Cibo Matto -- Sugar Water

 

I remember watching Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" and concluding that the famed director should have spent more time planning things out with this one like he had with "Inception", although I realize that he had taken around a decade to figure things out with that one. Still, the idea was interesting and the effects were pretty trippy.

Why am I writing about "Tenet"? Well, for one thing, the music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" reminded me of the premise of the movie, although this video (and song) hailed all the way back in 1996, a couple of years before Nolan had his feature film debut with "Following". Still, I rather doubt that mere sugar water would get one in the state of mind to experience what Yuka Honda（本田ゆか）and Miho Hatori（羽鳥美保）had gone through in the video.

It's been a while since I've written about Cibo Matto. The last time I posted anything about the band was back in 2020 when I wrote about "10th Floor Ghost Girl" from 2014. From my admittedly brief impression of their career, they had a couple of phases of active duty: 1994-2002 and 2011-2017 according to their Wikipedia profile. "10th Floor Ghost Girl" was a song from that second phase and I was so overwhelmed by all those genres threatening to rip through the song that I basically chose the easy way out and categorized it as a pop tune. 

Well, "Sugar Water" is from their first phase; it is a track on their January 1996 debut album "Viva! La Woman", and the album has been given the genre labels of trip hop, avant-pop and alternative hip-hop. I also hear it in a couple of layers. One layer seems to contain some psychedelic 1960s lounge material while another deeper layer has a hip-hop rhythm. Meanwhile, the ladies are intoning their vocals like beatniks at a poetry reading. Time to burn the incense!

Cibo Matto -- 10th Floor Ghost Girl

Kinda like how I first heard about Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）for years and years before I did anything about it (like actually tracking down and listening to her songs), the duo Cibo Matto had also been wafting in my head through the little news that I could get wind of while living in Japan. Basically, all I knew back then was that they were based in New York City and Sean Lennon (son of John) had once contributed his time and energy to their work.

Well, I finally found out that the duo consisted of Yuka Honda（本田ゆか）and Miho Hatori（羽鳥美保）, and that Cibo Matto had two stints, the earlier one lasting between 1994 and 2002 and the second one between 2011 and 2017 (although the J-Wiki article on them has them ongoing since 2011). Lennon's time with them was from 1997 to 2002. According to the article as well, Cibo Matto tackled trip hop, alternative pop, art pop, Shibuya-kei and hip hop.

I dipped into their discography and tried out "10th Floor Ghost Girl" from their February 2014 album, "Hotel Valentine". Immediately, I was entranced by the percussion, the bass, Hatori's vocals, the refrain, and just that arrangement for the entire song which I couldn't provide a particular genre to. There is that need to put on a music sommelier's hat and make those observations such as "Was that funk in there?", "Did I pick up on some New Wave?" and "Indeed, is this art pop?". I certainly don't think it was Shibuya-kei.

"10th Floor Ghost Girl" comes across as a story which might take place in some old brownstone apartment in The Big Apple one weeknight. One long-time resident who doesn't go out too often suddenly notices a mystery woman with plenty of atmosphere move in down the hall with the dead light bulb that hasn't been replaced in months. He would like to get to know her ("Welcome to the neighbourhood. Would you like some pie?") but not sure if he's playing with fire.

The album "Hotel Valentine" was produced at Lennon's own Chimera Music, so the connection between him and the duo was still there, and "10th Floor Ghost Girl" is a pretty fun start for me when it comes to the start of the Cibo Matto file. Considering that the album is the final one released by them, there may be fans reading this who might be saying that "Oh, their earlier stuff is even better!". If that is indeed the case, please give me some recommendations.