Every now and then, I like a break from talking about Hello! Project 24/7. Unfortunately, the scope of different artists I know of and listen to in the Japanese music industry is horrifically small compared to other bloggers out there — I just don’t “get out there” enough and mostly stick to whatever Vulpi is interested at the current time.

Well, luckily for me, she has good taste, and I’ve discovered the wonders of capsule’s weird techno/bossa/house style combination. Sure, I’ve known of them for a while and had a couple of their songs (“Sugarless GiRL” was my first capsule song), but only recently did I decide to get ahold of their sixth album L.D.K. Lounge Designers Killer, originally released September 21st, 2005. In this post, you’ll find a review of each separate track, and then an overall judgment on the album taken as a whole, because I just love doing these types of things.

L.D.K. Lounge Designers Killer cover

01. 空飛ぶ都市計画 (“Soratobu Toshikeikaku”; Fly in the Sky Town Planning)
RUNTIME: 5:06

The album opens somewhat curiously with an ominous noise that signals the beginning of the first track, “Soratobu Toshikeikaku” (actually, it reminds me a lot of the opening for SPEED’s first single, “Body & Soul”). It quickly transforms into a great techno song as an ensemble of different sounds come into play and surround the central beat. The song is pretty much entirely void of singing, and instead scatters samples of a strange echoing voice saying “this is an emergency”, “prepare yourselves for judgement”, and something about “reaching critical mass” (it’s a bit difficult to make out). “Soratobu” follows the same repetitive beats and is pretty easy to follow, except when a few wildcards are thrown here-or-there, such as a twinkling noise that appears briefly sometime during 3:00. The song ends abruptly.

I get the sense of a thriving metropolis whenever I listen to this song. :| There’s an animated PV on YouTube for it, but I haven’t watched it yet to see if my mental image at all matches up with it (it usually doesn’t it; I was incredibly off on how “Mikan” would look).

02. テレポーテーション (“Teleportation”)
RUNTIME: 4:35

“Teleportation” opens with a digitalized voice and has more singing than “Soratobu” had. It runs very much in the same vein as the first track of L.D.K., with a primary beat and melody that changes up at a few key moments during its runtime. For some reason, I keep hearing the word “Pokemon” in the chorus…

The ending instruments finish peculiarly lonely, in a sense, compared to the relatively upbeat sounds that make up “Teleportation”, and are my favorite moment of the track overall.

03. Lounge Designers Killer (ft. ether22)
RUNTIME: 4:52

“Lounge Designers Killer” is the titular song (obviously). It reminds me a lot of rave music, compared to “Soratobu” and “Teleportation”. An extremely danceable track. The seemingly incomprehensible babble going throughout the song is broken occasionally, along with the beat, by Koshijima Toshiko saying “lounge designers killer”.

04. twinkle twinkle poppp!
RUNTIME: 3:13

“twinkle twinkle poppp!” is a very enjoyable break from the three heavy techno tracks (for me, anyway). It reminds me slightly of Perfume’s music, probably because Toshiko’s adorable voice is the ‘instrument’ most on display during this song. “twinkle” is composed of a simple rhythm with a repetitive beat and Toshiko’s voice is followed consistently by a lovely twinkling noise a la Perfume’s in “Vitamin Drop”. Toward the end, the beat is accompanied by a joyful piano.

05. tiC taC
RUNTIME: 2:31

“tiC taC” is even more calming than “twinkle”, and sounds a lot like lounge music. Toshiko’s vocals are, again, featured noticeably in this track.

06. アンテナ (“Antenna”)
RUNTIME: 0:26

“Antenna”’s not much of a track; just twenty-six seconds of strange techno-ish noise and it cuts off abruptly at the end.

07. グライダー (“Glider”)
RUNTIME: 4:10

“Glider”’s melody opens somewhat like a countdown leading up to a beautiful explosion of sound (yeah, you can sort of tell this is my favorite track from L.D.K.). Toshiko keeps the song from becoming too repetitive and boring, even as it maintains a consistent beat. Times like these when I can really appreciate her voice. :)

“Glider” has a PV on YouTube.

08. 人類の進歩と調和 (“Jinrui no Shinpo to Chouwa”; The Progress of Humanity and Harmony)
RUNTIME: 3:53

I love “Jinrui” considerably, as much as I love “Glider”. The best word I can use to describe it is eclectic. It’s almost hauntingly calming. Toshiko appears periodically through the song singing about “the progress of harmony of human happy”, but the weird Engrish doesn’t detract whatsoever from the song’s charm. The song gears down into a collection of simple noises, and it’s all just really lovely.

09. do do pi do
RUNTIME: 4:42

“do do pi do” opens with a bang and quickly shifts into a danceable techno beat. There isn’t much else to say about it, other than that its title is a main component of the song.

10. fin.
RUNTIME: 0:59

The final track of the regular album. “fin.” is nothing but a piano playing a pleasant, jolly tune. It reminds a lot of the music for the old Super Mario videogames, and I think that’s what gives it its charm.

jelly single cover

11. jelly (iTunes bonus track)
RUNTIME: 5:06

“jelly”, while the title is odd, is a good song. Pretty much just generically danceable, it also contains a nice sense of closure, like “fin.” did, and I don’t mind it being the last track in L.D.K. It was later released as capsule’s sixth 12″ analog single as an extended mix, and is a bonus track on their fourth album S.F. sound furniture and a regular track (albeit with an album edit) on FRUITS CLiPPER.

OVERALL RATING: 8.5/10

A decent album from capsule. My favorite tracks were “Teleportation”, “tiC taC”, “Glider”, “Jinrui”, and “fin.”. Recommended purchasing/downloading.