🐣 KERO KERO BONITO — TIME TODAY

Taking off into a world of ceaseless leisure, whimsical hope, the hefty air of summer and free time finding its way into our hearts, this is the wonderful 'Time Today' by the trio that is Kero Kero Bonito. Usually and perhaps more well known for their bilingual Anglo-Japanese playground-rhyme-raps and polished analogue collages of electronic sound, 'Time Today' is a bouncy bopper of a track, with all the airiness, kinetic journeymaking rhythm, and tomorrow-never-comes sweet stoicism that'd make for a good ending theme for a slice of life (or other genre of) anime. The outward appearing of the track says as much, but so do the lyrics, cradling ambition in simple lines like opener, "I got so much time today / I got hopes and dreams and plans all yet to be made" and "But I don't / Even know / Where I should be trying to go / So I guess I'll follow my nose." All honest, all relatable.

It bears a resemblance to Shibuya-kei, the Japanese genre defined by its mix of styles, and yep it's all here: the lounge atmosphere, the electronic keyboard sounds, the jazz chord progressions, the busy upbeat tempo. Those gently unexpected progressions – founded on lovely warm bass, which really complement the cosy, comfy texture of the organ-ish chords – make it colourful and full of feeling, whilst typically KKB musical asides like chiming little melodies, sun-glinting sparkles, whoopy instrumental warbles, and drum machine fills decorate it with engaging nuance and keep things fun.

It is also brief—not too brief, but the sort of brief that mirrors how the song feels and what it says: that time, especially when everything feels right, seems to stretch on and on ahead of you – that "I got so much time today" refrain right? – but before you know it you're thinking, where's it all gone? With its lyrical references to day and night, dawn and sunset, you can see that it's a hopeful start-of-the-day song for the end of the day, a late afternoon reflection for tomorrow's bright morning.

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• 🔔 This lovely song is taken from the upcoming NEW Kero Kero Bonito album Time 'n' Place, which is coming soon. That's all we know.
• 🔔 KKB also took part in YES/NO's Lazy Interview series all the way back in 2014. Have a lil' read if you feel like it~

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📠
☟ Kero Kero Bonito Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ tumblr ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia ⚘ songkick

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🐣 KERO KERO BONITO — FOREVER SUMMER HOLIDAY

The pastel tones of this track are imbued with carefree havingfun-ness, not necessarily pleasure-seeking nor hedonistic because those things are overly gratuitous, but instead Kero Kero Bonito's summer anthem, like many KKB bangers before it, strips things back and makes things simple for us with a head-over-heels sense of freedom and innocence, all the while bass bloops, synth shimmers, rounded drum machine jostle tumbles along.

Sarah code-switches not only between Japanese and English but also between singing the fresh pop melody and calling out in playground rhymes. It is without pretence supercharged with pop power, breezily skipping with digitised vocodered softness, spinning the track's catchy lines with metronomic rhythm: "And I gotta find my shorts and shades, cause I know the sun is here to stay, so we can all go take a break on a forever holiday." The content of the bouncy-floating hook, of the entire song in fact, highlights a specific theme—a 'Forever Summer Holiday', an illustration of the feeling of wholesome anticipation when the vast summer seems to stretch out in front of you without end, each sunny day time to fill with whatever you want.

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☞ RARE YES/NO LAZY INTERVIEW #26 W KERO KERO BONITO (2014) ☜

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Nothing beyond simply having fun is insinuated in this condensed idealisation of the summer break; a quality of non-nostalgic longing that makes Kero Kero Bonito so fresh is that rather than aching over things that could be considered faded and gone, their music instead summons that feeling as a present, happy, here-and-now occurrence. Syncopated chords add a party atmosphere to the proceedings, glimmering liquid synth brings poolside sparkle, fun ornaments pop by (e.g. 1:44) for a VGM infusion; something about the vocal melody and tone recalls Mario 64's file select screen, then there's the Nintendo-flavoured marching band drums at 2:22. The triumvirate of KKB powers on unmatched, bubblegum princess pop made universal, experimental computer music throwback sounds made polished and digestible, the indoors outdoors, the bridging of things and unabashed celebration of moments.

