Formed in late 2004, School Food Punishment is still a rather young band. In fact they only released their first album early in 2007, and their second later that year. At first blush School Food Is Good Food, their first album, promises some interesting sound-scapes and neat electronic tricks, but it quickly abandons the more complex production to focus on Yumi Uchimura's soft, mature vocals and Masayuki Hasuo's piano work. They do manage to inject their overall jazzy, smokey lounge style with a welcome dose of electronic atmosphere and raw drum sounds. Their second album Air Feel, Color Swim follows the same pattern, with the opener "You May Crawl" being a fast paced dance tune ala Base Ball Bear and suitable for a colorful anime opening. From there it again drops to a low-register piano based croon, a bit like Tori Amos, only young and cute.
These drops aren't necessarily a bad thing. Their third release Riff-rain focuses on their softer side with even more blissed out electro landscapes. Here they cultivate their lush electronics into something indeed like the sounds of a rainy day in the city, seen through a fashionable cafe window. This time around the album's louder track, "Killer," jumps into the middle of things with a stompy piano beat that starts to almost bleed into Midori territory. They quickly pull in the reins before things get too crazy though.
If they focused just a bit more on the interesting electronic experimentation (which they seem to be doing with their two PVs so far), School Food Punishment might turn out to be a force to be reckoned with. As they stand now, the few high energy tracks seem out of place amongst all the quiet open spaces. Without the burbling background School Food Punishment is simply just another nice band with a great singer. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Feedback
You May Crawl
Pool
"Pool" and "You May Crawl" live
Official Site
MySpace
Members
Yumi Uchimura - guitar & vocal
Hideaki Yamasaki - bass
Masayuki Hasuo - keyboards
Osamu Hidai - drums
Major Releases
School Food Is Good Food (4/2007)
Air Feel, Color Swim (11/2007)
Riff-rain (12/2008)
8 comments:
I don't purport to be at all knowledgeable about music, but you pretty much said what I was thinking. Especially with the "the few high energy tracks seem out of place amongst all the quiet open spaces" comment. I haven't listened to air feel, color swim beyond the first track, but with the first album, I love "close, down, back to" and "pool" (and to a lesser extent "set low, fine"), but the rest kind of fades into the background for me. Sorry to hear that AFCS follows much the same pattern, though as it stands I'm still a fan.
Excellent!
I really liked the bass's tone in YMC - and the breakbeats from the drums towards the end. Combined with the pads and other assortment of electronica sounds, it gives is a smooth, relaxing, almost ethereal feeling to the mix.
I'll definitely keep my eye on these guys. Thanks for posting
I definitely like the music on the vids. They remind me of Mute Math. The sound and energy is the same.
Since this was originally posted, I've still had the two releases on regular rotation.
I completely agree with the review. At times I'll listen to the slower songs compared to a whole album at once to fully appreciate the music.
Has anyone heard of any future releases?
Yeah - next one is January 14th. It'll be called Riff-rain. Check it out on yesasia.com. The band is just amazing by the way, really amazing. I don't agree with the earlier comments about songs being out of place in their earlier albums though - they're a diverse band, and there's less room to round yourself out in mini albums like the ones they've been releasing. Anyway, really looking forward to the next one
They have some clips of Riff Rain on Myspace. They sound really good. I can't wait.
Riff-Rain is so amazing! My favorite album of theirs now.
hehehe.... I review this band in my indie blog to. Yumi Uchimura is amazing. album amp reflection make me feels good. ^^
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