P-Model -- Ronri Kuugun（論理空軍）

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from Ratrepane

 

Compared to Yellow Magic Orchestra and PSY-S, I don't know nearly as much about the technopop group P-Model and up to now, though I've known Susumu Hirasawa（平沢進）and band for their 1980s material, they have gone above and beyond. The latest single from their discography that I've covered is the quirky and infectious "2D or not 2D" from 1992.

Well, recently I've found a P-Model song titled "Ronri Kuugun" (Logic Airforce) which begins their 12th studio album, "Ongaku Sangyō Haikibutsu〜P-MODEL OR DIE"（音楽産業廃棄物...Music Industrial Wastes: P-Model or Die）, released in September 1999. Hirasawa was behind the words and music for this ominously-sounding technopop tribute anthem to a World War II movie soundtrack, complete with a cool CG video. According to Hirasawa himself, the planes that are "piloted" by the band members are German Stukas, and supposedly they are on their way to bomb a record company (not sure if P-Model was having some issues with their management at the time). 

As the planes go off to war, from what has been shown in English on "Lyrics Translate", "Ronri Kuugun" is as much about what's going on in the mind as it is in battle. What I especially like is Hirasawa's delivery of those lyrics as if he's saluting the boys going off in their fighters and bombers. I can imagine the rain and wind being flung into the singer's face as he's singing. As a PS, the song was notable enough to get its own meme status.