TEST PATTERN: Tokyo Jihen, R.I.P.
Western critical neglect of Shiina Ringo continues to be near-absolute,(*) and I’ve sometimes wondered if one contributing factor is that — after releasing her masterpiece, 2003’s Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana, easily one of this millennium’s very best albums — she abandoned her solo career and backed into a role fronting a bunch of dudes. Instead of being a Tin Machine-sized curiosity, Tokyo Jihen has been long-lived and popular enough (in its homeland) that its product might obscure Shiina’s superior solo output for casual listeners obsessed with trending topics and Tumblr-wagging.
But that act is finally coming to a close. Come March, Jihen will be no more.
To celebrate that end and appreciate its career, I’ve culled the band’s five-and-a-half albums, b-sides, and a pair of live releases into the 80-plus-minute sampler linked below. (Loosely chronological, it starts with a clipped version of Shiina’s original farewell single and Jihen’s raucous remake of same and ends with Jihen’s last single.) As easy as I find it to resent Jihen’s very existence, and as grating or bland as its chaff could get, there’s some fun and catchy and engaging stuff!(**) They’re incredibly proficient musicians with wildly diverse concerns, and the mix careens from straight-up rockers and pop- and R&B-ballads to dense, proggy tangles of everything. (The live version of “Kenka Joutou,” which breaks up its jazz scat show tune punkabilly ELP heavy metal ridiculousness with intense theatrical breaks, is a personal favorite.)
“Diverse concerns” were probably Tokyo Jihen’s greatest strength and ultimate failing; Shiina’s presence was by far its greatest asset and perhaps too formidable a distraction. As the band’s run progressed, and the members who weren’t Shiina Ringo asserted themselves in the writing, quality dipped but left-field impulses could prove (circle one) interesting/irritating. The democracy of the project(***) doomed it to be less substantial than Shiina’s restless, focused solo work. Still, it was a band with Shiina Ringo in it. If that encouraged impossible expectations, it also meant that it had her pop genius on which to draw and provided a platform that guaranteed at least some new Shiina material. The best succinct assessment of Tokyo Jihen I’ve seen comes from ILX: “My favorite consistently disappointing band.” Tokyo Jihen is dead, long live Shiina Ringo.
Again: There’s fun and catchy and engaging stuff! None of the band’s output is available domestically in the U.S., physically or digitally. So do grab this mix before SEAL Team Six swoops in and plucks the head of Mediafire off his diamond-encrusted toilet.
DOWNLOAD: Tokyo Jihen - TEST PATTERN
Tracklist: (album tracks, except where noted) : (1) Ringo no Uta (Shiina Ringo single version)(Edit) -> Tokyo Jihen Kyouiku version)/(2) Sounan/(3) Gunjou Biyori (Dynamite Out version)/(4) Yukiguni -> Kabuki/(5) Shuraba (Single version)/(6) Superstar (Just Can’t Help It version)/(7) Kenka Joutou (Just Can’t Help It version)/(8) Ekimae (Dynamite Out Version)/(9) Himitsu/(10) Blackout/(11) OSCA/(12) Boutomin/(13) Tsukigime-hime/(14) Ikiru(Edit)/(15) Denpa Tsuushin/(16) Gaman/(17) Noudouteki Sanpunkan/(18) Tengoku e Youkosos (For the Disc)/(19) Kinjirareta Asobi/(20) Atarashii Bunmei-kaika/(21) sa_i_ta/(22) Konya wa Karasawagi
(*) One single Tokyo Jihen song got noticed by one single person on this year’s Pazz/Jop poll, and I think that may count as progress? If you’re one of those people getting vociferously frustrated over casual resistance to the act that topped that poll with massive consensus, I’ve got a pair of moccasins you can borrow. I’d slit my wrists if that’d somehow bring American ears to Shiina Ringo. (But wouldn’t want to risk rebranding her as “that singer that one guy killed himself over.”) (And don’t condone suicide as promotional stunt.) (Marketing has already ruined so much, at least leave us our indignities.) (Sorry about the parentheses, am currently reading Something Happened and, for those of us (me) naturally given to asides, anyway, the style’s not just infectious, but smothering.)
(**) Mileage will vary. Shiina fans are a fervently dedicated, hard-arguing, hard-to-satisfy lot. As many people will be angry that I left out “Killer Tune” as would be angered had I included it. Some will object that I included anything from Variety at all.
(***) At least the dissolution proved conceptually playful: Jihen’s final EP, Color Bars, not only divided its five tracks evenly among its members, but the very packaging is designed to fall apart. In their final video, the band cashes out.
