Soft Ballet -- YOU

 

I was going through my issues of "Eye-Ai" magazine recently when I saw this article for the band Soft Ballet, and I remembered them simply for this photograph. They look rather theatrical and punk at the same time, don't they? Kinda/sorta approaching Nina Hagen or Klaus Nomi. Well, consisting of keyboardist/guitarist Maki Fujii（藤井麻輝）, keyboardist Ken Morioka（森岡賢）, and vocalist Ryoichi Endo（遠藤遼一）, they've been categorized on Wikipedia as synthpop, New Wave, electro-industrial, EBM and alternative dance.

Also according to Wikipedia, they were seen as underground pioneers of electronic music in Japan during the 1990s (their first run lasted between 1987 and 1995 with a second brief go from 2002 to 2003). However, I'm starting their file on KKP with "YOU", a single that was released in 1995 and a song that has the rock-techno ratio at about 8:2. Written by Endo and composed by Morioka, the song is about some really intense undying love for that special someone and there is something about "YOU" that has me thinking of bands BOØWY and Complex.

I like the underlying rhythm of "YOU" which was also a track on Soft Ballet's final album before the first breakup, "FORM", from April 1995. Next time, I'd like to explore something with a more even mix of that rock and techno.