by Brett Williams (@brettwilliams6)
I was curious to see what the crowd would look like at Mei Semones’ early June show at Ace of Cups in Columbus. The guitarist and songwriter’s debut album, Animaru, arrived last month on the heels of several singles and EPs released sporadically over the past few years. The record, like her past releases, draws on a diverse array of musical languages like jazz, alternative rock, J-pop and emo. A somewhat surprising and welcome addition to the expected crowd of people in their 20’s and 30’s, were older audience members , some attending by themselves, and others chaperoning their teenagers to the all-ages show. It makes sense when you listen to Animaru; only music this original and singular is so accessible, inviting, and likeable.
After taking the stage and playing a few older tunes, Semones switched her electric guitar for an acoustic one and performed Animaru virtually from front to back. Her band, resembling a chamber orchestra, is made up of drummer Ransom McCafferty, bassist Noam Tanzer, violinist Claudius Agrippa and violist Noah Leong. The group, all Berklee College of Music graduates like Semones, is the same that played on the record, providing the instrumental mastery needed to pull off her ambitious arrangements.
Animaru marks a significant step in Semones’ growth as an artist, and not just because it’s her first full-length. The record features many of the elements present in her earlier music, like the unique blend of jazz and alt-rock influences and lyrics in both Japanese and English, but it forgoes some of her more mathy, guitar tapping-heavy indie rock stylings in favor of the rhythms and harmonies of bossa nova. This gives a dose of thematic unity that separates it from the more varied nature of her previous work. The Latin component is particularly noticeable on “Tora Moyo,” Semones’ love letter to her guitar, which (of course) shines prominently throughout the track. “My hands are yours, no other use for them,” she sings after a sprightly and blistering solo.
Semones’ decision to sing in both Japanese and English is mirrored by her arrangements’ constant fluctuations and sudden changes in direction. In the chorus of album opener “Dumb Feeling,” the band shifts between a thumping hard rock groove and a hushed, nimble samba from bar to bar. This is the case throughout the album. The music never lets you get too comfortable in a certain groove, before picking up and taking root somewhere new. The exception to this rule is “Donguri,” a slow, jazzy ballad, sparsely arranged for just guitar and bass. Perfectly placed at the album’s center, the semi-surreal vignette of a solitary walk in the woods differs from the more frenetic compositions and eases you into the album’s second half. The six-minute waltz “Sasayaku Sakebu” closes the album spectacularly, with an explosive final chorus that leads into a simple, lullaby-like coda.
The influences that went into Animaru - bebop, bossa nova, and grunge among others - were all at one time soundtracks to distinct subcultures. Semones uses them as tools at her disposal in the creation of something entirely her own. I’m not going to say we live in a “post-genre” world, or that terms like jazz, j-pop and alternative rock aren’t important as musical descriptors, but I do sometimes think that the use of them as distinct categories has begun to outlive its usefulness, especially when encountering albums as unique, varied, and inventive as Animaru.