Next New Release - "Nikoseron 3"

While we are anxiously awaiting for the "Ningen No Kao" reissue, it is just announced that the next new recording from Hikashu is going to be an EP, and its title track is a newly-recorded rendition of "Nikoseron."

"Nikoseron" is released for the first time as the opening and closing number of their latest album, Ten Ten Ten. Almost coincidentally with the release of the album, it was performed at their concert. It was remarkable; not only performance wise, but for the arrangement.

More precisely, the premiere performance of the composition before audience was at the Shibuya Quattro concert on December 26, 2009. From the beginning, the arrangement was considerably different; for the two studio-recorded version, the bass-clarinet of Shimizu Kazuto was prominently featured, and Sato Masaharu played mostly with brushes. Instead, at the live premiere, Shimizu settled with piano, and Sato played entirely with sticks.

At the performance, Shimizu commenced to reproduce the distinctive, sequenced rhythmic pattern with a concert grand, and subsequently he even took a solo with it. In a good sense, it was grandiose - fairly fast, but never lose or miss the rhythmic feel of the composition.

Even after that, the arrangement was changed many times - I suspect most of them are not preconceived but spontaneous - and nowadays it usually includes a drum solo but not restricted with it. For example, as I reported here before, at the Fuji Rock performance, in the concluding part of the drum solo, there was a short but memorable obliggato with bass-clarinet and cornet, and it even followed Sato singing the main melody in falsetto while playing the drums - it was incredible to see he masterfully sang the melody and kept the complicated rhythm at the same time.

It is highly likely that "Nikoseron 3" (both part 1 and 2 are on the "Ten Ten Ten" album, hence the name) has a revised arrangement, but I cannot tell it is the same with live performance. (and in the first place, which one?)

Anyway, Hikashu fans are in for a treat again.

Its release date is tentatively set on January 25, 2011, which is also Makigami's birthday. Rejoice!


Note: You could listen to the part 1 at Hikashu's MySpace account. Here.



Nikoseron (part 1)
words & music - makigami

It was yesterday evening when I became patient
Throwing questions to a fragment of transience

Stairway in station
Mails are prohibited
It must be on sunday;
to select the future

What infected was a life of inertia
Looked like being square;
inside it was rotten

Do not step on a flower in roadside
Take off your earbuds and turn the wheel

Who inflated is a genie of "before long"
Maybe it wants to catch onto the whiteness of udon*

It's nice to eat oranges
It's nice to keep walking like this also

Nikoseron
Nikoseron

I want to admit you
I want to absolve you

There are the seagulls above the sea, delivering prayer
It's not love
It's not peace


* udon (wikipedia) is a popular sort of noodle in Japanese cuisine.