A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 3 Jul 2022 to 9 Jul 2022.

WILT_2022-27

1. Future World – Every Little Thing
2. Romanticが止まらない – C-C-B
3. 空想Kiss – C-C-B
4. Season – Every Little Thing
5. Acrid Avid Jam Shred – Aphex Twin
6. 夏祭り – Whiteberry
7. Face the change – Every Little Thing
8. Reason – Every Little Thing
9. Get Into A Groove – Every Little Thing
10. Rescue me – Every Little Thing

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2022-27

Notes

One of the genres I did not really delve into during my youth was the Japanese Pop (J-Pop) wave in the mid-nineties. By 1995, I had taken my plunge into alternative rock, and everything outside of the “weird chords”, melancholia, aggression, as well as despondent lyrics, was all deemed “too commercial for my ears”. This was also when the Singaporean airwaves were rampant with music of pop-idol groups from all over the world.

However, the group Every Little Thing always stood out for me as being slightly different, although back then I did not understand why. They had a pretty lead singer, and the music was quite electronica driven, and this this was enough for me to snub my nose at the music. However they also had a guitarist appearing in their promotional videos, and that always intrigued me.

Without the access to the Internet, streaming music, the commitment to purchase a CD, or the humility to seek the advice of someone outside my social circle because the snobbery was too high for my meager fifteen year-old self esteem, I never explored their discography. Till today.

I was decompressing on the previous Sunday night, wondering what I should put on while I relaxed my mind. I remember revisiting the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and that’s when the connection was made. Female-fronted group, three members in total, the groups were active about the same time period give or take five years. Coupled with the curiosity seeded all those years ago, I loaded the first album from their discography, and what greeted me was Future World.

With a more musical palate, the synthesizer arrangement was immediately engaging as much as it was accessible. But the real genius of the mix are trance elements and rock guitars sitting just under the main mix, making it more dance rock before dance rock became popular (cue The Killers and the wave of indie post-2003.) Coupled with a guitar divebombs before launching into each chorus, Future World truly came from the future.

Another thing that remains consistent in my choice of Every Little Thing’s curation in this week’s playlist, is that there’s some element of dance music, synthesizers, or guitar virtuosity that I really enjoyed.

For Face the change it would be the addictive guitar counter-melody that comes on after every line in the chorus, for Season it would be brilliant interpolation of Toto’s Africa in the introduction, as well as for its kickass synth and guitar solos.

I had to stop listening to ELT’s discography after their fourth album, because by then, synthesizer player Mitsuru Igarashi would have left and their music departed from the synthesizer and electronica elements that they would have been known for. Perhaps I will explore more of their discography from 4 Force onwards.

In my journey last week, I also came across C-C-B, an all-boy Japanese pop/idol group active from 1982–1989, as well as Whiteberry, an all-girl pop/rock band active from 1994–2004. The tracks I selected for C-C-B also feature some slammin’ slap basslines.

Aphex Twin also makes a feature this week. Acrid Avid Jam Shred came about from an album recommendation, and some very amazing beats were introduced back in 1995, and holds up amazingly well some 27 years later. These beats sound like they could have been written today.

The playlist ends on a selection of songs from ELT’s 2000 album eternity, which was the final album featuring Igarashi. This particular curation feature some incredibly strong and anthemic melodies, and it just feels extremely fresh even though these songs were written more than twenty years go. Kaori Mochida and Ichiro Ito have been delivering outstanding performances over their first three albums, and it feels like they’ve done an incredible send-off to Igarashi with their third album.