through nine stands out as a particularly enjoyable sequence, cover Judy and Mary-esque rockabilly, synthed-up showtune swagger and glitchy R&B respectively. However, the rate at which loops are expanded, exchanged and developed is roughly as engaging at any given point as at any other.

Beyond its formal elements, Saijiki feels very much like a statement album, a recycling belt of endless reinvention undercut by the most asinine current of repetition in its core loop, as though to turn the principle of pop songwriting inside out and showcase it in its most inverted form. As such, its central genius can perhaps be traced to the way it begs the question how is this supposed to be experienced? without ever straying from an aesthetic and melodic palette that feels entirely and appropriately pop. It seems to trade off the sugary appeal of pop’s trademark instant gratification for something far trickier to pin down. Whether this lands it as an obsessive deconstruction of the genre or an intrepid rewriting of its blueprint (or both) is somewhat up in the air, but it also opens the door on the core issue here: Saijiki is easy to appreciate as a novelty experiment or as an immersive sensory overload, but neither of these are particularly well disposed to listener satisfaction beyond the course of its playtime. It’s as though the lingering concept of the album, along with jumbled recollection of its scope and adventurousness, stands in for traditional replay value.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, but it’s also a shame that some of the incredibly catchy sections here are given little chance to shine in and of themselves, beyond their scope within the album’s wider arc. Many parts of Saijiki are momentarily engaging and highly enjoyable, but are swiftly churned up in the album’s unassailable resolve to reinvent itself, which leads to a growing sense that its greatest qualities are not specifically musical. Rather, it’s manner in which the vocabulary of pop becomes a vehicle for the project’s ingenuity and technical vision that steals the show; this is an album that triumphs in its craft and genre subversion but very rarely allows itself to succeed on purely musical terms. 3776 is executed incredibly proficiently on these terms, but they will likely remain a significant drawback for many listeners all the same. Not to skirt over the (literal) oceans of difference between the two projects, but consider how 100 gecs deconstructed pop aesthetics this year in an equally unhinged manner by accentuating genre tropes typically linked to ease of consumption to an uncomfortably intense level. 3776 deserve a lot of credit for pushing in the opposite direction, but Saijiki’s dubious replay value is still a little questionable.

In any case, Saijiki feels like an intelligent and worthwhile undertaking in a climate more widely fixated on challenging and subverting pop convention. It’s particularly satisfying to see something like this come from a group on the edge of the Japanese idol scene; idol, for those unfamiliar, is essentially a hybrid medium that affords every image-, aesthetic-, dance- and personality-based epimusical quality that exists within familiar pop parity of importance, all framed within its specific set of norms and conventions; it dissolves the boundaries between pop culture and pop music, if you will. It’s not as though the contemporary scene has had a shortage of projects that rub against the boundaries of style and convention (Maison Book Girl, . . . . . . . . . and Oomori Seiko’s ZOC group all stand out for their respective quirks), but it’s still particularly satisfying to see an idol project tear up the rulebook this thoroughly. Kudos to Akira and Chiyono; Saijiki is a preposterous undertaking that would never have seemed like a worthwhile or even necessarily feasible idea if she hadn’t shot for it, and you can take it or leave it on those terms. Part of me never wants to hear this album again; part of me doesn’t want to listen to anything else.



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user ratings (71)
3.7
great

Comments:Add a Comment 
JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
September 13th 2019


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.3

Very hard to pick a rating for this, feels like giving it a score isn't really the point.



Get out there and find out why various RYM bois are calling this AOTY material (currently sitting at #4 over there): https://youtu.be/Bv-V9tD8gdc

luci
September 13th 2019


12844 Comments


this was a dense, polyphonic, quirky snooze. creativity on display but I don't want to hear it again

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
September 13th 2019


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.3

V much get this reaction luci, think this is a very worthwhile listen but not sure how much I'll come back to it. Am more glad to have heard this than a decent share of 2019 albums though...

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
September 13th 2019


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.3

[void comment]

VaxXi
September 14th 2019


4418 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

This album is definitely an experience

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
September 14th 2019


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.3

That's the spirit

GhandhiLion
September 14th 2019


17677 Comments


This one is a nice surprise.

dimsim3478
September 14th 2019


8987 Comments


3776 is essentially the solo project of vocalist/programmer Chiyono Ide, but such gargantuan undertakings from individual musicians are hardly without precedent.

um Akira Ishida (3776's producer) writes all the music and lyrics and does all the instrumentation

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
September 14th 2019


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.3

Amended! My bad - worked from RYM credits, which only mentioned Chiyono as active

dimsim3478
September 14th 2019


8987 Comments


well the RYM credits are technically correct because producers arent generally counted as "members" of idol groups. Ishida is mentioned in the RYM bio, tho

in case you need more fact checking resources for future reviews, ja.wikipedia.org is a good go-to (copious info on 3776 available there). btw the ototoy 24-bit FLAC of this album (which is up on JPS) has a PDF booklet in it with credits.

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
September 14th 2019


62343 Comments

Album Rating: 4.3

Noted, cheers. My HD is running a little short of space so am avoiding FLACs for now, but this is tempting enough to make me reconsider for this

Frippertronics
Emeritus
September 16th 2019


19569 Comments

Album Rating: 4.1

man what am i listening to and is this available on vinyl like the other records this group did? It's not even on Discogs

dimsim3478
September 16th 2019


8987 Comments


discogs isnt a perfect database, especially when it comes to japanese stuff

the album is maybe kinda comin to vinyl for japan's "record day" on november 3 https://レコードの日.jp/items/items-4490 almost all of their past vinyl releases were for either record day or record store day

in case y'all didnt know, all of the songs from this album were previously released in the form of a four-part series over the past few years. then they were reworked/re-recorded for this album. the tracklist for the record day vinyl release "3776 calendar" includes all of the songs from that series in the order in which they appear on this album, but they're listed by their original titles (the titles used for the series releases, not the titles used on this album). this leads me to believe that the "3776 calendar" vinyl album will include the original versions of the songs, not the versions recorded for this album.

also if you've seen the cd/digital booklet for this album, it's presented as a calendar, so thats probs where the title "3776 calendar" comes from. maybe the layout of the vinyl packaging will be modeled after a calendar too

Frippertronics
Emeritus
September 16th 2019


19569 Comments

Album Rating: 4.1

oh cool, if it happens i'll try and get it imported afterward

AnimalsAsSummit
September 16th 2019


6180 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I knew there was a good chance this was going start off with silence/ noises and a voice and I was 100%

right.



Update: First track is totally awesome

AnimalsAsSummit
September 16th 2019


6180 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Already a hard 4.5 guys I am loving this

AnimalsAsSummit
September 16th 2019


6180 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Ok finished the album and its a 5

anat
Contributing Reviewer
September 16th 2019


5830 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

I'm glad this is in Japanese, I have a feeling it'd get very grating if not torturous to hear that counting in English. I'm feeling a similar way to how I felt the first time I heard Long Season so should be a high floor

DoofDoof
September 16th 2019


15875 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Long Season meets Velocity: Design: Comfort meets last year's Melody's Echo Chamber sorta feel



The more I'm listening the more I'm liking...

DoofDoof
September 16th 2019


15875 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

very rare I say these words...



the crazier and/or busier this gets the better it gets



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