Karia Nomoto
Chocola ni muchuu/Tsuki no mukou no sekai

Yasuharu Konishi, this pivotal and emblematic figure of Japanese music over the last thirty years. In the early '80s, he founded with his schoolmate Keitaro Takanami the Pizzicato Five, and within a decade, they became so important, influential, and unclassifiable that critics had to invent a term to define their genre: Shibuya kei, which means "Shibuya style," the musical style of Tokyo's most fashionable and cosmopolitan district, where in the '90s, the world's top DJs and musical aesthetes came together to share their ideas on the resurrection and renewal of mid-20th-century music, revived and completely reinvented by Konishi (who by then was left alone after his partner's bye-bye in '94). The idea is very simple: take the best of what pop, soul, and rock'n'roll had to offer from the '50s, '60s, and '70s and give it a sense that's post-modern and innovative at the same time, creating the most phantasmagoric musical melting pot imaginable. Yasuharu Konishi succeeded, and in the 1999 album The Fifth Release from Matador, he performed the miraculous synthesis of all that light music of the 20th century had been since Gershwin. However, in 2001 the Pizzicato Five experience ended, vocalist Maki Nomiya left for her solo career, and Konishi remained at the helm of ********* records (written like that, read as Readymade Records). The era of the protégés began, and Konishi excelled in choosing them, very well indeed.

Karia Nomoto is one of the various maidens of ********* records. As it was with Serge Gainsbourg with Jane Birkin, here Yasuharu Konishi creates Karly, a character halfway between the nymph (a genre already widely experimented with that led to great results with the young Kahimi Karie) and the career woman, a paradox that nonetheless holds together. The Japanese, so attached to the image, are the first to demand that there be substance behind the facade, and voilà, Karly delivers a series of good singles, EPs, and albums all crafted under the perfectionist guidance of master Konishi; among these, Chocola ni muchuu/Tsuki no mukou no sekai is one of the most successful episodes. It is a double a-side single containing the two themes, respectively the opening and the ending, of the magical girl anime Sugar Sugar Rune, based on a manga by Moyoco Anno (which means the wife of Hideaki Anno, yes, the one from Neon Genesis Evangelion). Divided between vintage Pierre Cardin dresses and strict suits softened by scarves, Karia Nomoto sings two joyful songs with lyrics by Anno and music, çà va sans dire, by Konishi: they are exquisite examples of the best recovery of nouvelle vague aesthetics, references for how to write a happy pop song and a melancholic pop song. Simple, dreamy, and carefree tracks played with the orchestra in great form, celeste included, not silly little tunes as titillating as they are silly (Alizée, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, ...). Impeccable tracks from the attack to the sing-along finale, hummed in the first song and whistled in the second. Moreover, the cover is splendid, with its Godard-like taste, the titles translated into French Chocola à la folie! and Ailleurs vers la lune!, and Anno's illustrations that make it look like a page from a vintage issue of Harper's Bazaar. The package is perfect.

It is clear that Karly, on her own, is just any vocalist, and that Yasuharu Konishi is the demiurge, both in the musical sense and as a talent scout, given that since the 2000s, his protégé Yasutaka Nakata has only followed in the master's footsteps by creating Perfume, Ami Suzuki, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and the other girls of his harem. But it doesn't matter whether the artist is Karly or Konishi or Anno or whoever: the final result is a work of great quality created by a team of artists, infinitely more listenable over time compared to 90% of pop stars both in the East and the West. It's called thoughtful music, not spontaneous music, and it will remain enjoyable over time just as the albums of the Pizzicato Five have remained enjoyable over time. It's only graceful pop, but doing it so well is both rare and difficult.