Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Perfume -- NIGHT FLIGHT




For today’s article, I decided to talk about “NIGHT FLIGHT” by Perfume. It’s certainly my favorite song from them, and I will explain why through its description very soon.

First, some general informations. “NIGHT FLIGHT” is an album track from Perfume’s third album "Triangle", released in July 2009. But its chorus was revealed two or three months earlier in a Pino Chocolate commercial, which generated quite hype in Perfume’s fandom. I remember that I was kind of new to Perfume at the time, so “NIGHT FLIGHT” was “THE THING” I looked for in those very long months until its original release (I remember even downloading a fake Vocaloid version of the song from YouTube to fill my need of listening to it. Those were, indeed, magic times). The song was later included in “Perfume Global Compilation ‘LOVE THE WORLD’”, released in September 2012.


Here we can see the original Pino commercial featuring the song “NIGHT FLIGHT” and Perfume’s members. It’s a very cool CM with the girls wearing some classy stewardess’s clothes.




And just for curiosity, here’s the Vocaloid version that I mentioned above. As the original chorus and the whole vibe of the song were revealed in the commercial, the author of this version just added the verses, the bridge and some synth melodies. The result was a cool and different version of this gem. And as I told, it was in heavy rotation on my play list until the full original version leaked one week prior to the album’s release.



Like every other Perfume song and Yasutaka Nakata (中田 ヤスタカ) production, “NIGHT FLIGHT” is an overproduced song with killer hooks. This Technopop party starts with some 8-bit blips before introducing the dated synth notes that will accompany us in this crazy video-game plane trip. Together with the synth notes, the electronic and funky bass line is dropped just to remember us how fun this trip is going to be. Then Perfume enters the scene with the “Make a night flight… Have a nice flight” hook. The verses come just in sequence and then you just need to enjoy this trip full of 8-bits noises, catchy synth notes, a funky bass line and Perfume’s fresh vocals, manipulated, of course, by the mastermind Yasutaka Nakata.



Two more things are interesting enough to mention in the article. “NIGHT FLIGHT’s” bridge is very cool because it resembles the sound made by a real plane before exploding in the amazing combination of the same synth notes used since the beginning of the song and the funkier-than-ever bass line. And the final segment of the song is also a combination of Perfume’s chopped vocals with a different synth melody playing along the amazing arrangement used through the song.


In general, “NIGHT FLIGHT” is a very retro song, almost taken from the 80s. Its arrangement is an explicit homage to YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) and video-game music. Indeed, I discovered YMO after reading some comparisons between “NIGHT FLIGHT” and their sound.

The choreography for the song is very interesting too, as the girls act like stewardesses doing some typical things that a stewardess always does. You can take a look in the next video.


The video introduced above is my favorite “NIGHT FLIGHT” live performance. It’s from Perfume’s “Disco! Disco! Disco!” live concert held at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in May, 2009 (Regrets, but that video has been taken down...the above is another video). Also, the version featured in this concert is slightly different from the one released in the album. We can presume that it was Nakata’s first version of the song.

“NIGHT FLIGHT” was written, composed and arranged by Yasutaka Nakata (from shibuya-key and electronic duo “capsule”). As for the "Triangle" album, it ranked No. 1 on the weekly Oricon charts, and was the #20 best-selling album of 2009, selling over 331,000 copies (source: generasia).

To finish the article, here's a photo of my own copy of the limited edition of "Triangle".


8 comments:

  1. Thanks Marcos V for this great post on Perfume's 「NIGHT FLIGHT」. Definitely one of the better tracks off the 『⊿』(トライアングル) album although 「DREAM FIGHTER」 and 「THE BEST THING」 aren't that bad either. Thanks for posting their performance from the “Disco! Disco! Disco!” live concert as well - they certainly can put on a great and rousing show!

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  2. Hi, JTM.

    Thanks for your comment.

    I remember people complaining a lot when "Triangle" was released. They were so dazzled with "GAME" that "Triangle" was treated as an weeker effort by the trio and Nakata, of course.

