REVIEW: MUZAI MORATORIUM
Tracklisting:
01.Tadashii machi
02.Kabukichou no joou
03.Marunouchi sadistic
04.Koufukuron (etsuraku hen)
05.Akane sasu kiro terasaredo...
06.Sid to hakuchuumu
07.Tsumiki asobi
08.Koko de kiss shite
09.Onaji yoru
10.Keikoku
11.Morphine
1: Japanese roots, Western branches
One of the most meaningful characteristics of Ringo's unique music is how she blends Japanese traditions with Western modernities. We know that the Japanese have always, throughout history, taken various things from the outside world and re-elaborated them in their own way. Nevertheless, most musicians nowadays just follow the Western rock path, without trying to focus on Japanese rich musical tradition, even including portions of English lyrics in the songs in order to appear cooler. Ringo just knows that she can find great things here and there. She is Japanese to the core - see her passion for kimonos, her artworks often similar to ancient Japanese prints, the use of traditional instruments in songs. Yet, she has a wide field of vision. She was a ballerina and a pianist of Western classical music when she was younger, she had stayed one year in London, she adores loads of British and American bands. So she finds quite natural to mix Japan and West in her songs. Take track 07, "Tsumiki asobi", for example: behind electric guitars and beating drums, we hear a koto (a traditional string instrument) playing in the background: and it's amazing how it all blends perfectly.
If we take a look at the tracklisting and title, we will notice it even more clearly. Let us start from the title. Why "Muzai moratoriamu" (the exact transliteration of it; the commonly used "Muzai Moratorium" is an anglicism). Why is "Innocence" in Japanese and "Moratorium" in English? She could easily have named the record "Innocence moratorium" or "Muzai tokusei", but she didn't. (You will find a deeper analysis of the album title later). It just makes it clearer what we are going to find inside. And even the songs that appear to have an English title, they are in fact written in the katakana phonetic alphabet. It's a way to say "I might make Western style music, but I am Japanese, and proud to be Japanese".
2: The background: escape from Fukuoka
At the end of 1997, just turned 19, Ringo had already made lots of experiences. At a very young age, she had undergone a difficult surgery which left her two large scars on her back and an unfightable thinness. She had very good musical education, but she was quite unruly at school, where most people pointed to her as "different" (she will talk about this later in the song "17"). She had already played in several bands in Fukuoka, and spent one year studying in London (where she also studied recitation, trying to pursue an acting career). So the times were ripe: she was ready for her next move. She packed and went to Tokyo. Now we hear sing songs about the capital city just like she was a real Tokyo girl, but this move must not have been unpainful to her, as we can infer from one lyric in particular, that of "Tadashii machi", the opening song of the album:
I know this city and this you
from which I flew away, were right for me
Such a statement was put as the first sentence of the album, and almost shouted. I think it is a kind of a catharsys, to put it in short. I mean, moving so abruptly from Fukuoka, the quiet southern town she had grown up in, to the puzzling and charming confusion of the capital city, Tokyo, must have put her in front of difficult choices and hard times. She must have found herself missing her friends, lovers, family, and maybe there could have been times when she regretted moving. And in voicing her regrets, she would be able to free herself from them. After all, she loves Tokyo. "Marunouchi sadistic" is a song about it. Tokyo is seen as a big playground, every zone has its characteristics, and she moves around like a little queen. Though, there are some regrets in this song as well
Even though I love Tokyo, there's nothing for me here
Or we can understand that she's having money problems (which is quite obvious, I mean, a girl of 19 in a big city, without a fixed job and attracted by the loads of opportunities offered by it) by some lines of the same song:
Give me a Rickenbacker 620, but I don't have 190.000 yen
or:
I want to try to become a waitress in a pizza restaurant, but then Benzie hits me with his Gretsch
(Benzie is Asai Ken'ichi, the guitarist of Blankey Jet City, a rock band Ringo loved).
3: The moratorium of innocence
Let us focus now on the title itself, "Innocence moratorium". The concept of "moratorium" is a psychological concept first developed by the psychologist Erikson, and then imported to Japan in 1977 by the psychiatrist Okonogi Keigo. In its Japanese acception, it denotes young people's tendency to delay their entrance into adulthood. It became an important issue in modern Japanese society; often the young generation tend to refuse to accept social responsibilities as adults. But it seems to me that Ringo is trying to excuse such a behaviour, by putting a word like "muzai" (innocent, innocence, not guilty) before it. In fact, partly due to the fact that most of this album's songs had been written in the years preceding it, the record has a teenage-like feel. The one who refuses to accept responsibilities may be Ringo herself:
Lately we've been playing cops and thieves in Ginza (Marunouchi sadistic)
(Ginza is the centre of economic offices in Tokyo, just the perfect symbol of adulthood and integration into the productive society, and she and her friends are ridicolizing it)
or it might be her lover:
There's nothing certain in our relationship right now
even though I want to look at the future without being afraid of us being a couple (Akane sasu kiro terasaredo...)
This album is an image of teenage on the J-rock side as much as Hamasaki Ayumi's "A Song for XX" is on the J-pop side. Doubts, anxieties, dreams (in both meanings), rage... we have it all in here, and that's why it keeps on selling and will continue to sell for a long time.
4: Music
This album rocks. We can hear and feel the pure energy of rock in it. But it is not raw electric guitars, nor, on the other side, intellectualoid refined pop-rock, nor even commercial fm rock. It is just something different, and that is just so Ringo. For an example, we can take track 4, a new version of her debut single, "Koufukuron (etsuraku hen)". The "etsuraku" version keeps the same words and melody line as the original, but the arrangement changes completely and evolves into a clashing 2:59 of distorted guitars and voice, speed and high-pitched shouts (and I think this song's conclusion, with Ringo coughing because her lungs can't take any shouting anymore, is one of the best in the world). And then we have bluesy songs like "Marunouchi sadistic" or "Akane sasu kiro terasaredo...", and mellow ballads like "Onaji yoru". We have a solid poprock song like "Koko de kiss shite" (her first top 10 hit), and a strange composition like "Morphine" including eyebrow-raising lyrics, nonchalant whistles, and a simple chord progression that turns into a triumphant guitar scale. We can find rock anger in "Keikoku", and then be astonished by "Sid to hakuchuumu", a song I couldn't describe otherwise as "John Lennon on LSD"... and all are composed and arranged in a way that polishes the songs, but leaves their fresh potential intact, thanks also to Kameda Seiji, bassist and producer, a guy who always stood on Ringo's side throughout her career until now in Tokyo Jihen.
"Muzai moratorium" is a rather short album, barely longer than 40 minutes, much shorter than the average Japanese album, and this gives to it an impression of someting as quick and hard as an unexpected fist in the face. I think that every music fan (and I do not mean Japanese music fan) should listen to it, because it is a masterpiece of a debut album.