Review Summary: A creative blend of Bubblegum-y J-Pop and 90s R&B, This 3rd LP is a relaxing getaway that show's the talents of both the vocalists and the production staff to its near fullest
I'm not huge into J-Pop by any means, my experiences with Japanese music aside from the odd song here and there go from Yuya Uchida's Flower Travellin' Band to Hikaru Utada. In terms of recent artists I've not been following too much in the realm of J-Pop but somehow I got introduced to this artist, chelmico, through the opening song of an animated television show called Eizouken and discovered their LPs. So I decided to do a brief review of their most recent release, FISHING, which I think is a wonderful blend of bubblegum pop, 90s R&B and hip-hop that grooves mostly consistently through its 40 minute run-time.
The duo of Rachel Watashiga and Mamiko Suzuki, from their love of Japanese hip-hop groups like RIP SLYME, make some very impressive head-bopping tunes with producers like Esme Mori on their first record with Warner Bros. Japan that I've definitely been grooving to consistently. Their blend of bubblegum electro-pop and groovy R&B show well on tracks like Sokenbichi No Rap and Himitsu, which definitely give a broad range of jazz and blues influences in the production, and get into some weird more surf elements in tracks like Navy Love and more indie rock infleunces from tracks like Beer Bear and 12:37. Aside from the interlude and a few tracks like Beer Bear and Switch which seem a bit corny and typical J-Pop in some respects, the album plays around with a great variety of styles which keep the songs fresh and inspired and never really boring with some great sessional players keeping the breaks interesting. Esme Mori especially deserves credit for the amazing production work on a lot of the stand-outs on this album.
Overall, its definitely a standout J-Pop record that goes above and beyond a lot of the typical albums releases in Eastern Pop at the moment blending jazz, R&B, 2000s Hip-Hop and more into a very signature style that really makes me enthusiastic about this group's future output. While it's not the preferred album of chelmico fans I still enjoyed it very much and think it's definitely worth a listen!
