HALCALI - TOKYO CONNECTION

The patience of HALCALI fans was tested with the release of TOKYO CONNECTION. Originally, the mini-album was supposed to come out in December, but for undisclosed reasons it was postponed to February 9th.

The album opens with the previously released Roman Hikou, a cover of the 90's song by KOME KOME CLUB. It’s not the first time that the song has been covered; visual kei band Psycho le Cemu reworked it in 2003. Although the original is already a cheerful song, HALCALI added another dose of cheerfulness with an upbeat, merry ska rhythm provided by ska band YOUR SONG IS GOOD. Other than the rhythm, the song mostly follows the original, which is admittedly a little cheesy, but still a lot of fun.

The second track, Girl!Girl!Girl!, has lyrics composed by Maki Nomiya, formerly of Pizzicato Five. The song is bouncy and upbeat with little digital bleeps popping up here and there. The rapped verses are a little bland, but the skipping beat and choruses make up for that. Most of the song is electronic, and therefore it’s interesting to see how they have incorporated a jazzy piano.

Chirichoko is considerably slower, functioning as a breather after the previous upbeat, slightly chaotic tracks. Chirichoko edges toward a sweet pop song, though it’s far from being called a ballad. YUCALI and HALCA are joined by a male singer for this song, and his voice creates a nice balance with the two female voices. With subdued vocals in the verses, the song has a warm, romantic feeling to it. The following song SUPERSTITIOUS stays on the gentle pop side, though it’s a little more powerful than Chirichoko.

With Hey My Melody the pace slows down even more, and this song can be categorized as a ballad. The lyrics alternate between English and Japanese - the girls’ English is far from fluent but still understandable. It seems almost impossible that a song as sweet as Hey My Melody comes from the same girls, but HALCALI is known for being able to traverse the pop world as well as hip-hop. Although it does have rapped verses, fans preferring HALCALI’s upbeat hip-hop sound might want to skip this one.

Next up is Strawberry Chips (Sweet Blue Beat ver.), which originally came out in 2003. Again, the girls have incorporated a tropical ska rhythm. The rapped verses don’t seem to fit too well with ska, but the girls have done a great job in blending the two styles together seamlessly. The album closes with another redone HALCALI song: Marching March (80KIDZ Remix). The song has been reworked as an incredibly catchy mix of electro with soca. The song bounces merrily, with the electronic effects joining in on the fun.

TOKYO CONNECTION is loaded with lots of fun, but also with HALCALI’s diversity in genre. Although it was a long wait for this release, it was definitely worth it and makes us eager for more work from HALCA and YUCALI.