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• 🔔 'Forever Summer Holiday' is taken from Kero Kero Bonito's Japanese edition of their 2016 album Bonito Generation, out 12th July on Sony Japan.
• 🔔 There is also a video for 'Forever Summer Holiday', directed by Theo Davies.

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📠
☟ Kero Kero Bonito Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ tumblr ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia ⚘ songkick

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KERO KERO BONITO – CHICKEN

It's Kero Kero Bonito! How wonderful! How thrilling to hear new sounds from them. And how great it is to hear that these soundular visions of the London trio are still tantamount to the apex of uniqueness in music right now. Experimental music is not always unique; some experiments with sound do sound alike. But nobody would necessarily describe KKB's sound as an "experimental" one, yet this is what they are doing: experimenting – with pushing the boundaries of what they can include in an underground pop song, the instruments they can use and song structure.

Aside from what is essentially a trademark of Kero Kero Bonito's sound – a bouncy beat painted with a decidedly drum-machine aesthetic, fuzzy electronics and synthetic chords – 'Chicken' continues with adding in whatever novel things can be added without it feeling saturated or overcooked. Sarah, with only a small rap-sing-speaking part in Japanese this time around, expounds on the virtues of dancing, and urges all listeners to not stand with their backs to the walls and to instead take to the dancefloor and move around.

A specific image in this moving around, i.e. dancing, is that of a shark nibbling at your feet if you don't move them fast enough, or rather, if you don't move them at all. In a similar vein to the popular game/past-time/hobby (???) "the floor is lava," and taking a leaf out of the "the floor is ____" foundation, we are inducted once more into the unconventional, fun world of Kero Kero Bonito through their interpretation of old-hat standards like "dance for one more night, we only have this one night until blah blah~♪" or "shut up and dance~♪" or "we are in so much pain and sorrow we dance it away tonight~♪" etc. etc. Where pop/EDM songs say it with cliché and melodrama, KKB say it with flowers (pretty ones) and a bag of sweets, with a slice of inventiveness and playful innocence that feels missing in today's musical landscape.

Add to this a full metal section that hammers out a crunching riff with MIDI instruments – who else would do this to a song? – complete with a few growled vocals; and also, after the line "If you don't move, the shark's gonna steal your shoes", a wonderful sample: anybody who knows this chomping sound will know the true terror of Snacker the Shark from Banjo-Kazooie. Snacker is faster than you, sort of guards items you need to get from underwater, and comes complete with a Jaws-esque theme whenever he gets near – plus he jeers you with lines like "Snacker smells tasty dinner, stay just there!" and "Coffee and mints? I'll be right over!" – all in all making for a genuinely harrowing experience.

This all combines for a track that's high in carefree attitude, low in gravity, and generally a bubbling refreshment taken in the context of, possibly a backlash to, a "serious" "dance music" "scene" currently spilling its faux-emotional (fauxmotional) guts all over the world. Even by itself, with no context, with no nothing, this music is undeniably upbeat: listenable, followable, adorable. And you can download 'Chicken' for free – lovely~

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• KKB are going on a North American tour in October and will be playing a few dates with none other than Skylar Spence (fka Saint Pepsi)!
• And please if you feel like it go check out a YES/NO Lazy Interview with Kero Kero Bonito.

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☟ Kero Kero Bonito Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • Soundcloud • Twitter • Tumblr • YouTube

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LAZY INTERVIEW #26: KERO KERO BONITO

← LAZY INTERVIEW #25: TROPES

Another Lazy Interview. #HaterzStayBack

But in all seriousness, a trio of very nice musicmakers making unique music step up to the plate and hit three over-the-fence home runs. Yes, it's Kero Kero Bonito (or KKB as you are quite at liberty to say)! This 3-piece are doing good things for music. Why? How? Well they make a kind of pop music, a weaving together of gleefully pedestrian bilingual rap, minimalist drum machine dancehall, and cutesy melodies: something they've tagged "ultrapop" and something that I doubt you've ever truly heard before. You may've heard incubative versions of it, but nothing like this. No no no.

