Let us shift tracks a bit.
To those who aren’t familiar with listening to works written by indie JP musicians back during 1990’s, there is a particular feeling to them that I personally think is worth commending, and given a spotlight for. Their topics are often unconventional, with great lyrical writing paired with a sometimes experimental song-writing philosophy.
Originally when I first heard her work, it reminded me heavily of Yoeko Kurahashi’s work. (Another JP Indie Musician who I HIGHLY recommend checking out for. Though she had long retired from song writing) Such tracks often have vocal work that is peculiar and unconventional. Such effects are difficult to put into words, but I find them to be interesting to listen, and provides an additional layer of emotional turbulence throughout their tracks.
Though some may be songs that talk about romance and youth, there’s a good chance that they will still have that particular music writing composition that makes them truly stand out from what we are often used to listening to during the modern era of music.
It did not make me feel like an old man, not quite a youthful teenager either, But whatever it may be, from the presentation to the performance, some may easily overlook her work as mere 90’s J-POP. I don’t feel that way about it.
Of course, like many of the music we often suggested, her work is likely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. The peculiar vocal work is something that some may shy away from, or even find annoying, and that is perfectly understandable. Though I personally found myself weirdly attracted to the vocal presentation of any of the tracks, really, much like I’ve said before, J-POP is still J-POP. Songs may come and go, and some tracks may sound like each other, and some other, having a bit more of an individuality. I mean, it really still just your usual suspects in terms of instrumentation. Bass, Guitar, Drums, Tambourines, maybe your occasional Piano or Ukuleles.
You could say that it’s respectable that she’s still remembering her roots and making the music she wants in 2021.
All in all, Ayano Koneko’s music is something that deserves a bit more spotlight than the following it has right now. It’s something that I believe should be appreciated more, and would hopefully give people some pleasant feelings as their messages get passed down through voice and sound.
An Acquired taste, really.
Yet, Palatable in all respects.
Her works are reminiscent of the 80s to 90s, from aesthetic choices such as set pieces, settings, outfit to even framing. It has that less refined camera work that a lot of the 80s songs have, the feeling that you can tell that there is someone behind the camera, manually holding it and moving it around ever so slightly to compensate for the shoot. But, imitating the old style isn’t all there is to this channel.
On the topic of videos, her music videos might have the style and camera work of an 80s MV, but the directorial work is that of a more modern take. Meaning, it has the grittiness of an 80s music video, but how the whole thing is shot, i.e. camera work and transition, makes it looks as if someone from our time time-travelled back 40 years to the past to make them.
To explain that, it is easier for one to see it for themselves, look at “Romansu Sengen”. The song sounds like something you can hear on a phonograph record from the 80s, it’s a bittersweet song about romance (for contextual sake). The video, from start to finish, tries to sell itself as a very long one, but with obvious transitions and cutting to tell us that it isn’t, which is kind of endearing when you see the people holding up the background color pallets for the video shoot. The camera work as well is selling the whole analog and manual movements, you can tell that there's someone running around with that setup instead of just having it on a dolly to follow the singer’s movement, even the zooms in shots look realistic and natural. So props to that. (and the reason I’m talking about this is definitely not because it reminded me the chapter in act-age where they shot a MV in a train station, bloody great manga that got cancelled because the author can’t keep his hands to himself, I really wanted to see where the story would go reee)
Enough ranting from me, let’s get back on track. The more modern element of the video comes from it’s transitions and cutting, the chorus part of the song, has a rather fun take on it. It has the camera follow the singer to a background color pallet that is there for transitioning from one place to another, instead of making a CGI solid color background in the frame, they opt for having a few staff member hold up an actual background for the transition to take place, and they show all that in the video, which makes it all the more endearing to watch, and when the singer reached the chorus, the cutting goes absolute unhinged, cutting at every syllable. Which gives the video all that more production quality, and shows to the viewer the effort and length they went to to make the music video.
Her videos are a great entry way to 80s music if you have never gotten into it before. In short, it's 80s music videos with a modern twist and not in 144p. Good entry points would be “Romansu Sengen” or “Home Alone”.