Women That Yell - Part One

That dash of Annie Anxiety over the weekend made me realise that I just love hysterical female vocals, so I’ve decided to dedicate some blog time to my favourites over here at idiot's guide…

First up is that sweet Japanese siren – Hanayo and a track from her collaboration CD – Gift released on an off-shoot of DHR – Geist.
Les Sucettes by Candie Hank / Hanayo (dwld expired) is the number and boy that girl can screech. That distorted no-wave techno, crashing against a cute girly sing song ... until exploding feedback flings her voice around like some sadomasochistic plaything... just the thing to worry the neighbours.

As for the rest of the album read this old-time review of mine...
(there's also some frustratingly short streaming fragments (30sec) over at last fm)


Gift - Hanayo available on Geist 013cd

This ex Geisha girl turned musician/song-tress graces the cover dressed as a Hitler Youth lying back on crumpled sheets, a trickle of blood seeping from a nostril, an eye blackened. Almost like a victim of domestic violence or some sexual role-play, her seductive gaze remains frozen with expectancy- something that sums the album up beautifully, for beneath that thin veneer of a childlike voice there flows an interesting undercurrent that dwells on the shady side of life

Throughout the albums 13 tracks she suggestively implies and unpredictably darts from whispered seduction to orgasmic outrage all with a angelic conviction as if butter wouldn't melt...or maybe itâs just me? For example the opening track 'Sometime a girl loves a boy' all rolling piano and cute delivery sounding like a sweet ballad but when listening closely reveals a less than innocent perspective.

Every track is a collaboration with a different artists, making for a varied listen, to which Hanayo's voice has a chameleon-like flexibility which seems almost instinctive - second nature. In places this verges on abstract mania as on 'Les Sucettes' where her lyrics turn to grasping screams or 'Omisoshilu (miso soup)' with the noise master - Merzbow, where her voice is transformed into bubbling static and radio tuning hysteria sliding between stations.

As you may have guessed she doesn't go in for the stylistic treadmill, and just when you think it all left field experiment, she slips in the perfect pop song,ISDN - a robotically vocorded voice to a electro click n' skip guaranteed to get you gyrating round the room.

The variety found here has a very wide spectrum indeed and in complete contrast to isdn , Track 11 is all sibilant snakelike whispers to an equally dark semi-industrial soundscape provided by Christoph De Babalon. Hanayo sounds her most frightening - a black widow to which suitors will lose their heads in a post congical bite - the food for love literally. There's even a slice of pure Eurovision with 'Banzai Neoteny' which is all techno pump and sugar candy vocals.

By far the best track must be 'Kimigayo' with stillppusteya - ghostly synths and Japanese poetry drifting like cherry blossom in breathy chops and sluggish over-dubs. Later this is reversed set in disembodied loops - experimental minimalism at it's best.

The whole album ends with a hidden track, a cover version of that 90's hit 'Joe La Taxi' mutated into a Gus Gus like dance number...Perplexed - don't be, just enjoy the ride...

Unique and needing a wider audience, this knocks that delightful Icelandic pixie for six...complacency will never be Hanayo's thang!