| 1. Ecdysis |
| 2. Song For Kids |
| 3. In Your Arms |
| 4. Barracuda |
| 5. Spirit Of Juliet |
| 6. Walking City |
| 7. Sweet Samsara Part I |
| 8. Sweet Samsara Part Ii |
| 9. River Of 3 Crossing |
| 10. Amazona |
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
First Solo Album from Cibo Matto's Miho.
"Ecdysis" deserves a wider audience than it will probably receive. The cover art (by Hatori) may be a little amateurish, but the music inside is some of the most quirkily melodic stuff out there. The instrumentation is consistently innovative, and the lyrics are simultaneously fun and provocative. Listen to it!
So it isn't exactly shocking that I also adore Miho Hatori's solo debut. It's a funky, electronic frolic through a sparkling landscape, with Hatori dipping through various global styles, indulging in little quirks that seem appropriate for her music. It's a charming experience, sort of like a poppier Bjork.
It opens with a soft organ melody. Then Hatori's sweet voice starts crooning... well, it sounds like "she steps on me," but it's actually "shine steps, shine steps on me..." As the keyboard and synth smooth out into a soft, blippy melody, she continues singing of a hallucinatory trip full of trees and "seven colors of waterfalls."
Things change big-time with "A Song For Kids." Catchy beats start tapping away as Hatori croons in Japanese, taking a brief break in ambient territory before returning to electro-tribal turf. Then Hatori slips into the ethereal "In Your Arms," a romantic little ballad in the Imogen Heap mold.
From there, Hatori shimmies into a series of songs that try out every style electronica can be in: harmonica pop with sputtery synth, spare synth balladry with drum machines, Sanskrit electro-funk ("I give you sweet samsara!"), futuristic pop, blip-folk, and it finishes up with the eccentric little "Amazona."
Hatori obviously has talent -- and music styles -- to burn. At first, it sounds like she is another slightly odd electro-pop artist, who has a lot of unusual instrumentation of sorts. Then after "In Your Arms," the whole tone changes. No longer is it merely pop, but Hatori's own little universe.
Okay, "Today is Like That" is unusually banal for this album. But Hatori spends more time in stranger lyrics territory -- future worlds where plant life has died and "my dad is an inspector of messages from insects," a goddess is walking on the milky way and another in the woods. The most striking is "Spirit of Juliet," about a clone who feels the love and longing of her "mother."
And those Hatori World lyrics are wrapped up in extremely fun music. Hatori blends funk, electronica, pop and sampling into the same songs, spicing up the basic electropop with fun, colourful edges. Horns, accordions, harmonica, drum machines, bells and singing birds all make their way in at the right moment.
Miho Hatori took a little longer than her ex-bandmate for this solo debut, but it was worth the wait -- it's an enchanting, fantastical little album of catchy pop. Fun and bizarre, and definitely worth it.
Ecdysis puts all those skewed assumptions to rest. It is, in fact, the very best project that either Hatori or Honda have been involved in since Cibo Matto's much-heralded first album, Viva! La Woman - it happily stands alongside that album as being a perfectly realized piece of dreamy electronic-ambient pop confections. And unlike Honda's last two releases, there isn't a single trivial or redundant track on Ecdysis - it all coheres together to form a marvelous musical expression of beauty, warmth, and of course eccentric (and thoroughly charming) originality. With its strong emphasis on ballads, it most clearly resembles Bjork's trip-hop masterpiece `Homogenic.' But Hatori takes her music and makes it definingly her own: `Song For Kids' is sung exclusively in Japanese, and numbers like `Walking City' and `Spirit of Juliet' reside entirely inside Hatori's own lyrical universe, yet are poetic and evocative enough to take you along for the ride. Hatori doesn't forget about the party, though - she gets her & our groove on in preposterously infectious fashion with `Barracuda,' `Song For Kids,' and most notably in `Sweet Samsara Part II,' where she actually seems to coin a new musical genre: Buddhist funk! Her delightful exhortation for us to "flow with me, flow!" might even get the Dalai Lama to hit the dancefloor in platform shoes. But the pure beauty of musical balladry is ultimately Hatori's finest achievement - the completely magical torch songs `In Your Arms' and `River of 3 Crossings' are as delicate and shimmering and transcendent as anything in Bjork's (or for that matter Cibo Matto's) entire repertoire.
