My thoughts on “KäMPFER”, the first mini-album from Daremo Shiranai.
Release Date: May 17th 2021
Tracklist
1. Balance Breaker
2. ESCAPE
3. Tsukame
4. Sakushi, Saku ni dohamari
5. Hana ichi monme
6. Magenta -MAGENTA-
7. Ender
8. Bokura ga ikita akashi
2021 has been a pretty weird year still despite all of our hopes that it might have been otherwise. Things are getting a bit better now in a lot of places but for many, Japan included, it’s still pretty tough out there. The fact that so many Idol groups continue to debut under these current circumstances will never not surprise me and the fact that the overall production is as high as ever is a testament to the scene’s resilience in my opinion. Something I’ve been trying to feature where possible on the site this year.
We’ve met Daremo Shiranai before when I checked out their “ESCAPE / Tsuakme” digital single which came out back in February. The group likes to take a base Rock sound and mix it with various other complimentary genres to create their songs and they’ve been doing it rather well so far, with everything that I’ve heard having its own personality and quite a lot going into each track. A good foundation upon which to build upon is I believe the sentiment that I left off that last review with and what more can you ask from a still very new group.
Well, Daremo are looking to push on from that with the release of their first mini-album “KäMPFER” (fighter in German)…though I have to point out that it can hardly be considered a mini-album with 8 tracks. In any case, the Nagoya 5-piece have collected together their “Balance Breaker” and “ESCAPE / Tsuakme” digital singles and added 5 more tracks into the equation to create this release so there should be plenty for us to be getting our teeth into here. I’m hoping for some interesting takes on the Rock genre and little bit of progression from where they started out with those first 3 tracks. Hopefully that’s what we end up hearing here but I guess there’s only one way we’re going to find out so let’s get on with the review.
Kicking off the mini-album is “Balance Breaker”, the first track that Daremo Shirani released digitally at the start of 2021. I regret not writing about it when it originally came out but you know how things go, sometimes things just slip past you for one reason or another. Anyway, this is a pretty good track to lead off on given the high intensity and energy of its Electro-Synth instrumental which is being kept in time be a rather catchy drumbeat. We also get a bit of Rap from the vocals which might give off the wrong first impression of this group as they’re not typically doing this sort of thing, but it works well for the subject matter here. The track does offer up some softer, more melodic elements in the form of piano being brought into the instrumental in the lulls and the vocals do depart from the heavier Rap style and trend more melodic for the song’s choruses. I wouldn’t say that they find the perfect balance between the track’s more chaotic and calmer styles but I think it’s packing plenty of punch which is sure to catch peoples’ attention while also showing off a few other things that the group is capable of, just in a slightly more subtle way. Off to a strong start here and featuring this track and the next two is a nice way of catching any potential new listeners up on what they’ve been missing out on so far.
Next we have “ESCAPE”, one half of the release that Daremo put out just prior to this mini-album. You can read my initial impressions on that right here if you would like to by the way. It’s a nice piano tinged Rock track which has a rather elegant feel to it at times and there’s some pretty cool guitar riffs going on during these parts too. Other times things sound a lot more moody but all the while retaining much of the energy and intensity that the track opens up with. The vocal work on this one is perhaps unsurprisingly very dramatic and emotionally charged but that’s the sort of thing that these songs call for and each member of the group puts in a really strong performance and there’s plenty of variety in vocal style and tone going on which keeps things feeling a little bit more interesting too. The choruses are pretty straight forward, amped up versions of what’s going on with the rest of the track, though the lyrics are very catchy which helps to lift it up just that little bit higher. Yeah, it’s a Japanese Rock song at heart so if you’re into that sort of stuff then it’s an easy recommend but if you feel like you’ve heard it all before then you might not to blown away as solid as this track is. Your call folks.
Then along comes “Tsukame” to catch us all right up to date on the previously released Daremo material. Like the last track you can again read my initially thoughts and opinions here if just can’t get enough of that sort of thing. For everyone else, this track ups the tension considerably with its opening Heavy Metal inspired instrumental with all of the chunk and screeching guitar riffs that one might expect from the genre making an appearance. The vocals are noticeably more intense and there’s a little bit of distortion on them to help out too which I’m not typically a fan of but I think it worked out well enough here that it wasn’t a huge issue. All we really needed was an anthemic chorus and Daremo are more than happy to oblige in that department with the soaring instrumental and powerful vocal melodies shown here sure to make a lot of people sit up and take notice if they give the group a chance. There are still a couple of times where I sort of drifted off the instrumental a bit as it sort of finds its comfort zone and happily sits in it which is fine but you know I wouldn’t have minded some extra drum parts or something just to keep the ears sharp. Apart from that, this is another great take on the Rock genre with its own direction and personality making it stand out from the rest of this release so far. What’s not to like really.
I’m really loving the Gothic vibe to the very stompy opening instrumental for “Sakushi, Saku ni dohamari”. It kinda reminds me of that early 2000s Emo Rock sort of thing that I was rather into at the time I have no trouble admitting. The track eventually transitions into something a bit more Jazzy in nature which was a bit of a surprise but they handled the change pretty damn well and the stompy beat got carried over so it wasn’t quite as jarring as it might have been otherwise. The vocals are introduced around this time as well and they do a fairly good job of matching up with the tone of the instrumental, though I did feel like they might have been lacking a bit of that smooth richness that a lot of tracks in this style tend to go for. I guess it’s hard to balance that sort of thing with the edge that they were trying to keep on the tone of things though so maybe I’m looking for something that shouldn’t even be there anyway. The choruses are very loud and kinda muddied up because of this, though it definitely feels like it’s by design at least so I can appreciate what they were going for there and I do like the energy that it brings to the track too. A few minor things for me with this one but still plenty to really like here and it’s another different take on the Rock genre so Daremo are definitely living up to their stated intent musically here.
