I happened upon this album a few months ago for the first time and it ultimately drew me in. In short, its a musical that’s plot has been debated for over a decade. Personally, I see it as the story of a man who travels to Hawaii, gets implicated for a murder, pleads insanity, then truly loses his mind before dying in the middle of the ocean. Categorized under the “world” genre, it is a wonderful example of storytelling and genre-bending, but the thing that drew me in the most was the fact that I had absolutely no idea what half of the sounds were, I still don’t. Over 30 artists worked on this album remotely, with one of the members calling this album “push[ing] our organizational skills to their limits.” One of the producers recounted that artists would stop by his “humble remote mixing station” and record a small snippet of whatever was inspiring them, and he would try to incorporate it into the album. Furthermore, three of the album’s creators did not see eye-to-eye on its production through its end but agreed that they wanted to create a “record with a mind of its own,” that changed along with the listener. Songs such as “宇宙ステーションのレベル7” had such a full soundscape I was unable to focus on any specific part or instrument. The harmonies are layered on top of each other in the crunchiest way imaginable. In contrast to the old-timey melodies of the first few songs, this song was ethereal. In contrast, the song directly preceding that one, entitled “Murders” is incredibly unsettling. The singer’s breaths and pauses are taken out and placed in sporadically, making the listener unaware of the true tempo or pacing of the singer, making him seem otherworldly/inhuman.
DONE BY BRIANNA ANDERSEN