Math rock back from Japan.
Former members
Are you all from Kyoto originally?
Ikkyu: Hiromi is from Kyoto and Motifour and I are from Shiga, which is next to Kyoto. Shiga is a suburban area in Japan and its freaking stinky fish dish, funazuchi [fermented crucian carp] is famous. But it’s a good area to live in and I like it.
What are your musical backgrounds?
Ikkyu: I had always been thinking about becoming a singer since I was a child. I was writing lyrics about “what is love, blah blah blah” in my notebook even though I had not fallen in love with someone. I have been in many bands but I have not sung about love yet.
Motifour: My father had a guitar and I started playing it when I was 14. When I turned 18 I started to make songs by myself and was in a different band at that time.
Hiromi: When I was in my senior year of high school I went to see a gig with my friend and thought that I wanted to play too, so I joined an after-school music club and started to play the bass there. After I started college, I started to write songs. I was in a three-piece girl band before Tricot.
[...]
How would you describe the kind of music that you make? We might call it math rock, but I don’t know if that’s a term you would use.
Motifour: I don’t know… I think it’s rock. We don’t set out to make complex songs but people say our music is complicated. In our songs there are many elements and gimmicks from various genres, which might be confusing. We just enjoy making songs.
[...]
How did the new album come together, especially after your drummer quit? Why did he leave?
Ikkyu: Tricot was originally formed by the three of us and there were many things only we could understand and share. I wanted to focus more on that sense. That is very special and I could not force it on him, so we told him to choose his own way. After he left the band, we made a new full album with the great drummers who we wanted to play with. This album includes a song we recorded with the ex-drummer for the last time when he was in Tricot so it should be interesting. You can feel a lot of things from it.
Motifour: We recorded it with 5 drummers and the drum sounds are different on each song. I think that makes the tastes and characteristics of Tricot stand out strongly. It is self-produced.
Highlighted tracks are recommended listens.
T H E is tricot's first album, and for many fans, their essence. Featuring guitarist Motifour's addictive riffs, quick gear-change time signature hops, Ikkyu's impassioned vocals, and killer hooks, it's a powerful debut. There's not a single weak track on here. The production may not be to everyone's tastes - there's an iciness to the guitars that keeps listeners at a distance. Moreover, the album is uncompromising on what it wants to be, but at the cost of stylistic diversity. If you like songs like Pool and Tobe (飛べ), you'll likely enjoy the whole thing, as most of the tracks feel like elaborations of one idea. There are some songs that take it in a slower, more mellow direction, like Art Sick and Oyasumi (おやすみ), but you'll have to wait for future albums to get more diversity. Despite these artistic quibbles, this album is excellent and a consummate artistic statement.
The followup to T H E cheekily has a title that is also an English grammatical word. A N D takes what was good about T H E and expands on it. The production is warmer, but the metric madness doesn't stop. I'd describe this album as more approachable than T H E, with the melodies hitting quicker. This doesn't make the album less twitchy or intense, and a listen to the head-bopping intro Noradrenaline should dispel any worries. Comparisons to anime openings are usually reductive when talking about Japanese popular music, but this track's chorus is genuinely anthemic enough for television. The bridge shows one of the newer focuses on this album - more vocals beyond 'Ikkyu giving it her all' and more moods beyond 'dial turned to 10'. The post-bridge nevertheless reminds us of the dedication to odd time signatures with a tricky little guitar bit.
Pai~n (ぱい～ん) even features - gasp - a piano, with a dramatic pseudo-classical introduction. If T H E was laser-focused on guitar/bass/drums, this is a welcome introduction of timbral diversity. The piano switches moods to jazzier chords to accompany their guitar-spiked verses. Just when you worry the song is getting too conventional, the chorus abruptly switches tempo to head back into the verse. It's this flirtation with well-worn song convention while still remaining committed to more experimental meters and forms that make tricot such an exciting band to follow. Their experimentation doesn't feel overly cerebral nor self-indulgent, and at the end, you almost feel you've been tricked into enjoying a song that you'd probably roll your eyes at if its musical features were described to you.
Colorless Aquarium is another standout, showing tricot experimenting with darker, heavier guitar tones than they'd used on T H E. It's an absolute brainworm of a song, and I dare you to get 'ANATA WA MAKKURO DA, ANATA WA MAKKURO DA' out of your head after a single listen.
