Monkey Hero and Electronic Coloring – MONKEY MAJIK & Horie Yui New Singles

Hello there, it’s me Dovizu again back from a nice and busy weekend. Along with my satisfied smile from oversleeping, I brought two new singles from MONKEY MAJIK and Horie Yui for you.

Interestingly, MONKEY MAJIK has a strong connection to North America. Canadian Vocal Marynard Plant moved to Japan in 1997 to teach English and started off MONKEY MAJIK as a hobby band. Four years later, his brother Blaise Plant moved to Japan as well to continue the band with Marynard. Both of them are fluent in English, French and Japanese, which makes me wonder just how diverse their family is. To make things even more puzzling, just how did a Queen’s University graduate, English teacher and a Lethbridge graduate drama student, both having an English last name, moved to Japan and became a popular Japanese band? Let the mysteries be mysterious and packed into their tasty music.

You probably have heard of or watched Nurarihyon no Mago. You probably also love the first two openings: Fast Forward and Sunshine. Well you are right, MONKEY MAJIK sang both of them. The two brothers have exceptionally attractive, stable and open voices that resonate together almost perfectly. For lack of a better description, their larynges vibrate and pitch at just the right degree that the voices literally flow directly into your chest and echo gently like drinking warm water when having a cold. They are so plain and ordinary yet outstandingly pure, for what I would call “an ideal voice of a young man.” And for this comforting and pleasing voice, there’s certainly no need for fancy compositions and exotic instruments, which would rather ruin the simplicity of their solid voices. MONKEY MAJIK’s songs are mostly good plain pop ones, nothing out of the ordinary but it is exactly this ordinariness that’s making their voices outshining.

Enough of good old masculine purity, let’s switch the lighting and change music, time for some electronic hype! Horie Yui is bringing some serious hardcore electronic this time. Just listen to the distinct beeps and heavily auto-tuned voice throughout the song, isn’t it lovely and nerve-stimulating and compelling! If you are a casual or hardcore electronic fan, you definitely shouldn’t overlook this piece. Her sweet voice doesn’t play a big role this time; it’s rather weakened by the heavy auto-tune and busy soundtrack. Nevertheless her 24/7 Maneki Neko face gives this single quite a boost.

Exaggerating descriptions, check; bad jokes, check. Don’t be disappointed of this extremely short recommendation, I’m currently working on a top-secret project related to music reviews that at least 20% of FM 139.7 readers will love. So add these two lovely singles to your library and stay tuned for more updates!