DÉ DÉ MOUSE & Milk Talk -- Beautiful Criminal

 

Over the past few years, I've been discovering a number of acts that have straddled the line between 1980s synthpop and Neo-City Pop such as Vantage, Milk Talk and DÉ DÉ MOUSE. Not surprisingly, some of them have collaborated to create their mood music for the evening. Last year, Milk Talk and Vantage got together to come up with "Million Miles Away", for instance.

The time between my discoveries of Milk Talk and DÉ DÉ MOUSE was a little over a year but I figured that if Milk Talk and Vantage could get together to make a song, then it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Q.i, Hair Kid and Daisuke Endo（遠藤大介）would eventually cooperate on a project of their own. And so, in September, we got the Milk Talk and DÉ DÉ MOUSE song "Beautiful Criminal" with Hair Kid working on words and music while Q.i took on the co-lyricist role and Endo was the co-composer.

"Beautiful Criminal" is a Vaporwave-y film noir soundscape that feels naturally nocturnal as all three performers and songwriters stumble their way through the dark alleys and streets of a foreboding Tokyo. Q.i's breathy and sultry voice is suitable for the atmosphere as she sings about what seems to be a detective searching for a suspicious mystery woman who may be transforming into something more for the private eye. I'd say that the song would have been ideal for a Michael Mann movie.