Review Summary: biteki-kei 格好いい sankaku circle square square pop magic
Enon Kawatani
owns the intersection between Japanese indie, Japanese celebrity and Japan-conscious Western consumerdom like few others. Who is he? Is he all that? Yes. Depends. My cursive experience of his main bands Gesu no Kiwami Otome and Indigo la End (+ side project Genie High, ft. Tricot’s Ikkyu), and his cursive involvement in the only season of Terrace House I successfully made it through have collectively convinced me that he is 1) talented 2) prolific and 3) a bit of a sleaze. Beyond this not unflattering outline, he’s never left much of an impression: his songs scan as undeservingly homogenous given their richly contoured arrangements, and there’s something about his delivery and ultralight production style that I’ve always found a tad too slippery-smooth, especially compared to the likes of Soutaisei Riron and Yorushika who take frictionless qualities in their stride. And yet, all told, these are personal gripes in the face of unmistakably solid craftsmanship that I’ve been waiting to fully appreciate. Perhaps, with the right impetus…
Ahoy there, new project Biteki Keikaku! Suddenly everything has changed. Biteki Keikaku will be instantly recognisable as a Kawatani project to anyone familiar with his traits and tropes, but there are discrete differences that - I was pleasantly surprised to realise - give it an entirely fresh appeal. Kawatani the vocalist is largely out of the frame here: for this project he assumes a producer-auteur role similar to the great Mondo Grosso, writing and arranging tracks for a guest cast of (chiefly) female vocalists. His twin knack for melodic sophistication and intricate arrangements prove a rich foundation for unashamedly syrupy Girl Pop; as per the glitzy-garish album artwork and project name (
Aesthetic Tactics), these songs are catchy and kitsch, yet capable of flashing a little class where appropriate.
There are inevitable hiccoughs: Kawatani’s flourishes of jazz and city pop may play off his collaborators’ saccharine stylings with a little more impact than his own debonaire form, yet it’s not all sighs and swoons from an audience perspective. The album’s third-quarter makes for a particularly choppy patch, with vocalist Moka Sato’s take on “Ten to Sen” (#7)’s funk-infused saunter marking the point where the project finally finds and crosses the line of too-much-sugar. The following "Dakara Love” (#8) is a little perfunctory in its motions of the Popular Single, while “Peanut Butter Secret” (#9)’s ill-advised foray into trap novelty sticks out like a sore thumb.
None of this is fatal because, unashamedly syrupy Japanese Girl Pop being the phenomenon it is, the record is an inimitable delight when it finds its mark. Relegate it to a Highlight Album, and it’ll come out grinning, and look no further than the early winner “Hitomi ni Suikomareteshimau” (#3) as to why. Perhaps the closest thing here to a song Kawatani himself might have sung over (so much so that I actually had to Google whether or not it had previously appeared on a Gesu… record), it’s a treat of a song that quite rightly picks no bones about foregrounding its breathlessly catchy titular hook beyond the confines of a balanced song structure. Meanwhile, “Denwa to Kyouryuu” (#4) dips into upbeat city pop for a shot of light-hearted fun ft. (uh) dinosaurs, “Mount Game” (#11) is a perky bop tailor-made for an era of J-pop still very much caught in the stranglehold of Yoasobi, and “KISS no Tabi gyutto gutto” (#10) takes the plunge into head-over-heels glitterballad territory and vindicates itself in full soppy glory. These tracks all beg for affection and playlistings and many, many replays. They are it.
But so what? Beyond a new and (arguably) improved lens to the Kawatani Effect, does any of this amount to a gamechanger, or even an overall knockout across the whole tracklist? Not really, although it is a relief to finally be able to jive with a Kawatani project, but(!) should this sophisticated take on some of the Oricon chart’s most commonplace pop titillations go any further, I’ll be first in line for more. Good pop has and will always be more about sparking inspiration than purporting reinvention; I can’t think of a better description for the relation Biteki Keikaku bears to Kawatani’s private empire.