Overall the album shows a welcome branching out from the T H E style without sacrificing the tricot style.
| Japanese | English (translation from glitterark) |
|---|---|
| 右脳左脳がバトルしている 渋谷ステーションの午後9時 ゴングはずっと前に鳴らした |
Right brain and left brain are battling at 9pm at Shibuya Station. The gong has always resounded in advance. |
| 解決だけがゴールじゃない でも戦わずしては何も得ない 愈々やって来ましたこの時が |
Just getting a solution is not the goal, but you can’t obtain anything without fighting. I finally got my way here, this time. |
| 天使と悪魔が会議してる 茶店で一杯茶をしばく 着地しない会話が漏れている |
Angels and devils are at a meeting, taking a cup of tea in a tea-house, a conversation that leads nowhere is coming through. |
| 日々は悲しいことだらけ 夢は厳しいことだらけ 大至急救ってほしい 靴づれにさえメンタルヤラレそう 隠居したい |
Every day is full of sad things, dreams are full of demanding things. I wish to be saved as soon as possible. Even my shoes are worn-out, I’m so mentally damaged, I want to retire. |
| 昨日の苦悩も忘れたい 全部無かったことにしない？ 大した事のない人生でいい |
I want to forget yesterday’s agony, could it all be gone? A life without great things would be fine. |
| 有能なの？見定めたい 探ってみたい君のNO |
Am I capable of it? I’ll make sure of it, let me explore your NO’s. |
| 挨拶代わりに遊ぼう 合わない2人の歩幅は ゴールのないウサギとカメみたい |
By way of greeting, I’ll enjoy myself. Two people’s paces not matching have no goal, just like the hare and the tortoise. |
| 今は切ないことまみれ 君はいけないとこだらけ ふと考えると命懸け 長年守ってた誠実さは捨てた |
Now I’m covered in painful things, stuck with you. I’m suddenly thinking about how risky is to have lost the integrity I’ve been protecting for a long time. |
| 右脳左脳がバトルしている 渋谷ステーションの午後9時 ゴングはずっと前に鳴らした 有能なの？見定めたい 探ってみたい君のNO 本当は誰を想っているの？ |
Right brain and left brain are battling, at 9pm at Shibuya Station. The gong has always resounded in advance. Am I capable of it? I’ll make sure of it, let me explore your NO’s. Who am I really thinking about? |
| 昨日の苦悩も忘れたい 全部無かったことにしたい 大したことのない人生でいい？ |
I want to forget yesterday’s agony, I want there to be no more. Is it okay to have a life without great things? |
tricot surprised everyone by releasing not one, but two albums during 2020. If makkuro felt like the peak of their math rock side, this album feels like a step in a poppier direction. Unsurprisingly, this has proven divisive among fans - are they really releasing songs in 4/4?! Before you turn away and label tricot sellouts, give the album a chance. They've always prioritized catchy hooks in their music, so I can't blame them for wanting to experiment with more straightforward songwriting.
I can't help but compare the single 'Summer Night Town' (サマーナイトタウン) to ABBA's 'Summer Night City', both because of the titles, because of how they were novel stylistic directions for both bands, and because they're both utterly different in tone. 'Summer Night City' is dark and disco-tinged, while 'Summer Night Town' is a warm tropical breeze, the perfect summer rock song. It's in 4/4, yes, but Motifour's angular riffs are still present. And we have more of the other women singing, which is always nice as a way to add more timbral variety. The opening throws you off with the abrupt tempo switch after some guitar noodling. The gentle harmonies and driving melody lull you in, like a dream. Despite this unabashedly poppy direction, it's still tricot, still guitar-forward.
The issue with the album is its unevenness, despite its short runtime. The second half is less interesting than the first, with the exception of the final song, Karada (體), with its fuzzy, aggressive bending riff combined with breathy vocals. T H E, A N D, and makkuro were great albums all the way through, and 3 was no slouch either, so the album stands out in its context. It's still a good album, just a let down in the context of an excellent discography. That an album like this, which would be considered standout for other rock groups, is just fine for tricot, shows what a powerful body of work they have.