365 ELECTRONIC MUSIC ALBUMS IN 365 DAYS: メルヘン by FRENESI

365 ELECTRONIC MUSIC ALBUMS IN 365 DAYS

Day 36: フレネシ (Frenesi) — メルヘン (Meruhen)

Genres: Shibuya-Kei / Picopop / Down Tempo

Year: 2009

Country: Japan

(This is a personal opinion; I have no formal knowledge of music theory, but I deeply love electronic music. Please keep that in mind while reading.)

Today we return to the Land of the Rising Sun.

More importantly, we return to one of my favorite movements in Japanese music history: Shibuya-Kei.

I've always believed Shibuya-Kei is one of Japan's most underrated musical movements. By blending Pop, Jazz, Bossa Nova, electronic music and Easy Listening, it created one of the most imaginative underground scenes of the late 1990s and early 2000s. While City Pop had defined the previous decade, Shibuya-Kei looked backward to imagine a completely different future.

Few artists embody that spirit better than Fumiko Kuzumaki.

She began singing and writing songs at a very young age, eventually becoming the creative force behind Frenesi, composing, arranging and producing nearly every aspect of the project herself.

メルヘン (Meruhen, meaning "fairy tale") feels exactly like its title suggests.

The album opens with インフレイションⅡ (Infureishon II), introducing shimmering synthesizers, playful drum programming and Lounge-inspired bridges that immediately establish Frenesi's wonderfully eclectic take on Shibuya-Kei.

Songs such as 不良マネキン (Furyō Manekin) and コンピューターおばあちゃん (Konpyūtā Obāchan) combine innocent, almost Bubblegum-like melodies with sophisticated arrangements that reminded me of Cabiria's Radio Coral in the way they balance sweetness with nostalgia.

Then comes 街 (Machi).

I happened to hear it while walking through one of my favorite streets in my city.

Sometimes an album becomes permanently attached to the place where you first experience it.

This became one of those records.

Later tracks like シノノメ (Shinonome) drift toward Down Tempo and Jazz, allowing the synthesizers to breathe naturally, while ロイコクロリディウム (Leucochloridium)—named after the famous parasitic organism—creates one of the album's most unusual and memorable atmospheres.

The record closes with the title track Meruhen and a fascinating Mandarin Chinese version of 覆面調査員, offering a completely different perspective on one of Frenesi's signature songs.

I actually listened to this album just a few hours before my Japanese class.

Believe it or not, it even became part of my katakana practice while I tried romanizing every song title by myself.

There are certainly worse ways to study a language.

PERSONAL CONCLUSIONS:

Fumiko Kuzumaki is now in her fifties, and Frenesi has remained mostly inactive for well over a decade.

Still, she continues interacting with fans online and has never completely ruled out creating new music again.

Seeing younger listeners rediscover her work genuinely makes me happy.

What saddens me is how quickly people today label everything as "Webcore" instead of taking the time to understand the movement these artists actually came from.

I remember having exactly that conversation with my friend Sayra: why is it so easy to reduce entire musical movements to internet aesthetics?

Frenesi deserves far more than that.

She deserves recognition as one of the most unique voices Shibuya-Kei ever produced.

So the next time rain taps against your window...

Make yourself a cup of coffee.

Press play.

And let Frenesi do the rest.