Miho Hatori is a very creative and interesting artist and her vision for this album is a compelling one. The music is largly synthesizer/keyboard based and is therefore more colourful and richly layered than guitar based music. "The Spirit Of Juliet" could be played by a quartet of saxophones with an electronic organ. "Walking City" has a rhythmic thump over some casiotone-like keyboard lines - the song is a little like a daydream. "Today Is Like That" features an acoustic guitar and some ambient percussion & sounds. "The River Of 3 Crossings" has music quite similar to that heard on the Roisin Murphy solo album. In fact, as an artist, Miho Hatori is on the same creative side of the fence as Roisin Murphy and Björk. I actually think I like Miho-chan's album better than Ms Murphy's (which I liked at lot!) and I think she has the potential to rival or even better Björk.
"Ecdysis" is splendid, creative and very engaging album and I will certainly be on the look out for anything new from Miho Hatori.
There are similarities (and contrasts) to Byork, Cibo Matto etc. but after a few listens you tend to forget them and start soaking up Hatori's tasty concoctions, in and of themselves.
Ecdysis puts all those skewed assumptions to rest. It is, in fact, the very best project that either Hatori or Honda have been involved in since Cibo Matto's much-heralded first album, Viva! La Woman - it happily stands alongside that album as being a perfectly realized piece of dreamy electronic-ambient pop confections. And unlike Honda's last two releases, there isn't a single trivial or redundant track on Ecdysis - it all coheres together to form a marvelous musical expression of beauty, warmth, and of course eccentric (and thoroughly charming) originality. With its strong emphasis on ballads, it most clearly resembles Bjork's trip-hop masterpiece `Homogenic.' But Hatori takes her music and makes it definingly her own: `Song For Kids' is sung exclusively in Japanese, and numbers like `Walking City' and `Spirit of Juliet' reside entirely inside Hatori's own lyrical universe, yet are poetic and evocative enough to take you along for the ride. Hatori doesn't forget about the party, though - she gets her & our groove on in preposterously infectious fashion with `Barracuda,' `Song For Kids,' and most notably in `Sweet Samsara Part II,' where she actually seems to coin a new musical genre: Buddhist funk! Her delightful exhortation for us to "flow with me, flow!" might even get the Dalai Lama to hit the dancefloor in platform shoes. But the pure beauty of musical balladry is ultimately Hatori's finest achievement - the completely magical torch songs `In Your Arms' and `River of 3 Crossings' are as delicate and shimmering and transcendent as anything in Bjork's (or for that matter Cibo Matto's) entire repertoire.
Despite having been recorded almost entirely in Hatori's longtime hometown of New York City, `Ecdysis' is currently available only in Japan, but if you run a search on yahoo or google you'll be able to find places overseas to order it from. Of course, it's up to you if you want to spring for the extra $10 to cover additional shipping cost & import price - but believe me, being able to listen to one of the finest albums of 2005 a year before it hits music shops in the States is well worth it! Still, I'd imagine it will be available in the States after awhile - albums this good can't stay secret for too long.
First Solo Album from Cibo Matto's Miho.
Ecdysis,Miho Hatori,Jvc Victor,Japanese,World Music
Average customer rating: 
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Ecdysis
Miho Hatori Manufacturer: Rykodisc ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
| Alternative Rock
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ASIN: B000FIMHWQ Release Date: 2006-10-24 |
Tracks:
- Ecdysis
- Song for Kids
- In Your Arms
- Barracuda
- Spirit of Juliet
- Walking City
- Sweet Samsara, Pt. 1
- Sweet Samsara, Pt. 2
- Today Is Like That
- River of 3 Crossings
- Amazona
Customer Reviews:
A Break from Cibo Matto.......2007-07-16
"Ecdysis" deserves a wider audience than it will probably receive. The cover art (by Hatori) may be a little amateurish, but the music inside is some of the most quirkily melodic stuff out there. The instrumentation is consistently innovative, and the lyrics are simultaneously fun and provocative. Listen to it!
