“Pizza
and Cigarettes, Beats and Idols”: that’s quite a strange motto for an aidoru
unit, if you ask me. However, BPM15Q, an unit comprised of ex-BiS member Ichigo
Rinahamu (苺りなはむ) and DJ
nicamoq, is happily giving this concept some interesting life.
From
what I heard so far, the duo records a mishmash of weird electronic aidoru
music with some traditional flourishes (sometimes Japanese-inspired, sometimes
Chinese-inspired). It’s not something new, even for indie aidoru standards, but
I liked the result even more than I thought I would.
Apparently,
the “Hakuchuumu / HANNARI” single was released in September 2015, but “Hakuchuumu’s”
video was only uploaded in 2016. Even if the song per se is quite engaging, it
was nice to finally see the duo in a proper music video.
I
must admit, though, that was quite shocking to see cute aidoru singers, even if
they’re just kinda mocking the whole genre, holding and smoking real
cigarettes. Maybe it’s their take on punk attitude.
The b-side of the
single is called “HANNARI”, and it’s equally great. I wasn’t able to find a video
with the full song, but someone mixed both songs – and an intro – in the video
below. “HANNARI” starts around the 3:45~3:50 mark.
Saw your video for "Hakuchuumu" and it seems like the secret dressing room of aidoru has been revealed for all to see. :) After reading about the so-called scandal involving one of the Morning Musume getting caught smoking a cigarette years ago, I haven't been too surprised about hearing from time to time, an aidoru "shocking" fans by puffing away or knocking back a beer once in a while. I think I even read a few of the Onyanko Club members were expelled for doing the same thing back in the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteLooks like this BiS band was quite the influential aidoru group with Ichigo getting involved with bpm15q. I just wrote about another current neo-aidoru group called Maison Book Girl which was built around another former BiS member, Megumi Koshoji. Maison Book Girl's music, though, is more on the indie shoegazing scale of things.
http://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.ca/2016/11/maison-book-girl-lost-age.html
Hi, J-Canuck.
DeleteYeah, scandals involving cigarettes and alcohol are not that uncommon in the aidoru world - especially in the big groups such as Momusu or the old Onyanko Club (this scandal remanaged the group in its early days, as some of the girls involved were among the main members). Interesting enough, AKB48 and the other groups had had only sex scandals in the past, but no one involving the aforementioned "drugs".
As for BiS, there are lots of acts that were created based on members of the group (Maison Book Girl is a pretty good one, if not one of the best). I would never thought that a group like this would be so influential, even if just on the indie scene. A group called BiSH was created to continue from where BiS stopped, but also BiS was reformed ealier this year as well. Let's see how this confusing scenario will evolve in the near future...