BED ROOM by CICADA (Album Review) ▸ J-Music Exchange/Rate
Leaving love (for music) up to chance 💘
Hello there and welcome back to yet another J-Music Exchange/Rate review! First off, I’d like to apologize for delaying February’s review; a lot of things happened in these past few weeks in my personal life and I just couldn’t keep my focus when I was listening to this album/working on this post, so I felt the need to step back for a bit. I’m good now, so I hope you all understand and please do enjoy the review!
In case you’re not familiar with what this is all about, I’ll gladly explain it: this is a segment I do with my good friend/fellow Japanese music fan Leap250 where we both pick out a cool album from our libraries, exchange and listen to them, and later review on our respective blogs. Leap and I entered our fourth year of doing this monthly project, and not only does it serve as a way for both of us to wide n our horizons/tastes when it comes to the Japanese music scene, but we hope that you end up finding a brand new album and/or artist to enjoy as well!
And as always, Leap and I base our choices on a specific theme every month. It was my turn for the month of February and to celebrate the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I thought it’d be neat for us to talk about albums that we picked up without any prior knowledge on the artist. That may not sound Valentine-sy but I sort of compared this theme to the idea of ‘blind dates’. As you probably are familiar with, blind dates are dates that you go on, in which you don’t know anything about the person you’re about to meet. And who knows if you’re gonna end up liking that person, but the thrill of being in the dark and not knowing what to expect can be fun to some people (and in some cases, it works out beautifully). So connecting that idea to us finding new music albums to listen to, despite not knowing *anything* about its artist beforehand… look, I thought it was a clever theme to do for February (lol).
That being said, here are our choices: Leap went ahead and tossed over BED ROOM by the trip-hop group CICADA, while I gave him Kaneko Ayano’s 2019 release in Sansan.
Let’s jump right in!
CICADA (シケイダ) was a Japanese trip-hop band formed in 2012, consisting of Wakabayashi Tomo (Gt./Kbd.), Oikawa Sousuke (Vo./Kbd.), Hitsuta Ryousuke (Dr.), Ochi Shunsuke (Ba.), and Kido Akiko on vocals. The band came to be when Wakabayashi strived to create a band that expressed a ‘trip-hop’ type of sound, and consisted of inorganic sounds and warm vocals. Through a recruitment process on mixi (a Japanese social media platform), he chose Kido and Hitsuta among the applicants; while getting Kimura Asanori (the group’s then-bassist) and Oikawa on board through mutual relationships. In 2013, CICADA put out their first releases, a single and EP, and performed for the first time in the Shimokitazawa area. After a year of performing in clubs and at events around the country, the band would release their first full length album, titled BED ROOM, in February 2015. CICADA also went through a member change in 2017, with them adding Ochi to the lineup after Asanori left.
However, the band announced their indefinite hiatus and eventually disbanded in March of 2019. Throughout their seven year run, CICADA released three albums, two mini-albums and three singles.
(info sources: Wikipedia JP, OTOTOY, Skream!)
Tracklist
Futatsu Hitotsu / ふたつひとつ
Naughty Boy
Kimi no Machi he / 君の街へ
Yoake no Machi / 夜明けの街
Free Way / フリーウェイ
Tsukiakari no Heya de / 月明かりの部屋で
Colorful
Ame Moyou / 雨模様
Anata no Kage / あなたの影
Nettaigyo / 熱帯魚
door
Released: 2015.02.04
I remember a time when I first started listening to Japanese music; back when I was still mainly writing about anime; well before I ever got on Spotify or Apple Music; I didn't even know how to go about keeping up with or even finding new releases, where it always seemed like I could only ever come across stuff that had been out for a decent while already. My YouTube algorithm hadn't yet been trained to filter out for me the kind of music that I would like, nor was I really do a good job subscribing to channels of bands and artists. Heck, I don't think I even had Twitter yet at the time either, or if I did I wasn't utilizing it like how I am now. All I knew to go to was this... less than savoury website that would upload albums the week they came out. I'm not too proud of it, but at the time I didn't know anywhere else to go to find Japanese music readily like that. There was just one catch: more often than not, I would have zero clue who the band or the artist was behind these albums. So what I would do is I would just randomly try a couple of them out each time, not really knowing what to expect - maybe the name sounds interesting, or the album's cover art catches my eye. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'd get something pretty sick. CICADA's BED ROOM was one such occasion. I immediately gravitated towards their name which, at the time I took comfort in just being able to read (lol), and the relatively simple look of the album itself just drew me in. I still, to this day, distinctively remember the excitement I felt when I played Futatsu Hitotsu for the first time and the melody kicked in. It felt like I hit the jackpot. And I definitely did, at least for me personally, with how much I ended up falling in love with both the group's unique blend of Jazz and Hip-Hop as well as the classy Kido Akiko's deceptively layered vocal stylings.
1 ▸ cicada’s unique take on trip-hop
I’ll be honest: when I first looked into CICADA and the type of music they make, the term they themselves use in “trip-hop” was completely new to me. I had never heard of this genre before, but being someone who enjoys hip-hop music now-and-then, I just made a general assumption/connection and was definitely intrigued at what this new style of music was about. And to sum it up, trip-hop takes many different musical elements such as jazz, soul, electronic, hip-hop and reggae to create a dreamy, more low-key and atmospheric sound; while also incorporating soft vocals (usually female) to add a sense of melancholy to the mix. And while CICADA’s stuff, at least when taking this album BED ROOM in consideration, doesn’t necessarily sound similar to other trip-hop releases I’ve briefly taken a listen to (where they have a much more old school hip-hop vibe to them), I think the band still does a solid job creating music that falls in line with the descriptions we just went through.
