I had a musicpost ready for this week, but i do think i'll want to rewrite it up a bit. In the meantime, you get an improvised one for another album i really like.

We're starting to get into more interesting stuff today.

Today you get nouvo nude's FLASH CUBE.

The history is a bit complicated. It's Hideki Tobeta under his Bajune Tobeta alias for composition and keyboard, Kiyoto Komatsu as guitarist and Mitsue Nishihara for vocals. They were commissioned to make five songs for beatmania 3rd MIX (5key beatmania, not 7key IIDX). This was in 1999, and their songs are still revered as some of the best that were ever made for the game, which is an accomplishment in and of itself considering the overall music quality for the 5key releases. These songs were super highway, wild I/O, find out, nine seconds, and area code.

The group would basically disappear for all intents and purposes after this, with Tobeta releasing albums under his own name thereafter, although in Love Deluxe you do get to hear a full version of Area Code.

Then, around 13 years later, nouvo nude came back in beatmania IIDX 19: lincle with Electric Super Highway, which was released in the SPACE DRIVE album. as nouvo nude feat. MACHO ROBOT, another alias of Tobeta's (note: a lot of japanese music has A feat. B as song credit, with both being the same artist under a different alias depending on style), but this time with Komatsu and Nishihara having left the nouvo nude project and Katsuya Mouri (of GRATEC MOUR fame) joining in their place. The two released the first two albums with the nouvo nude name attached to them in 2011: the self-noscriptd mini-album with new stuff and FLASH CUBE, with redesigns of his old tracks and even more new stuff.

So, without the original ensemble that was nouvo nude during the 5key era, why am i talking about what is essentially a new project 13 years later?

Because of how good it is.

Without wanting to remove any merit to his other albums (well, maybe with the exception of his remix of Virtual Insanity and The Robots in Best of Electro Step which is a bit of a fucking stinker of an album), flash cube is absolutely mesmerizing to listen to.

It's reworks of his old tracks, fully new original songs, and a second remix side CD with contributions of other big 5key/IIDX names: Hiroshi Watanabe (also known as QUADRA, another personal favorite), SLAKE, kors k and Ryu*, with his usual somewhat inconsistent approach to making good music.

This is what i like about this album. It's new & old, and a remix side with a very different style from the main album, and all very different from one another. In other words, it's the best kind of inconsistent, the one that depending on your affinity and propensity and knowledge and taste in music, will give wildly different experiences. Even over time, your perception of this album can change, as will your tastes over the months and years.
It's not even a complex album either, we're not talking classical music levels of complexity here, but fun music without pretentions aside of wanting to be fun is, i've found, often the one that has ended up being the most meaningful and memorable to me.

nouvo nude would end up making a second album, New World (2013), and after RAM released his Re:Charge album that same year, where we would see a remix of Find Out by the titular artist, and a collab track between the two in the form of Sweetest Day of May, he would fade away completely from the music scene, this time, apparently for good.

Many of the 5key artists have made appearances outside of BEMANI after this, notably the Partial Recall series of albums, or things like SLAKES' tracks for Diverse System's ongoing thematic album series (where even TaQ, of 5key/IIDX/Tokyo Jungle [!] fame would make a return), but nouvo nude so far hasn't appeared in anything more. Bajune tobeta still releases music over at bajune.com but nothing like a proper return to form to his short lived, yet very influential and memorable 5key project.

It's a story as old as time for any fan of japanese music; easy come, easy go. But i hope that this small portion of history has been, at the very least, entertaining for you, and it comes with an album you'll appreciate as much as i do, maybe even without having to describe it with such a verbose post to anyone you might want to share it with.

Oh, and his other albums? You'll get them as well. You cannot find a rip of Love Deluxe anywhere, but thankfully for you, i wanted it physical, along with SLAKE's mashed potatoes rock stuff and King of Super Highway, the one with nothing but remixes of nouvo nude's arguably most popular track. Just give me time to scan the booklets and all. Pic related, just ignore the sanwa springs i got in the same package..

I'm still missing a LOT of albums though, which are all kind of hard to find and expensive.

If i ever find them, you'll know.

Happy tuesday everyone. I hope the november cold came with good tidings, despite the razor-sharp air that is sure to go around soon.

as a personal note, you have no idea how much i like Hiroshi Watanabe's remix of Wild I/O. In general Hiroshi Watanabe's music is some of the best to ever come out of the 5key breeding ground.

Maybe the next music post i'll make will be about him.

actually, let me catch up with the cuteposting backlog

#art source