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Crawl De Oyagu Kingyotachi
(2006) |
Mosquito exist in a curious sort of no-man's-land in the Tokyo music scene, their musical style pulled in opposing directions by, on the one hand, their love of the experimental jazz/punk/psychedelia of Natsumen and their like, and on the other hand an immediate musical circle of more pop-orientated peers such as Shoot My Disco and Miami.
Mosquito's debut mini-album treads carefully, acknowledging both sets of influences but wisely attempting to maintain a sense of internal cohesion in the music and the result is a record that works as a unified item and not just as a collection of songs.
Lie Lie is still their catchiest and most perfectly formed track, all chorus and no verse, with Shihomi's sugary vocals counterbalanced by the other three's shouted ripostes;
Momoiro comes closest to fulfilling the potential for a noisy psychedelic breakdown, although it leaves you wishing that they would just push the madness out a little bit further, if only to see just how far they could go if they really wanted to. As it is,
Crawl De Oyagu Kingyotachi is an extremely well-put-together mini-album, bristling with pop hooks, that will hopefully act as a springboard towards the greater and weirder extremes that
Mosquito always seemed capable of.
Ian Martin Dec.10.06
