Released: 22.06.15 / Label: Self-released
I love this album cover so much. I have no idea who this guy is, but I’m already excited to find out. And it works with the title and everything. Great first impression.
A solo artist from Tokyo, Akimi Morinaga released his first EP in 2018 and has remained active since. He describes himself as a pop artist who “absorbs various genre(s) of music” and infuses them into his own style. He seems quite active as a performer, and also quite prolific. This is his fourth single released this year. Let’s see what he’s offering up this time.
That was a lot. On the one hand the composition was incredibly detailed and well thought out, but on the other hand, it’s so spastic that it’s hard to follow any of it. As a musician I can see the arrangement is a typical pop song, but I don’t think a regular listener would catch that at all. So it all washes out to being impressive but not at all moving. The individual performances are all great but the mix kind of makes everything feel a bit cheap. It works for the light happy sections but not at all during the drastically different slow sections. The lyrics are nice as well, but it feels like a bit of a chore trying to keep up with him.
I can definitely see the influence of various genres, but Akimi needs to work on fusing them better. As is it’s just disparate sections juxtaposed next to each other in a seemingly random way. Incredible music but lacking musicality, if you know what I mean. Certainly an artist to follow and watch as he matures musically, though. I’m sure he’ll be creating some interesting and more palatable work as he grows.
Stream or download the track
