Albums for February 12. (Part Three of Three)

Cibo Matto: Hotel Valentine
[February 14, 2014]

 

 

This was one of the most surprising discoveries I made last year, though they’ve been around since 1994. Cibo Matto (Italian for "crazy food") are two Japanese women living in New York. (The group formally contained John Lennon’s son, Sean, among other musicians.) The band had been on hiatus since 2002, but Yuka Honda and Miho Hitori re-united to create this beautifully bizarre concept album about a "ghost girl" living in a hotel and watching the guests. Each of the tracks are remarkably different, though they are mostly powered by extraordinarily propulsive rhythms while the two voices pair strangely in singing, whispers, talking, raps and chants. The sound is rooted in synth pop, with lots of digital percussion, though variety is everywhere, with all kinds of instruments, including guitars and horns.

Every song has a vastly different mood, with performances ranging from hardcore dancefloor to seductive Oriental-inflected melodies. Unexpected textures abound as Honda and Hitori explore an almost limitless palette to create alternately spooky and ferociously comical exploration of death, love and loneliness.

This is an album that I presume not many people heard, but it certainly deserves to be. Hotel Valentine is a wonderfully strange place to visit and definitely an unusual February 14 experience.

Track listing
All songs written by Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori.

1. "Check In"
2. "Deja Vu"
3. "10th Floor Ghost Girl"
4. "Emerald Tuesday"
5. "MFN"
6. "Hotel Valentine"
7. "Empty Pool"
8. "Lobby"
9. "Housekeeping"
10. "Check Out"

Credits and personnel
Cibo Matto – drum machines, keyboards, phone apps and other sound devices, programming, synth bass and voices
Yuko Araki – drums (1 and 3)
Michael Brauer – mixing
Sabino Cannone – mastering (for MoReVoX)
Nels Cline – guitars (2, 5 and 10)
Simone Giuliani - engineering
Ryan Dilligan – engineering
Georgia – album artwork and additional cover art
Miho Hatori – cover art collage
Aaron Johnson – trombone (2 and 4)
Glenn Kotche – drums (10)
Michael Leonhart – trumpet (2 and 4)
Emily O’Brien – album art design
Mauro Refosco – percussion (4, 6 and 8)
Jared Samuel – bass (1, 2 and 8), keyboards (4, 8, 9), synth bass (1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9) and vocals (3, 8 and 9)
Reggie Watts – special guest vocals (5 and 9)
Douglas Wieselman – saxophone (3 and 6)