Mondo Grosso featuring Etsuko Yakushimaru -- ōtōseyo（応答せよ）

 

I guess that I was going for a bit of abstract when I took this picture of the many floors in Diver City, Odaiba, Tokyo back in 2017. 

When I was in Diver City, there were plenty of folks walking around doing their noshing and shopping. However, in recent years, I've been aware of the phenomenon of folks being fascinated by abandoned structures such as shopping malls in both Japan and America, and YouTuber The Proper People gave this tour of the absolutely empty Medley Center Mall in the town of Irondequoit, New York State in the same year as my most recent trip to Tokyo. It is quite interesting and eerie at the same time despite the fact that the tour was done in broad daylight. After all, the regular image of shopping malls is for them to be filled with people walking around with open stores looking for their business. It's almost as if humanity had disappeared long ago due to some calamity.

That's the vibe that I get from at least the lyrics of "ōtōseyo", a song created by composer Mondo Grosso and lyricist Tica α（ティカ・α）. I was going to translate the title into "Speak To Me", but I actually like the translation given at "Lyrics Translate" for the song which is "Hello, Do You Copy?". In fact, the page gives the entire translation for "ōtōseyo" which paints a pretty bleak picture of someone living in the aftermath of an apocalypse. A shopping mall is even given a shoutout although it seems to be populated by zombies now.

Mondo Grosso, aka Shinichi Osawa（大沢伸一）, still has beats in there with the feeling of beatnik bongos but "ōtōseyo" is surely made for the mysterious vocalist form of Tica α, aka Etsuko Yakushimaru（やくしまるえつこ）. Those opening measures of the song sound as if they had been made for the sometimes sinister tones of Mallwave before her vocals and an introspective piano enter the scene. The melody is actually a little more upbeat and perhaps even child-like and wondrous in comparison to the lyrics, and the protagonist in those lyrics insists that even if everyone were to disappear, the world will not end, so maybe there is some hope.

"ōtōseyo" is a track on Mondo Grosso's 6th studio album "Nando demo Atarashiku Umareru"（何度でも新しく生まれる...Reborn Over and Over） which was released in June 2017 (ah, that year again). It reached No. 8 on Oricon and the album also has "Labyrinth"（ラビリンス）featuring actress and former Folder member Hikari Mitsushima（満島ひかり）.