Suzuki Ami – One (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)
August 13, 2008 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
“A 10th Year Anniversary CD single and a refreshing collaboration with capsule’s Nakata Yasutaka”
ARTIST: Suzuki Ami
CD SINGLE: ONE
LABEL: avex trax
CATALOG #: AVCD-31435
DURATION: 21:49
RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2008
- ONE
- A token of love
- ONE (instrumental)
- A token of love (FM88 mix)
DVD: Region 2, 4:3, Duration: 5:23
- ONE (Music Video)
I admit that I was a bit sad that the “Joins” project featuring Suzuki Ami and various music artists and producers would end with her “DOLCE” album but with the announcement of a CD single (her 28th) to commemorate her 10th Anniversary, I admit that I was quite curious to see which direction her music would go.
Since 2005, Suzuki has been mostly doing a lot of collaborations for her “Joins” musical projects and sure enough, her latest CD single “ONE” is not officially a “Joins” project but yet features another collaboration with another team up with capsule’s Nakata Yasutaka.
In true Nakata fashion both tracks “ONE” and “A token of love” are given his musical spin which is more or less electronic dance music featuring vocals going through a vocoder.
Typically I have a disdain towards vocals where the vocoder is used too much. I don’t like the robotic voices or overwarped vocals that I hear on some electronic dance music but I have to admit that for “ONE”, it seems to work well.
As for the coupling song, “A token of love”, the track is another upbeat digital song that has the blips and beeps of a monosynth and even almost a sense of old school Depeche Mode style of vibe and has a mild vocoder style but not as pronounced as in “ONE”.
The third track is an instrumental version of “ONE” and the fourth track is an “FM88 mix” of “A token of love” which sounds totally different from the original and another synth-based interpretation of the song. I’m curious if “FM88″ is a reference to 1988 because the synth music has an old school feel to it.
The DVD features the music video for “ONE” and features Suzuki Ami dancing in an area with many illuminating poles. And some special, groovy effects featuring Suzuki Ami.
If anything, similar to her last music video “Potential Breakup Song”, we are seeing a more sexier version of Suzuki Ami’s persona come out and since this a ten-year anniversary CD single, I just think back to “love the island” and now and just know how much she has grown from her early sugary teen image to now, in her late 20′s and how she has become a beautiful, sultry performer.
The CD insert is strictly a bi-fold. Similar to Suzuki’s last packaging, the main photo for the CD is on the reverse side.
For her tenth CD single, I was hoping for somewhat a maxi-CD single possibly remixing her past songs (of course, from avex and not her Sony years) but nevertheless, her collaboration with Nakata Yasutaka is always refreshingly welcomed.
Even though the “Joins” project is officially over, I do enjoy these collaborations and to see different sides to her music. But as always, I look forward Suzuki Ami’s upcoming releases and moreso to see what direction her music will go if she is not collaborating with any major names.
So, “ONE” is another solid CD single from Suzuki Ami. A cool, fresh, upbeat collaboration with Nakata Yasutaka and a CD single worth checking out!
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MEG – OK (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)
October 3, 2007 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
Another cool collaboration between MEG and capsule’s Yasutaka Nakata! First two vocal tracks are very good although the remix was average at best.
ARTIST: MEG
CD SINGLE: OK
LABEL: Universal J
CATALOG #: UPCH-5500
DURATION: 16:02
RELEASE DATE: October 3, 2007
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- OK
- I’m in LOVE
- OK (sugiurumn remix)
“OK” marks the tenth single for Universal J pop artist MEG and her second single collaboration with capsule producer Yasutaka Nakata. We have seen quite a bit of changes with MEG. From starting out with the lower case name, to working with Yasuyuki Okamura and then MEG creating her own fashion brand “cheryl”.
If anything, MEG definitely needed new synergy with her music and working with the producer has definitely helped. “OK” features a catchy pop track from the vocalist and if anything, the music is definitely consistent with Nakata’s previous work.
The coupling track “I’m in LOVE” features a collaboration with Akinori Imai and an arrangement by Hayato Tanaka. The track is pretty cool but it may be a bit too much auto-tune or vocoder in the vocals for some.
The third track features a beat-driven “Sugiurumn remix” by MEG. The synth-driven remix was OK but nothing that really stood out for me and made me want to listen to it again.
The CD single comes with a bi-fold with lyrics for both tracks.
Overall, “OK” is a pretty good single with two upbeat, catchy pop tracks. But we will see if listener’s are open to her collaboration with Yasutaka Tanaka in future releases.
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