Today, I would like to write about a Higuchi Ai (ヒグチアイ), singer that someone introduced to me a few months back. I really wanted to write something about her back then because I quite liked the album that the person gave to me. (Thank you!!) Unfortunately, there were a lot of things happening in my life and I had to stop blogging for a bit to deal. Now I am actually on a little bit of a roll because I've managed to complete a long overdue Kalafina single unboxing and a few Kajiura Yuki ones too. So I think it's time I return to Higuchi Ai. :)
There isn't that much information about her in English as far as I can tell. Her wikipedia entry is only in Japanese. BUT she has an official website with quite a few MVs that are not IP locked to Japan (CLICK ME) which I urge you to check out.
Since there isn't that much information about her in English, I'll write up a little something for her for the benefit of music lovers who can't read Japanese. This is mostly taken from her profile page on her official website. Higuchi is a singer-songwriter who was born in Kagawa Prefecture but was brought up in Nagano and then went to Tokyo to study in a university in the city. She started learning how to play the piano at two years old and subsequently also learnt the violin, chorus singing, vocal singing, drums, guitar etc. Although the verb they used in her profile page for the other music related activities, aside from the piano, is 触れる (fureru) which means touched. So I'm guessing she's probably not that good at some of them. The singing lessons though I'm sure can't just be "touched" because she's a very good vocalist.
At the age of 18, she began activities as a singer-songwriter who plays the keyboard. And if I read the Japanese correctly, she threw her first solo live at Shibuya O-West in September 2012. She's performed live multiple times, in excess of 150 times according to her website.
Her first album was release with Zoological and the second album which she self-produced was released through Victor Music Arts (according to Wiki and her website). Her profile states that her major debut is actually the third album which was released through Takumi Note. The third album is this very album that I'm unboxing, Hyaku Rokujuu Dou.
First up, photos like usual.
I only shot a few sample shots of the insert booklet. I did make sure to take a photo of the credits in case anyone is interested.
Now... about the songs on this album. The fact that she has played the piano since she was two is quite evident in a lot of her work. The piano features very heavily in a lot of her songs.
Happily they have some MVs online that I can use. :) This is 備忘録 (bibouroku) and ぼくとおばあさん (boku to obaasan) under it.. That's some lovely piano playing and some very passionate singing. A little reminiscence of Angela Aki for me but only just a little because a lot of her music is quite different. It maybe the whole singing-passionately-while-playing-the-piano thing that reminded me of Angela Aki. :)
I really like 誰かの幸せは僕の不幸せ (dareka no shiawase wa boku no fushiawase). It's got a nice beat and has nice transitions. She also sings it with such feeling. It was also the first Higuchi Ai song that I've ever heard since it's the first song on the album. And I never felt any desire to skip or fast forward it. I listened to it from start to finish and was very interested to listen to more of her work after that.
I also really liked the next track, 猛暑です (mousho desu). They have a short version of it online. Interestingly enough, this was released again on the seven track EP that was released in July this year. I don't have that release so I don't know if there are any differences between the two versions. As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any differences.
I really like that playful piano opening. Her voice seems to be a little filtered in the beginning but she soon reverts to her an unfiltered voice. I actually quite liked that beginning bit where they switched the balance from right to left and right again before centering it. Again lovely melody and arrangement and I like the way she sang it too, light and playful.
I actually like all the songs on this album to varying degrees. Her music is interesting to me. It's got good melodies, strong and quite "ear-catching" arrangements and she sings it like it really means something to her which is, sadly, not always the case for a lot of music out there. This album is definitely going to remain on my HD music player for quite some time. It'll be interesting to watch her at a live that's for sure if that opportunity ever arises and I am quite interested in seeing what else she'll come up with in the future, I'll definitely be keeping an eye / ear out.
The release in July this year is an EP (猛暑です e.p) which contains 7 tracks. I'm likely to pick this up when I visit Japan next year unless I order something from CDJapan this year, then I may throw it into that shipment to save on shipping.. One of the tracks on the EP is やわらかい仮面 (yawarakai kamen) which is the theme song for the 5th season of the anime Yami Shiba (闇芝居). So she shouldn't be a stranger to anime fans. I'm really bad with horror so this was an anime I would never have watched. But for the sake of this post and because I quite like Higuchi's work, I looked up the song on Google and it's a really, really good song, I like it. Too bad there isn't an official MV for it online for me to share it. But I like it enough to share this upload on YouTube. Of course since this isn't an upload from an official source, this could get removed anytime. If that happens, then you can check out the sample of it on CDJapan product page. (CLICK ME) But that version and whatever TV versions you can find won't have the brilliance of the full song, unfortunately.
Well, that concludes my unboxing of this album. Please do buy these releases if you like the music. Her albums and EP are available on CDJapan and HMV Japan. You can also find her on Amazon JP but you may need to search for her using her Japanese name "ヒグチアイ". If you use Higuchi Ai or Ai Higuchi, you may not be able to find her. These three online stores ship internationally.
Comments
Post a Comment