It was fast but access (Daisuke Asakura [浅倉大介] and
Hiroyuki Takami [貴水博之]) became one of my favorite acts lately. Their earlier upbeat/synth-driven
songs are like candy to my ears, so I decided that it was about time to write
something about them.
“DRASTIC MERMAID” is probably my favorite song
by the duo. It’s a very upbeat summer tune with some addictive synth touches. I
really like how the synth riffs introduced right at the beginning connects well with
the melody of the verses. Other than that, it’s a rather simple song with
little variation. The ending, when the instrumental takes place and the synth riffs are intercalated with the guitar until the fade is very nice too. It could go on
like that for a while.
“DRASTIC MERMAID” is the first part of access’s
so called “Mermaid Trilogy”, while “SCANDALOUS BLUE” and “TEAR’S LIBERATION”
are parts two and three, respectively. As for “SCANDALOUS BLUE”, it has a rather dramatic
melody that combines well with the lyrics and the video. And the chorus of “TEAR’S
LIBERATION” is very catchy. I always find myself humming to it. Listen to them below.
About the story, it’s very simple, as you could
see in the videos (unfortunately the PVs have been taken down). In “DRASTIC MERMAID”, Hiro meets a mermaid boy and fall in
love with him. The story continues in “SCANDALOUS BLUE”, which is all about
Hiro’s worries and doubts about this “scandalous” romance. The third and final
part, “TEAR’S LIBERATION”, is nothing more than Hiro discovering that the
mermaid boy is just an illusion of his mind, and that his true love is Daisuke,
his band mate. So yeah, this trilogy is full of homosexual fan service because,
apparently, the majority of access’s fan base was made of teenage girls that
loved this kind of thing.
And here’s a nice live version of “DRASTIC
MERMAID” and “TEAR’S LIBERATION” from 2012. The duo always works on new live
arrangements for their older songs, which is very nice.
The
three singles reached the #3 spot on the Oricon charts by the time they were
released. “DRASTIC MERMAID” sold more than 284,300 copies, while “SCANDALOUS
BLUE” sold more than 234,300 copies. As for “TEAR’S LIBERATION”, it sold more
than 236,900 copies (source of these numbers: http://desktop2ch.tv/techno/1146874719/302). They were included in the compilation “AXS
SINGLE TRACKS”, released in January 1995. The three songs were written,
composed and arranged by access and Akio Inoue (井上秋緒).
And here's some pictures of my own copy of "AXS SINGLE TRACKS". It's a very nice compilation.
Thanks, Marcos for introducing me to Access. Their music kinda takes me back to TM Network and TM Revolution. That synth sound back in the early to mid 90s is pretty darn nostalgic for me.:)
ReplyDeleteAs for the guy-on-guy thing, I have a female friend of mine who was a big fan of the genre when it came to manga. She thought she could keep it secret, but my friend and I gave her the fright of her life when we caught her in the section that specialized in the genre in a Tokyo manga shop one time.
We can say that Daisuke Asakura was TK's pupil as he played with TM Network sometime between the late 80s and early 90s. And he's also the guy behind TM Revolution's career. They started working together when access disbanded around late 94/early 95 and Daisuke needed a new male singer for his collaboration releases at the time. Their first time together resulted in "BLACK OR WHITE?", a song that I like very much.
DeleteThat synth sound was really cool. It's very dated nowadays, but very charming to my personal standards. access's 90s songs were all like that, even kind of repetitive sometimes. I also like their debut single, "VIRGIN EMOTION", a lot.
Poor girl, your friend must have been really embarrassed with the situation. But access's market team was targeting girls like her, who enjoy the yaoi genre of manga. A Brazilian female friend of mine found it very disturbing, both the "Mermaid Trilogy" and the female fans love for the thing. Cultural differences are very captivating.