The theme for today, it turns out, is Decreasing Order of Smooth…

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Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Takeshi Ueda is a professional songwriter at one precise act: bludgeoning mosh-heavy digital-hardcore that sideswipes into swathes of sugary melody. He perfected this approach on the Mad Capsule Markets’ 1999 album OSC-DIS, drawing in an international fan base stunned by the accessible brutality of Ueda’s sound — then he bashed away at the same sound over two more MCM albums before taking his sound deep into Japan’s off-kilter mainstream as a songwriter for hire. Those two records (given awkward titles like 010 and Cistm Konfliqt) were fine, but showed the limitations of Ueda’s approach — the first time gossamer pop bursts from pounding oontz-oontz drums, it’s a shock. The second and third and twentieth time, it’s a formula. “Stupig” is an excellent example of Ueda’s sound and its inability to evolve, but also of its base pleasures. Even though the effect is numbed somewhat after fifteen year of practice, the approach can still reap the rewards of grit and sugar.
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Iain Mew: “I don’t want to like you stupig/I like you stupig” — a parallel for the reaction BiS are trying to engender by setting their brief pop hooks amidst so much hardcore aggression? It’s a refreshingly bizarre idea, but the “like” element doesn’t quite emerge for me because the pop bits neither carry the energy of the previous pummelling nor offer a contrast to it, just sit on top of a slightly tamer version.
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Patrick St. Michel: If you’re going to be divisive, go all the way. You’ve probably read about J-pop fans who buy multiple copies of CDs, often to load up on tickets for handshake events where they literally meet their idols for one second. Those diehards are put off by BiS, an “anti-idol” group who take every convention now common in the Japanese pop landscape and push it to the fringes. They are “idols you can touch,” idols you can hire to clean your house, idols who make really really uncomfortable music videos. Yet, save for weird side deals like this, their music has never been as radical as their appearance. Until “STUPiG,” in which BiS say “fuck it” and make a song that has more in common with gabber than AKB48. It’s intentionally disorienting, everything blown out and jackhammering away at the conventions of modern Japanese pop music — but this isn’t pop anarchy, because BiS also went and recorded the best chorus of their career, a fantastically catchy shout that still sounds appropriate within the Atari-Teenage-riot mosh pit the rest of the song conjures up. Subversion rarely sounds this fantastic.
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David Sheffieck: Utterly ridiculous and a crime against audiophiles everywhere, this also features one of the more irresistible choruses I’ve heard so far this year: abrasive and sugary and catchy. It’s like Sleigh Bells if Sleigh Bells had fully delivered on their core concept.
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Alfred Soto: Beneath the murk emerges Atari Teenage Riot getting ahold of Jesus Jones’ ’92 samplers. 
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Katherine St Asaph: Poliça x MIA. x LiveonRelease x an EDM drop, IN JAPAN? High concept, for a niche market. I’m a niche market.
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Brad Shoup: The fidelity is the right kind of obnoxious, the pop-punk chorus is the right kind of transport, the off-beat intro is the right kind of disorienting. And I mean “right” as in “satisfying,” not “canny,” although I’m sure it is that. I’d be happy if any section of this song were its own full-length tune. If years in music could be won, someone would be missing a gauntlet.
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Cédric Le Merrer: “What if Skinny Puppy and Tsunku collaborated on the Rock’n’Roll Racing soundtrack?” wondered a music writer’s strawman and then this improbable song happened, and everyone in the mosh pit started doing a synchronized choreography involving several Great Saiyaman poses, and a great time was had by all.
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Will Adams: Ow.
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