Strawberry Machine - crazy kilt 11 April 2007
Strawberry Machine, for all intents and purposes, is a solo act for musician and vocalist Akira Okabe. Producer Masashiro Nomura was closely involved with Strawberry Machine in the late 90’s, its formative years; but it was not long before Okabe was doing so much work that Strawberry Machine had become just an alias for her. Interestingly, Strawberry Machine has its roots in a failed project of Nomura’s. In 1997 he was attempting to start a band and needed to recruit a lead vocalist. Akira Okabe auditioned as a backup singer but Nomura decided to make her the lead vocalist, despite the fact he originally wanted a male singer. This band didn’t really go anywhere and so that’s when Okabe and Nomura split to start Strawberry Machine. And then soon after that Nomura began focusing more on business, ultimately reaching the top of abcdefg* Records, their label. This left Strawberry Machine as a solo act for Okabe.Akira Okabe focuses on electronic, synthesizer pop music which often uses samples from television, film, and video games. Her music is comparable to De De Mouse, YMCK, artists like those. If you’ve not heard of them, no worries, I’ll upload their music one day. The variety within Strawberry Machine’s music is impressive considering that Okabe almost never breaks away from the electronic-synth style. She is the only Japanese musician I know of that has claimed aadhunik geet as an influence, a genre of soft music from the country of Nepal. Okabe incorporates traces of such influences into her electronic framework.All of that said, what I hear people comment on most about Strawberry Machine is Okabe’s vocals. She is a quiet, ‘whisper singer’ like Kahiri Kamie, who Okabe credits as an inspiration. The often fast-paced, banging synths paired with Okabe’s restrained whispering creates a contrast that people seem to quickly love or hate. Personally I think it is catchy, but her whispering vocals do sound unfitting at times.As always I hope you enjoy the album! I pick one album per day to rip and upload, but if you have any requests please feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll provide the music if I have it.