GO!GO!7188 – アンテナ

Fans of the Japanese rock band GO!GO!7188 (myself included) are a lucky bunch. This prolific power trio has been releasing material every year since their debut in 2000 – in total, that’s an impressive fifteen singles, seven original studio albums, three live albums, a handful of DVDs, two cover albums and a Best-Of. And that’s not even counting the side-projects (yes, they’ve even had time for a few of those). アンテナ (ANTENNA) is their latest studio offering, but after nine years of constant recording, touring, and generally rocking out, is the quantity of material finally starting to outweigh the quality?

The answer, fortunately, is no.

ANTENNA rocks and rolls down much the same path as its most recent pop-oriented predecessors – 2006’s PARADE and 2007’s 569 – which, depending on your musical tastes, can be seen as either another admirable example of the band bowing to no-one’s musical desires but their own or, conversely, another incredibly disappointing release worthy of a very epic facepalm. And maybe a small groan. But it’s not simply a case of this being more of the same – on the surface, it’s musically familiar but there are definite differences… and they are all for the better.

While it can be argued that the songwriting may have plateaued, their (hopefully momentary) lapse in musical experimentation seems to have been replaced with a newfound willingness to expand their sound in the studio. GO!GO!7188 have, at heart, always been a live band (and a killer one at that) – the simple arrangements heard on their records are easily reproduced on stage without the help of additional musicians (or worse, a backing track). On ANTENNA, however, the first thing to listen out for is the eerily fuller sound – the band has always employed more than one guitar in the studio but it’s never been as apparent as it is here. At first, something doesn’t sound quite right, and the presence of the additional guitars recalls the recordings of lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Yumi (Yuu) Nakashima’s side-band, チリヌルヲワカ (CHIRINURUWOWAKA). But that’s largely where such comparisons end. From the moment Akko and Turkey thunder in on the bass and drums with their impossibly essential contributions, you’re left with no doubt that this is, unmistakably, GO!GO!7188.

Another thing that sets ANTENNA apart from the band’s most recent original studio outings is something that I have been personally longing for ever since PARADE’s pop-glazed sheen left my rock sensibilities yawning – a return to the raw, energetic production that so generously graced their earlier albums. Turkey and Akko’s formidable rhythm section is no longer sonically castrated, and even though ANTENNA doesn’t quite offer a complete reproduction of their classic sound, it certainly takes a welcome step back in the right direction.

The 13 songs themselves can best be described as, well, a musically inconsistent collection of thematically obtuse odds and ends as seemingly incomprehensible and random as the album’s colourfully collaged cover art. This is not a bad thing. Anxious opener 地球最後の日 (Chikyuu Saigo no Hi) sets a strangely urgent tone and is followed-up firstly by the frantic tempo-drifting wails of ちんとんしゃん (Chintonshan) and then by the title track – one of the album’s best tunes – which ardently demonstrates that the band hasn’t lost their knack for versatile songwriting. ふたしかたしか (Futashika Tashika), the second single from the album, sits a third of the way through it and winds on for a slight over 7 minutes, thanks to a mostly uneventful 3 minute and 20 second instrumental outro. Despite fitting the song’s theme of indecisiveness (and it does make for a calming interlude, in a hypnotic way), the lack of anything really worth listening out for doesn’t help its chances when it comes to deciding whether or not to skip ahead to the next track. If anything, it will give Red Hot Chili Peppers fans some time to wonder if they really were hearing Dani California in the song’s main riff.

