Rocket or Chiritori - Star

Rocket or Chiritori was the project of Japanese schoolgirl Satoko Shibahara, whose musical 'career' lasted from the ages of fifteen to seventeen. Between those ages, Shibahara recorded a collection of messy, rickety low-fidelity indie pop songs. There is something incredibly intimate about the recordings; it feels as though you are in her room with her, or in her diary, or even in her mind. What makes the music so personal is in how untreated and raw the recordings are. Her vocals are practically indiscernible, the instrumentation is naïve and the general production is a warm encapsulation of teenage angst and exploration. Yet, underneath the mess lay songs that could, with sufficient polishing, be hits in a variety of styles. 'Star', as featured in this post, wouldn't be out of place in the K Records roster, or among Scottish indie pop acts like The Pastels or The Shop Assistants, or, even, in an American college movie. I guess that implies that there's a degree of unfulfilled potential here but, at the same time: would professionalism enhance these recordings in any other way than aesthetically? No. They are perfect as they are, as snapshots into the life of a young girl, from another time, from another culture. The recordings are her.

Label: Cardinal Records
Year: 1997
Genre: Indie Pop, Lo-Fi Pop, Experimental, Anti-Folk