Ecdimensions.......2006-11-17
So it isn't exactly shocking that I also adore Miho Hatori's solo debut. It's a funky, electronic frolic through a sparkling landscape, with Hatori dipping through various global styles, indulging in little quirks that seem appropriate for her music. It's a charming experience, sort of like a poppier Bjork.
It opens with a soft organ melody. Then Hatori's sweet voice starts crooning... well, it sounds like "she steps on me," but it's actually "shine steps, shine steps on me..." As the keyboard and synth smooth out into a soft, blippy melody, she continues singing of a hallucinatory trip full of trees and "seven colors of waterfalls."
Things change big-time with "A Song For Kids." Catchy beats start tapping away as Hatori croons in Japanese, taking a brief break in ambient territory before returning to electro-tribal turf. Then Hatori slips into the ethereal "In Your Arms," a romantic little ballad in the Imogen Heap mold.
From there, Hatori shimmies into a series of songs that try out every style electronica can be in: harmonica pop with sputtery synth, spare synth balladry with drum machines, Sanskrit electro-funk ("I give you sweet samsara!"), futuristic pop, blip-folk, and it finishes up with the eccentric little "Amazona."
Hatori obviously has talent -- and music styles -- to burn. At first, it sounds like she is another slightly odd electro-pop artist, who has a lot of unusual instrumentation of sorts. Then after "In Your Arms," the whole tone changes. No longer is it merely pop, but Hatori's own little universe.
Okay, "Today is Like That" is unusually banal for this album. But Hatori spends more time in stranger lyrics territory -- future worlds where plant life has died and "my dad is an inspector of messages from insects," a goddess is walking on the milky way and another in the woods. The most striking is "Spirit of Juliet," about a clone who feels the love and longing of her "mother."
And those Hatori World lyrics are wrapped up in extremely fun music. Hatori blends funk, electronica, pop and sampling into the same songs, spicing up the basic electropop with fun, colourful edges. Horns, accordions, harmonica, drum machines, bells and singing birds all make their way in at the right moment.
Miho Hatori took a little longer than her ex-bandmate for this solo debut, but it was worth the wait -- it's an enchanting, fantastical little album of catchy pop. Fun and bizarre, and definitely worth it.
At Long Last: Miho's Masterpiece!!!.......2006-11-07
Ecdysis puts all those skewed assumptions to rest. It is, in fact, the very best project that either Hatori or Honda have been involved in since Cibo Matto's much-heralded first album, Viva! La Woman - it happily stands alongside that album as being a perfectly realized piece of dreamy electronic-ambient pop confections. And unlike Honda's last two releases, there isn't a single trivial or redundant track on Ecdysis - it all coheres together to form a marvelous musical expression of beauty, warmth, and of course eccentric (and thoroughly charming) originality. With its strong emphasis on ballads, it most clearly resembles Bjork's trip-hop masterpiece `Homogenic.' But Hatori takes her music and makes it definingly her own: `Song For Kids' is sung exclusively in Japanese, and numbers like `Walking City' and `Spirit of Juliet' reside entirely inside Hatori's own lyrical universe, yet are poetic and evocative enough to take you along for the ride. Hatori doesn't forget about the party, though - she gets her & our groove on in preposterously infectious fashion with `Barracuda,' `Song For Kids,' and most notably in `Sweet Samsara Part II,' where she actually seems to coin a new musical genre: Buddhist funk! Her delightful exhortation for us to "flow with me, flow!" might even get the Dalai Lama to hit the dancefloor in platform shoes. But the pure beauty of musical balladry is ultimately Hatori's finest achievement - the completely magical torch songs `In Your Arms' and `River of 3 Crossings' are as delicate and shimmering and transcendent as anything in Bjork's (or for that matter Cibo Matto's) entire repertoire.
