A-Ok!!!!

I had heard of Cibo Matto for quite a while now, but I was never really sure if I should buy one of their albums (This was before Napster). But then I saw the group perform on Sessions at West 54th late one evening and I was totally blown away by their style. In their previous album “Viva! La Woman” they had been given the label of “girls who sing about food”, and with titles like “White Pepper Ice Cream” and “Know Your Chicken” who would blame them.

In their newest album “Stereo Type A” the only reference to food on a track is “Sci-Fi Wasabi”
Blending jazz, hip-hop, funk, grunge, and Latin beats into wild out there songs that address issues like love, race, and the great city of New York. The group, mainly fronted by singer Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda who produced all of the tracks on the album and Sean Lennon on bass and Timo Ellis on drums, seems comfortable with experimentation because each song seems to belong to a different genre and style.

In “Sci-Fi Wasabi” the group mixes up hip-hop and funk with spacey samples to give the song a space age sound and feel, which represents what many people feel when they first come to New York, like they’re on a another planet. The song also comments on all the different cultures that inhabit the city and how some of those cultures lose their identity trying to meld themselves into American culture.

“Flowers”, one of my favorite tracks, sounds like a kitsch throwback to the 1950’s, you can almost imagine yourself sitting in a pastel colored kitchen with a linoleum floor, having tea and wearing a beehive hairdo. Tinged with a little bit of Latin guitar melody the track is light and fun to listen to. Miho sings about how just the words from her lover who is so far away mean more to her “than a thousand flowers”.

Another one of favorite tracks is “Blue Train”, no its not a cover of the Joe Cocker song, but Cibo Matto tacking a whack at grunge and psychedelic guitar. The song spends most of its time building up to a fast and high wired crescendo that is absolutely wild. I saw them perform this song on Sessions at west 54th and I have to say that Cibo Matto has one of the best drummers I have ever seen.

“Mortming” and “Clouds” sound like music tracks from old 32 bit games that my brother used to play, and just lie those games they are just as fun and weird.

All together this album is just perfect, it’s multiple personalities make it easy for anyone to at least like one track off the album. For me it pleases all my multiple personalities (that’s a funny thing cause my name is Sybil, ha, ha, ha!). If you like this album then I would also recommend you give a listen to Imani Coppola’s debut album “Chupacabra”. It also has a funky mix of funk and hip-hop.