    I, in the other hand, liked Triangle even more then "GAME", and not because of the singles ("love the world", "Dream Fighter" and "One Room Disco"). The truth is I really enjoyed the new songs, like "NIGHT FLIGHT", "Zero Gravity", "I Still Love U" and "The Best Thing". The only flaw, in my opinion, is the hyper-processed vocals in some of those new tracks (Nakata was crazy with all his filters and auto-tune).

    We really can't talk about Perfume and ignore their lives, as they are simply great. "Disco! Disco! Disco!", although an old one, still is my favorite concert from them. Even though they rarely sing live, the girls are very entertaining, charismatic and, of course, great dancers.

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  3. Hi Marcos V,

    Nice to know that I'm not the only one who prefers "Triangle" over "GAME" (I enjoy both actually). As a whole, I think it has a stronger set of songs and more "umph". Now "JPN" is an album that I don't like much aside from a handful of tracks, but that's another story.

    I was already a fan of YMO before hearing "NIGHT FLIGHT", so that intro sent a huge grin to my face the moment it burst in. The song particularly reminds me of YMO's "Technopolis".

    Yes, the girls may not sing live much, but they are a joy to watch on stage and their choreography is really creative. I've watched a number of their concert videos and found them entertaining.

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  4. I never thought that any other Perfume song would replace "Polyrhythm"...until I heard "Night Flight" yesterday...4 times! My golly! I slapped myself on the head for not even knowing about this song though it had already been out for a few years, especially since I've been a big YMO fan from the old days. About as fine a tribute to the guys and old-style technopop that I've heard so far.

    Thanks for posting this, Marcos.

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    1. Hi J-Canuck.

      It's great to hear that you enjoyed "NIGHT FLIGHT". I never get tired of it, since it was released back in 2009. It's retro, classy, fun, fresh and always makes me smile.

      As I'm not going to write a new Perfume article very soon, you'll probably want to check out this other gem. It's "Laser Beam (Album-mix)", included in Perfume's "JPN" album. It's not as good as "NIGHT FLIGHT", but it's interesting as well. Here's the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJUgOuyORIo

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    2. Thanks for the link. I gotta say "Night Flight" is a fun song to listen to. Wouldn't it be nice if it caught on in the rest of the planet?

      Makes me wanna think about exploring Nakata's capsule some more.

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  5. Great to hear from you nikala.

    "Triangle" and "JPN" are my favorites Perfume's albums, if I had to rank. "JPN" is, in general, much more poppier than the other two, but I like it very much. My highlights are "Laser Beam (album-mix)", "GLITTER (album-mix)", "Kasuka na Kaori" and "575".

    I hope they release a new album this year. They will probably do, so let's wait.

    I couldn't agree more with you. "NIGHT FLIGHT" shares similarities with "Technopolis", which is great, because "Technopolis" is a great song, too. I remember watching a very good live version of it in a "Yoru no Hit Studio" episode. As I was a 90s child, and played a lot of "Sonic The Hedgehog" games, I could notice many influences from YMO's "Techonopolis" in the game's soundtrack.

    You probably know this performance, but if don't, here's the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOfGuz7OvbU

    Perfume's concerts are really amazing. I remember watching the "GAME Tour" for the first time. I was breathless. About singing live, they just do it for some ballads and more aidoru oriented songs.

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  6. Hahah, Yoyogi concert... I was so anxiously waiting for fancams to appear, but as we know, Japanese do not shoot fancams under any circumstances. They oblige the rules. And that was indeed the time when the whole NF hadn't been heard yet.

    Then it popped out in YouTube! Fancam from Yoyogi! How they dared to make that? I rushed to watch the video and the answer became clear. It was shot _outside_ the venue, so we heard very dark bass-dominated sound while we had an opportunity to watch how one guy sipped water from his bottle listening to music through the wall behind him...

    There are still no PV about NF but I've seen some really good edits where Pino CM and live footage have been cut together.

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