Fujiya and Miyagi - Ventriloquizing
- Written by Rosie Duffield
Brighton seems an unlikely place for a Japanese duo to hail from, but then Fujiya & Miyagi aren’t quite what they seem. Not, in fact, Japanese, the act are actually a quartet who began making music over a decade ago. Now on to their fourth album, the band has evolved over the years, claiming Krautrock bands Can and Neu! as strong influences – evident on tracks such as their breakthrough single ‘Collarbone’ and ‘Ankle Injury’.
Ventriloquizzing, then, seems slightly more experimental than previous offerings. Still laidback dance music, with an overlay of David Best’s monotone whispering; but for a start the lyrical topics have moved on from body parts – not to say that they make any more sense.
Take for example, the first few lines of ‘Cat’s Got Your Tongue’: “You don’t know/which side you’re/bread is buttered on/Has the cat/got your tongue?” or a descriptive warning about over-medicating: “silver foil trays/in boxes/sixteen red and yellow capsules/printed in black and white/on adhesive labels/these little pills/may give you/dizzy spells”.
Musically, the band try out various new directions; album opener and title track ‘Ventriloquizzing’ opens sounding similar to New Young Pony Club before a synth riff brightens the song up, whilst ’16 Shades of Black And Blue’ is a dark (and somewhat less exciting) track which could be mistaken for T Rex with its thumping bass line.
‘Minestrone’ is a rather funky number, considering the topic. Not just about soup – the lyrics hail from an old myth about Chanctonbury Ring, where it’s said if you run round a clump of trees backwards seven times the devil will appear and offer you soup. ‘Tinsel and Glitter’ is reminiscent of a Death Cab For Cutie track (namely the instrumental part of ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’), with its upbeat drum beat and light guitar teases.
Fujiya & Miyagi wanted to create a something new with this album, and it’s turned out rather well – if a little darker than their other works. But then, using puppets to help promote the record and naming the album Ventriloquizzing sort of lends itself to the more sinister. Named after the notion of “people speaking for you, like adults do with babies”, Best says the idea of a split personality fits in with the way a band is perceived as one, rather than the individuals who make it.
In this case, it’s easy to see that the quartet have each brought something new to the musical table, and with a new producer to boot (Thom Monahan), Ventriloquizzing provides a decent follow up to 2008’s Lightbulbs.