still miss cibo matto BUT THIS IS GREAT!!!.......2006-10-25
Average customer rating:
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Ecdysis
Miho Hatori Manufacturer: Jvc Victor ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Japan
| Far East & Asia
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ASIN: B000B84PBG Release Date: 2005-10-31 |
Tracks:
- Ecdysis
- Song For Kids
- In Your Arms
- Barracuda
- Spirit Of Juliet
- Walking City
- Sweet Samsara Part I
- Sweet Samsara Part Ii
- River Of 3 Crossing
- Amazona
Album Details
First Solo Album from Cibo Matto's Miho.Customer Reviews:
Like it, but can't listen to it all in one sitting.......2007-07-08
Very good! More than five stars!.......2007-03-10
Miho Hatori is a very creative and interesting artist and her vision for this album is a compelling one. The music is largly synthesizer/keyboard based and is therefore more colourful and richly layered than guitar based music. "The Spirit Of Juliet" could be played by a quartet of saxophones with an electronic organ. "Walking City" has a rhythmic thump over some casiotone-like keyboard lines - the song is a little like a daydream. "Today Is Like That" features an acoustic guitar and some ambient percussion & sounds. "The River Of 3 Crossings" has music quite similar to that heard on the Roisin Murphy solo album. In fact, as an artist, Miho Hatori is on the same creative side of the fence as Roisin Murphy and Björk. I actually think I like Miho-chan's album better than Ms Murphy's (which I liked at lot!) and I think she has the potential to rival or even better Björk.
"Ecdysis" is splendid, creative and very engaging album and I will certainly be on the look out for anything new from Miho Hatori.
A Rare Gem.......2006-05-18
There are similarities (and contrasts) to Byork, Cibo Matto etc. but after a few listens you tend to forget them and start soaking up Hatori's tasty concoctions, in and of themselves.
At Long Last: Miho's Masterpiece!!!.......2005-12-17
Ecdysis puts all those skewed assumptions to rest. It is, in fact, the very best project that either Hatori or Honda have been involved in since Cibo Matto's much-heralded first album, Viva! La Woman - it happily stands alongside that album as being a perfectly realized piece of dreamy electronic-ambient pop confections. And unlike Honda's last two releases, there isn't a single trivial or redundant track on Ecdysis - it all coheres together to form a marvelous musical expression of beauty, warmth, and of course eccentric (and thoroughly charming) originality. With its strong emphasis on ballads, it most clearly resembles Bjork's trip-hop masterpiece `Homogenic.' But Hatori takes her music and makes it definingly her own: `Song For Kids' is sung exclusively in Japanese, and numbers like `Walking City' and `Spirit of Juliet' reside entirely inside Hatori's own lyrical universe, yet are poetic and evocative enough to take you along for the ride. Hatori doesn't forget about the party, though - she gets her & our groove on in preposterously infectious fashion with `Barracuda,' `Song For Kids,' and most notably in `Sweet Samsara Part II,' where she actually seems to coin a new musical genre: Buddhist funk! Her delightful exhortation for us to "flow with me, flow!" might even get the Dalai Lama to hit the dancefloor in platform shoes. But the pure beauty of musical balladry is ultimately Hatori's finest achievement - the completely magical torch songs `In Your Arms' and `River of 3 Crossings' are as delicate and shimmering and transcendent as anything in Bjork's (or for that matter Cibo Matto's) entire repertoire.
Despite having been recorded almost entirely in Hatori's longtime hometown of New York City, `Ecdysis' is currently available only in Japan, but if you run a search on yahoo or google you'll be able to find places overseas to order it from. Of course, it's up to you if you want to spring for the extra $10 to cover additional shipping cost & import price - but believe me, being able to listen to one of the finest albums of 2005 a year before it hits music shops in the States is well worth it! Still, I'd imagine it will be available in the States after awhile - albums this good can't stay secret for too long.
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