They dropped their debut mixtape / album Intro Bonito last year, and made it freely available, but NOW they are releasing it on Monday, officials, on nifty record label Double Denim. I talked about the first offering from that mixtape (which is now strangely the LATEST track to be taken from the album) called 'Sick Beat' – a great introduction to the wonderful world of KKB, and interesting in that Sarah raps about playing or, actually, being sick at videogames, with the line "It's often said, I should get some girly hobbies instead" just about summing up the unfortunate opinion of the general populace (probably). GAMES FOR EVERYONE is what we say.

There's also a very fun video for call-and-response style track 'Kero Kero Bonito' – super colourful and nicely random, why not watch it?

Anyway they're just about blowing up right now, and with the album being released on Monday, what else is there to do but be dunked concisely into the "playful/strange" swimming pool that is KKB as they collectively quickfire-answer these damn lazy questions of ours.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
We’re KKB, we’re from everywhere and we do our homework.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
Because the youth of today need a political voice!!!!!!!

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
Bilingual schoolyard dancehall. Bilingual schoolyard dancehall.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
iTunes, any time.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
Cats, dogs etc.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
We played at a local hall and the old people were dancing in a ring.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
Sarah: Chibi-Tech – Moe Moe Kyunstep (PART II - キュン -)

Jamie: Danny L Harle – All The Time

Gus: Pa’s Lam System – Like A Lady

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Jack Thomas and Hari Ashurst-Venn.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
#ultrapop.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
More chords – world tour.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
Social media presence.

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• DO download Kero Kero Bonito's mixtape Intro Bonito on Monday. Massively worth it ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
• Also check out a load of other artists answering questions in the Lazy Interview series.

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← LAZY INTERVIEW #25: TROPES

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☟ Kero Kero Bonito Social Media Presence ☟

Facebook • Soundcloud • Twitter • Tumblr • YouTube

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KERO KERO BONITO SICK BEAT

Kero Kero Bonito. That's their name. 'Kero kero' (or 'gero gero' if you like) is the noise a Japanese frog makes (FYI: dogs go 'wan wan' not 'woof woof', also). Bonito is like... bonito tuna. Maybe? Is it? Kero Kero Bonito (ケロケロボニト). KKB. That's it. It is a group of three people from London (ENGLAND) called Sarah, Gus and Jamie and they make music. Nice music.

I stumbled across this song, called 'Sick Beat', thanks to someone on Twitter. I listened and instantly liked it. There are many likeable things about this song. However, I believe that the use of Japanese in songs, or samples from Super Mario 64, won't be for everybody: but they are for me. It is nevertheless a really cool song with a really nice message. There's a rap in it, interchanging Japanese and English, expounding the idea that girls can play videogames without the stigma of being a 'girl gamer' - it shouldn't even be an idea. Just don't be surprised that girls play games too, what's so difficult about that?

Anyway. Let's listen together〜

Starting with an amazingly utilised sample of the "ba ba ba ba ba ba" from Mario 64, the song launches into mildly swaggery beat whilst Sarah of KKB raps nonchalantly in Japanese, chucking in some English phrases for childhood references, mentioning Tomb Raider and Windows 98, all the way to the chorus which is where the heart of the song lies. It's a really catchy hook, not to mention clever in its lyrics; beginning with a challenge - "Whichever console you play / no matter how many hours a day / I could win at any game / Whether you're a boy or a girl or a supercomputer" - ending with a lament of more "girly" pursuits - "It's often said / I should get some girly hobbies instead / but that thought fills me with dread / I'm not into sewing, baking, dressmaking, not-eating, bitching, submitting [?]"

That's all done in pleasant layered vocals to the tune of some fizzing bass synth that plunks alongside marching snare drums. From the middle, the rap gets a spotlight whilst the beat lays in wait for its part in the sample-infused finale of the song. It's a straightforward like indie pop rap kinda vibe with additional appeal for its get-em-if-you-can, gotta-catch-em-all references, and the heavy investment in Japanese language. In style, it kinda reminds me of the cutesy rap that may.e did a while back, but for me, the fact that it's from England is both exciting and praiseworthy. What a global world we now live in!

This btw comes from Kero Kero Bonito's upcoming mixtape Intro Bonito out 30th September.

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