800 Cherries

800 Cherries are a Shibuya-kei style duo made up of singer Manami Marufuji and producer Masayuki Takahashi. They started out in 1995 with an acoustic folk sound on the mini-album Manamidemonade, comprised of simple songs made up of effected acoustic guitars and Manami's incredibly tiny, breathy voice. While this basic approach would stick around through their career, it gradually developed into more electronic territory as the progressed.

Their first full album Piccolo is full of the sort of bedroom 4-track experimentalism one might expect. There are swirling organs, spaced out backing tracks and some shaky vocal performances. The chorused guitar remains in most of them, liking all the songs together into one unified sound. The songs are almost psychedelic in parts, blissed-out and very soft. Their second, self titled album showed very little progression over the intervening two years, being more of a continuation of Piccolo than a new album.

Their real break-out was with 1998's Romantico. This album even made it over to America for a brief time and is therefore their most popular, and rightfully so. While there are still plenty of examples of their original, slightly hesitant early days, there are almost more confident tracks with stronger production. They also stretch out a little with a few electro instrumentals and more fully fleshed pop tunes. They never really let loose and rock out or anything, but they do ramp up the volume a bit here and there. They also mange a few transcendent moments with the softly beautiful "Frozen" and their re-working of "Everybody Knows," original found on Piccolo.

This was followed up with their fifth release Opuscula in 2000. This is more of a mix of instrumental and a cappella, with Manami simply humming and "doot doo doot"-ing along to the atmospheric music. It's till twinkles and shines, but there is very little to hang on to and is a strange way for the band to exit the stage. After that, the band seems to have vanished from the face of the Earth.

While not quite as well produced as Takako Minekawa or as arty as Gutevolk, 800 Cherries walks along the same lines with songs that are cute and innocent with no real point other than to be cute and innocent. There's a warm, nostalgic glow around it all and there are a few really nice gems to be found.

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Frozen (fanvid)


Members:
Manami Marufuji
Masayuki Takahashi

Albums:
Manamidemonade 1995
Piccolo 1995
800 Cherries 1997
Romantico 1998
Opuscula 2000