The album starts off really strong with “Futatsu Hitotsu”, as you’re immediately hit with those loud drums, a steady keyboard, the subtle use of a classical piano that provides a hint of brightness to the song, and of course, a taste of how nice Kido’s vocals are. I would say that this is yet another great instance of opening tracks, sort of, setting the tone for the rest of the album; mainly because “Futatsu Hitotsu” shows off many elements that are frequently heard throughout BED ROOM, whether that be the certain instruments, well-incorporated use of synths or even the fact that a majority of these songs express a very simple quality to them (which can be perceived in both a positive and negative way, at least in my opinion, but we’ll get there in a bit).
Songs like “Naughty Boy” with its combination of almost off-beat sounding drums and jazzy piano tunes, the pleasant vibes that “Yoake no Machi” gives off with the nice inclusion of an acoustic guitar, and how relaxing it was to listen to Kido’s voice in “Tsukiakari no Heya de”... many of the songs on this album can definitely make you feel good, thanks to its very low-key nature and how easy it is to take in. They’re not too flashy or ‘out there’, yet they have enough intricacies and interesting elements to make them cool to listen to and experience.
2 ▸ simple but effective
And I think one reason why is because of the instrumental performances. You can easily tell that all of the members in this band are very talented in their own right, and with how emphasized certain instruments were, I was able to appreciate particular + individual performances throughout my multiple go-throughs with this album. As mentioned earlier, the percussion seemed to be at the forefront a lot and Hitsuta showed off his skills really well with his strong and fast-paced drumming. The combination of a traditional piano and an electronic keyboard was actually done in a super smooth fashion, since both effortlessly intertwined with each other at times (e.g., “Colorful”) and even had moments where one had a more pronounced presence over the other (“Ame Moyou”).
Synths were also pretty common throughout BED ROOM’s tracklist, and a lot of them were included in a very tasteful manner. It added a cool and almost brand new element to a lot of these piano-based songs, especially when used in between choruses and verses, as many of the synth performances ended up being catchy and memorable melodies that stuck with me (more specifically the ones heard in “Tsukiakari no Heya de” and “Anata no Kage”).
However… I do feel like the instrumental performances and compositions in this album are a bit of a detriment, due to what I said earlier about how they give off a simple quality. The fact that CICADA primarily revolves their music around two instruments here (the drums and piano/keyboard), I will admit that many of the tracks started to feel a bit same-ish and even dull at times, especially during my later listens through BED ROOM. Sure, I did have to listen to this album multiple times to really take it in, and I do appreciate CICADA throwing in some songs that are deeper and sound more atmospheric (“Free Way”, “door”) which helped give it some variety. But there were definitely instances where certain areas of the album started to meld together with each other, with another reason being that a lot of these songs had a pretty similar pace to one another.
3 ▸ a perfect fit
As much as I’ve been talking about the compositions on this album, it does feel like the vocal performances are just as important and enjoyable; not only in the context of this album but throughout CICADA’s overall discography. Kido Akiko’s voice is absolutely pleasant to listen to, and I really think her vocals fit exceptionally well with a trip-hop style record like BED ROOM. Her softer and sweet tone gives off a very relaxing and even gloomy feeling, which complements the more somber atmosphere of a lot of these tracks. And whenever the music called for it, Kido does a solid job with upping the volume a bit to provide a bit of ‘oomph’ and energy to the mix. For me personally, one of my favorite vocal performances has to be in “Yoake no Machi”, as Kido’s slightly muffled vocals just hit the right spots, especially when paired with the calm mood created by the instrumentals.
Think it’s also worth mentioning some of the backing vocal performances that were heard in a couple songs like “Free Way” and “Colorful”. Normally I don’t listen to a ton of songs that include a combination of male and female vocals, and while the male vocals weren’t even all that prevalent, I still thought its inclusion in some songs were nice to listen to. Especially in “Anata no Kage”, where the electronically-filtered male vocals overlaps with Kido’s clear and beautiful voice towards the end; it made for a fantastic contrast and a great track, overall.
To go back to what I said about the simplistic nature of this album being seen as a negative aspect, I don’t mean that in a- well, mean way. I do think it serves as a central and important theme throughout BED ROOM, as its straight-forward nature is what gives this record its charm and overall enjoyment. As I said earlier, the instrument performances were really nice and consistent to listen to, and when paired with Kido’s lovely voice, you get a very solid take on a cool trip-hop album.
But similar to how Leap viewed an album I gave to him in the past (tonari no Hanako’s Kittara, Sora), this is probably as raw or amateurish as it gets for CICADA and their music. You can tell that they were sort of figuring things out, especially considering that BED ROOM was their very first full-length album release, and this just showed their beginnings and potential as a band. And obviously there’s nothing wrong with that; CICADA went on to further develop their sound and ended up releasing some really nice stuff in the future. But when we’re talking about this specific album, it does come up short in certain aspects.
Rating: 7.5/10
Aaaaand that’s all I got for you today!
Again, I apologize for delaying the Exchange/Rate reviews for last month but I hope you still found this post to be interesting. I was actually introduced to CICADA through one of Leap’s roundup posts from the past, and I enjoyed their sound at the time, so coming back to them after however many years was pretty neat.
Now that you’re done with my review, definitely go head on over to Leap’s blog where he talked about the album I chose for him; it being Kaneko Ayano’s Sansan. Legitimately was one of my favorite non-current albums that I discovered last year, and I think it’s one that many could enjoy. Click here to go check out Leap’s thoughts!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for another review later this month! :D
-al