Futashika Tashika

飛び跳ねマーチ (Tobihane MARCH) quickly snaps the listener out of Futashika Tashika’s wandering daze with a playful marching band number featuring Yuu and Akko on alternating vocal duties during the verses. This is followed by the remarkably danceable 食わずギライ (KuwazuGIRAI) which seems to be directly inspired by their recent cover of ギンギラギンにさりげなく (GINGIRAGIN ni Sariganaku) from last year’s highly-recommended (though criminally short) covers album, 虎の穴2 (Tora no Ana 2). After the cute but nonetheless lukewarm 片思いファイター (Kataomoi FIGHTER) – the album’s first single and ending theme for the anime series イタズラなKiss (Itazura na Kiss) – another by-product of Tora no Ana 2 can be heard in the form of on the まゆ毛 ～切りすぎて～ (on the Mayuge ~Kirisugite~) which marks GO!GO!’s first foray proper into the world of metal. Yes, that’s right, metal. The double-kick pedal used in their KISS-inspired cover of 飾りじゃないのよ涙は(Kazari Janai no yo Namida wa) obviously struck a chord with the band as it’s been rolled out here again to wonderfully headbanging effect. Sure, it sticks out like a sore thumb from everything else on ANTENNA (and in their back catalogue, for that matter) but the vocals (and Turkey’s manic screams) help to ensure that despite the uncharacteristic turn of genre, it’s still very much a GO!GO!7188 song and, arguably, the highlight of the album.

Afterwards, it’s back to business as usual again with コミュニケーションギャップ (COMMUNICATION GAP), one of those songs that sounds like it’s being sung completely off-key the first time around, but that, after subsequent spins, has you questioning how it could ever sound any other way. 満天の星　春の庭 (Manten no Hoshi Haru no Niwa) slows things down a bit with a beautifully evocative ballad before diving into ハモリエヴリデイ (HARMORNY EVERYDAY) which hammers out a quirky melody that sounds like a rock song written for kindergarteners. The album then races to its sing-along conclusion with 雨の日だけの恋 (Ame no Hi Dake no Koi), an upbeat garage rocker penned and sung (mostly) by none other than Turkey himself. Having only been allowed one song per cover album plus the odd b-side in the past to properly showcase his vocal talents (or lack thereof), the poor fellow has had to wait until this – album number seven – to finally have his day… and luckily for him (and us), he didn’t do such a bad job of it.

Admittedly, after I heard ANTENNA for the first time, I was convinced that it would also be my last. In all fairness, if GO!GO!7188 weren’t one of my favourite bands, I probably would never have given it a second chance, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to sit here now, and write with any trace of sincerity, that I love it. Because I do. Akko’s harmonies are as potent as ever. Turkey’s powerhouse drumming is, once again, audible as the fearsome beast that it is. Yuu has remembered how to rock (and solo every now and then) on her guitar. Once I got over the fact that it wasn’t, as much as I previously wanted it to be, the second coming of their 2003 psych-pop rock masterpiece, 鬣 (Tategami), it was much easier to listen to and subsequently appreciate ANTENNA for what it was – GO!GO!7188’s best album since 2004’s 竜舌蘭 (Ryuuzetsuran).

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Tracklist
アンテナ (ANTENNA)
BMG Japan, 02/04/09

01. 地球最後の日 (Chikyuu Saigo no Hi · The Earth’s Last Day)
02. ちんとんしゃん (Chintonshan)
03. アンテナ (ANTENNA)
04. ふたしかたしか (Futashika Tashika · Uncertain Certain)
05. 飛び跳ねマーチ (Tobihane MARCH · Hopping March)
06. 食わずギライ (KuwazuGIRAI · Food Aversion)
07. 片思いファイター (Kataomoi FIGHTER · Unrequited Love Fighter)
08. on the まゆ毛 ～切りすぎて～ (on the Mayuge ~Kirisugite~ · on the Eyebrows ~Overcut Hair~)
09. コミュニケーションギャップ (COMMUNICATION GAP)
10. 満天の星　春の庭 (Manten no Hoshi Haru no Niwa · The Whole Sky’s Stars, Spring’s Garden)
11. ハモリエヴリデイ (HARMONY EVERYDAY)
12. 雨の日だけの恋 (Ame no Hi Dake no Koi · Rainy Day Only Love)

Band

L-R:
ターキー (TURKEY)* – Drums, Vocals
中島優美 (Nakashima Yumi)** – Vocals, Guitar
野間亜紀子 / ノマ アキコ (Noma Akiko)*** – Bass, Vocals

* Real name: 細川貴之(Hosokawa Takayuki)
** Nickname/solo alias: ゆう (Yuu)
*** Nickname: アッコ (Akko); Maiden name/solo alias: 浜田亜紀子 (Hamada Akiko)

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GO!GO!7188 – Official Website
GO!GO!7188 – MySpace