In a relatively brief time, CHAI have built themselves quite a profile for an indie band. They even made an impression internationally with their appearance at the 2017 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas as part of an eight-city U.S. tour. The all-female band is led by twins Mana (keyboards and vocals) and Kana (guitar and vocals), who are backed by Yuuki on bass and Yuna on drums. They recently followed up their two well-received EPs with their debut album, PINK.
Their slogan, “Complex is Art”, sums up their approach. They take their everyday insecurities and inferiority complexes about their appearances and, rather than being ruled by worries over bad hair or a less than perfect body, defiantly turn it all into music. The album’s cover, designed by Yuuki, who creates all of the band’s artwork, gives a graphic clue to the band’s attitude towards appearances as well. It shows a simple cartoon of a woman with bushy eyebrows and a freckled face — pale, flawless skin is the ideal Japanese women are expected to strive for — with a finger stuck firmly up her nose. This image, rendered in a brazen hot pink, is not exactly the personification of demure, Japanese feminine beauty.
CHAI style themselves as a “New Excite Onna” band. ”Onna” means “woman” in Japanese, and the members make a point of not being a “girl-band”. Their brand lends itself to the title of the track N.E.O. The English lyrics “We are so cute, nice face, cmon!” clash ironically against the Japanese, which translates roughly to “Isn’t it strange how boring it is? Isn’t it strange how every face is the same? Too pretty. Where’s the personality?” In Japan, where the pressure to conform can be severe, these are questions worth asking. As if to prove their point, the song spirals off into a discordant clatter of drums and angry rap for a willfully non-cute finish.
N.E.O.’s oddness is matched by tracks like Boyz Seco Men, which is lifted from their 2017 Homegoro Series EP, and the rattling, percussive rap of opening track Hai Hai Akachan and Gyaranboo, which dates back to 2015 and is featured on their Hottaraka Series EP. The latter is a real lunatic treat. Through the nonsense lyrics and goofy vocals it turns out to be a song about having bad hair.
We see the calmer flipside of CHAI on the album too with some straightforward pop tunes. Horechatta is a relaxed and easygoing song with a gentle funk riff, although it’s strange in its own quiet way, being a love song for gyoza dumplings.
There’s also a thread of dance music that runs through the album. CHAI claim the likes of CSS, Basement Jaxx and Jamiroquai as influences, and the dance theme is front and centre with Fried, a retro 80s electro disco banger. Sayonara Complex is another previously released track, in the same lightly funky, laidback style as Horechatta and the addition of distortion effect pedal for Walking Star transforms Kana’s usual funk riffs into more of a rock sound for this quietly reflective song about a lonely walk under the stars.
The album finishes with the downbeat flatgirl (as in “flat-chested”). The song’s English lyrics remind us that for all our preoccupation with appearances, “nobody’s perfect”. And like all of us, the album’s not perfect either. While there are plenty of strong tracks there are also a few that don’t quite work. Kawaii Hito is an oddity, even by CHAI’s standard’s. The simplistic piano plinking and childish vocals might be making a statement on the obsession with “kawaii” in Japanese society, or it might just be an irritating track that gets skipped every time. The gloomy-sounding flatgirl is making a serious point about body image issues, but its melancholy tone closes the album on a downer which doesn’t sit right considering the cheerful pop and madcap antics that precede it.
PINK is by turns strange and sweet, manic and mellow. The odd collection of styles put the band’s influences on display, from the rap strangeness and 80s electronic sound of Tom Tom Club to their dance music favourites. While the album doesn’t have quite the wild variations of their EPs, these musical magpies keep you on your toes, wondering which tangent they’ll be heading off on next.
The production might be a little on the rough and ready side, but that’s the whole point of CHAI. You don’t have to be shiny and perfect to be cute, it’s all part of their off-kilter charm. Fans that’ve been with the band from the beginning might be slightly disappointed with the inclusion of re-released tracks at the expense of new material but this is perhaps inevitable with a debut album, taking its chance to introduce the band to a new audience.
CHAI have everything they need to become a cult hit, and it’s with tracks like N.E.O. and Gyaranboo where they’re at their eccentric best. They can make a serious point about the trials of being a woman in today’s Japan, but still have fun while they’re doing it. With PINK, they’ve concocted a happy, lo-fi antidote to the Photoshop perfect idols that dominate the Japanese music charts today.
