Capsule Giants
Hello Heroes
Cardinal

A band with the kazoo in the line-up can't be wrong, right? Japanese quartet Capsule Giants present their third album - Hello Heroes - which is an album containing indie-type pop-charm, including melancholy and naivety, but also a sense of humor.

Capsule Giants play around the paths of English bands of the (late) 70's and the 80's, like The Monochrome Set (listen to Your White Deer, and you know what I mean), Felt, and Television Personalities (slightly), with some flashes from 60's Psychedelia. Hello Heroes starts with the 4-second On; just imagine turning on a Mac. Then comes Prologue (Take Off), which is a space-effected jet-plane taking off, taking us to the pop-spheres where the Capsule Giants operate from. Equipped with guitars, bass, organ, piano, drums, keyboards, not forgetting the kazoo, they produce a nice bunch of catchy and jangly guitar-pop.

The album was recorded in the US, perfectly by analog equipment, guided by the engineering skills of Dustin Reske (of Rocketship). Most of the material is written by vocalist/guitarist (rhythm?) Reo Yokomizo, but also guitarist Daisuke Sakai and the rhythmical duo has contributed to the song-writing. Drummer Kazuoki Kajiwara has even got a drum-solo track! Yes, that's true; Space Matt Drumming, Space Matt Driving is 2 minutes and 20 seconds in "Drum-o-rama", and the only drum-solo I can recall being presented on a studio album (Heavy Metal not included!).

Best tracks on the album are: Mom, Dad & Monster (with a guitar-riff used a thousand times before, but still being way cool), Red Stone (complete with a ba-ba-bah chorus), and the title-track. Of course the album closes with Epilogue (Landing), taking us down to let us out again, safe on the ground.

Capsule Giants send special thanks to Buffalo Daughter and Pavement among others. I'd like to thank Capsule Giants for a fine album. And I'd like to say "thank you...not!" to the person in charge of the cover design, who has chosen that awful, almost unreadable font! If I've misspelled some names and titles, you know who's to blame.

Copyright © 1998 Håvard Oppøyen