Daffodil-19
Daffodilic
Cardinal Records

If you get a record wrapped like this it's really fun to buy CDs! A beautiful digi-pack shaped like a small book in silver. Yummy! Daffodil-19 is another Japanese pop-flower: a sextet playing light summerly pop with a kind roughness. It seems like they've picked a lot of inspiration from Anglo-American bands over the years, because without knowing they're from Japan I couldn't have guessed. Yet they somehow manage to sound a bit exotic.

The lazy-sounding and relaxed vocals put some perfect nonsense lyrics on top of their (slightly) neo-psychedelic guitar-pop. They sometimes reminds me of, say, mid-80's American guitar-band The Rain Parade. And their quick and jangly guitars make me now and then think of the Wedding Present (or maybe other English late-80's bands, like Popguns or Heavenly), especially during one song, Cicada Daze, which ends in a four-minute instrumental - guitar played mandolin-style - light and pleasant riff-o-rama. Neat.

Maybe it's the cover art, but I was a bit disappointed after listening to this album. I mean, with such a beautiful wrapping you expect some magic to appear as you put on the disc. Most of the songs sound a bit too anonymous, but there are some glimpses of something in between that makes you raise at least one eyebrow. I liked the "prologue" and the "epilogue" of Daffodilic; the calm Joan of Arc and the quiet River Flow ending with a mantra: "Let's close the circuit..." (going on and on for quite some minutes). I guess we'll hear from these Japanese flowers again later.

Cardinal Records:
c/o Bloody Dolphins Co., 1-32-10 Daizawa Setagaya-Ku, Tokyo 155-0032, Japan

Copyright © 1998 Håvard Oppøyen