Considering the mini-album’s fifth track “Hana ichi monme” is named after a Japanese children’s game, I kinda figured we might get a song that had a bit of playful side to it. That ended up being the case early on, with the members all coming together to…I guess chant is a good way of describing how they’re delivering the opening verse or so of the track. They keep things feeling modern with a wub heavy synthesizer backing instrumental though and it gets pretty intense at times too. Once the track really gets going the vocals transform into more of a Rap style which gives the song a pretty heavy K-Pop vibe to me so it feels like they’re definitely trying to appeal to a specific demographic with this one. From the pacing to the tone, flow and everything in between this song feels very familiar which can cut one of a couple different ways. It’s a solid take on the style it’s aiming for, but it doesn’t really offer anything new or different and it’s easy to start drawing comparisons with other acts with similar output of the same or a higher standard. I like the playful, schoolyard feel they go for in a couple of spots on the track but by the time everything is really up and running it does sort of end up feeling a bit out of place to me. Good for what it is, does anyone want/need more of this sort of song is probably the more important question and I obviously can’t answer that one by myself.
Daremo then proceed to try their hand at a Symphonic Rock number on the next track “Magenta -MAGENTA-“. Lots of nice strings, keyboards and other such things are being woven into the song’s base Rock instrumental and to the surprise of nobody it all of course works very well together as one would expect. The tone does get a bit darker and the guitars take over more and more as the track progresses and the vocals are also sounding a little bit moody in how they’re being delivered so not a really bright, soaring take on the genre but something a bit levelheaded and grounded which is my personal preference in all honesty when it comes to these sorts of songs. The choruses get a bit more lively and emotionally charged however and I thought that the performance from all of the members was really good during these parts as they hit both the emotions as well as the higher notes that really made the track come to life a lot more. They add back in some more of the symphonic elements a bit later on too and that also helped to keep things from getting too comfortable and same-y like can happen when you get locked in on the sort of tone and atmosphere that these types of song tend to have. Again, another solid take on a well established genre and Daremo can safely cross off another square on the bingo card when it comes to trying to cover all of the more well known variations of the Rock genre on this release.
Despite its title, “Ender” isn’t actually the last track to feature on this release though its very soft, piano heavy Ballad style would have definitely made it the perfect fit for such a role. What can I say, most longer form Japanese releases tend to end up featuring a track like this at some point so we all really should have seen it coming here too. Nothing too revolutionary in what’s going into the instrumental, just some nice piano playing and a bit of a soft Rock vibe from the other instruments to round it all out. Very low tension in the verses, which is pretty much one of two ways you can go with this style, before ramping everything up for the choruses which feature a much more intense outpouring of emotion. It’s all really simple stuff but its all been proven to work time and time again so of course it remains the case here as well when Daremo followed and executed the main principles so well. Once again the vocal performance is impressive for a number of reason, be it the emotions being exuded, the notes being hit or just how everything is pulled off so well and with little hint of it being any real difficulty at all. Kinda hard to mess this sort of thing up, Daremo certainly didn’t here and I don’t really have much more to comment on so let’s move on.
Which brings us to the real final track of this not so mini-album in “Bokura ga ikita akashi”. A very grainy texture to everything is the first thing of real note as the track begins, sounding like the vocals are coming through an old speaker something with a mild amount of interference bleeding in from somewhere. This gradually fades away though, and by the time the track has transformed into a very lively and upbeat Rock number you couldn’t even really tell that it was even there in the first place. Great energy by the way once things get going, and a pretty enjoyable Alt Rock slant to things with some slightly odd time signatures being put to good use by the guitars and the drumbeat. The vocals are an interesting mix of what I would describe as Rock with a lot of J-Pop sensibilities and melodies, hopefully that makes sense but the end result is some pretty catchy lyrical hooks and some ear pleasing melodies, especially when it comes to talking about the choruses. Looks like Daremo wanted to end things off on a high, very energetic note and I can certainly appreciate that sentiment especially when the track in question is as good as the one here is. Very much a recommended listen from me.
Well, “KäMPFER” certainly isn’t a mini-album by any stretch of the imagination but the selection of tracks that it contains are all very strong takes on the various Rock genres that they’re drawing inspiration from. None of them really seek to reinvent the wheel or push the envelope too far out of some pretty well defined comfort zones, but as the first big release from a group that’s still rather new it’s really hard to argue that Daremo Shiranai haven’t done rather well for themselves here.
That said, I hope they start to find their own sound with future releases as right now it’s a bit difficult to pin down exactly what they’re going for as a group. Putting a bit more of their own personality into their material and not sticking quite as close to what everyone already knows works would also be an interesting thing to consider. As it stands though, they’re more than capable of performing Rock in a number of styles, and the songs they have are enjoyable and well put together so everyone should definitely check them out if they haven’t already and think that anything I mentioned here might be something that they’re into.
Rating:
