artist spotlight - smart (sm:art)

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link to their 1st album (smart)

link to their 2nd album (zai phon)

link to 1st album on discogs (has cd liner notes and full production credits!)

link to 2nd album on discogs

link to smart's official(?) yt

its seems like no wikipedia article exists for the band. the album uploads link to one, but its broken.

hi! my name is monstii and getting info on this band was kinda hard. it was kinda pure luck i found the first album in its entirety, in fact. i don't think their music is available on streaming platforms, and due to their name being so common, a lot of different things show up when you try to look it up. (╥_╥) so, let me give you a medium-sized run down of smart from the information i WAS able to uncover!

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smart (スマート stylized as sm:art) is a j-pop band consisting of three members:

súzuki (real name Takako Suzuki, she's the one in the middle, also shown left) the composer and arranger, also playing keyboard/synthesizer in concert and music videos. in promotional materials described as "creating the sound". 

yamanaka (real name Tsuyoki Yamanaka, he's the guy with the bowl cut to the left, also shown... left) operates the synthesizer and plays guitar in concert. in promotional materials described as "controlling the mind" notably, he is presented differently than the other members in this commercial.

sachi (real name Sachiko Nakagawa, she's the one standing to the right, also shown left) does vocals for the entire album. in promotional materials described as "presenting the art".

the band itself was only active for 3 years, from 1995-1997. they released two albums and a few singles, as well as as some music videos and promotional videos. it also looks like they did concerts, but the only videos of this are select clips from their okinawa live on their youtube channel. (side note: i have no idea whether or not the yt is actually official or not. i dont really have a reason to doubt it, considering it is all smart stuff, but the fact that is was all uploaded just last year about 28 years since the band formed is kinda crazy? especially since, or at least as far as i know, there wasnt really demand for it, so whoever uploaded those videos did specifically for archival purposes? idk ᓚ₍ ^. .^₎)  

as for the members other pursuits, súzuki only has writing and arrangement credits for smart's albums, while sachi has vocal credits for two other albums released during smart's lifetime, and yamanaka is credited on a few other albums, the latest being in 2012. looking up their names on google provided no results for me personally, but admittedly i didnt look as much into the individual members (๑-﹏-๑) 

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okay, now that thats out of the way, lets talk about their albums!!!  ☆ﾟ°˖* ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

as i said before, they only released two albums, one in 1995, and one in 1996. both are pretty distinctively synth j-pop with house and maybe rnb flavorings? both albums are similar but have different vibes to them, zai-phon (1996) having different instrumental and musical choices from smart (1995). i'll talk about both individually... now! ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧ (this following part is mostly my own opinion, so take everything with a gallon of salt. also dont die of high blood pressure.)

smart (1995)

first off, we have my favorite of the two albums! their self titled, which came out on december 6, 1995. about 28 years ago. the album has 10 songs, and was released on cd, only in japan if im not mistaken. the album has a pretty consistent chill synth-pop sound, never really slowing down or speeding up heavily, definitely something you can listen to in one sitting. although, this can lead to the songs sounding tiny bit same-y. (except for the last track •⩊•) the mixing and quality of the album are great, the panning of specific instruments keep things interesting and aren't distracting. 

the instrumentation is a nice mix of live instruments and synthesizers, at first i kind of expected for the strings and all to be sampled, because im so used to songs with synthesized or sampled strings i guess? but no, there are strings and violin performed by asuka strings and keisuke ohta.

there are synthesized and sampled parts, but i dont think that fact really takes away from the songs. for example, the sampled talking parts of some songs on this album and the next are a really nice touch, in my opinion. (honestly, the instrumental choices makes it sound like something a vaporwave or future funk producer would sample lol)

lastly, i'd like to talk about the albums aesthetics! (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) i've always liked the feel that this album has, and kind of for the band in general. one of my favorite visual things is colorful things against a white or cream background (as you can probably tell LOL) and its mostly the reason i found this album, i was looking for carnation (they had to show up eventually) songs on youtube and this album cover caught my eye. it was a upload of the song 不実な、それでもステキな恋 and i came to like almost immediately, which inspired me to search for the full album in general. all the pictures ive used up to this point are from the cd for this album, in fact! 

彩虹-Zai Phon- (1996)

next up, we have the second and last album, zai phon (rainbow), released december 18, 1996. about a year after the first. the album, like the first, zai phon has 10 songs and was released on cad. this album is different from the first one and has some songs that deviate from the sound of the first album, and some that are like the first album. 

this album starts with 3 songs that are still catchy j-pop, but have a more traditional peppy sounding feel, with guitars and acoustic percussion. personally, i dont like the sound change all too well, but its not that bad and 'll leave you to form your own opinion. the 4th song of the album, sweet, returns to form a bit but has a simpler club feel. its nothing crazy, and not their best song. 

the next two songs, purple fish and 最後の涙 are more standard fare, and hold up quite well. 最後の涙 in particular has some really nice sampling, particularly the vocal one at the beginning, which actually might just be yamanaka talking. 

the next song, 青いスカーフ, is a slower song with nice acoustic drums and piano. it kind of sounds like the ending theme to a tv show (lol) and the guy playing drums in the mv  really looks like yukihiro takahashi, idk if its actually him because i dont have the liner notes like the first album, but it would be kinda funny if it was him (𓁹‿ 𓁹) (i have to talk about the next three songs seperately because they're all pretty different. send help.)

SMILE is a nice and upbeat song, again nothing crazy. 赤 is a slow song that starts with a nice muted trumpet solo. the choice of instruments and the way the chorus kicks in is great, and im now realizing that ive never really commented on sachi's vocals. i think she has a nice unique voice thats great for this kind of music, i realy have no complaints about her performance whatsoever. 

and last but certainly not least, we have 虹の果てま. a sunny and upbeat song with a good use of harp, each part of the song translates into each other nicely, it kind of reminds me tatsuro yamashita's loveland, island.

overall, i did actually like this album. ive been kinda critical of it, but thats mostly because i dont think it lives up to their first album. im not too sure what it is, but i feel likeits missing the same production value that made me a fan of their music in the first place, a lot of songs were catchy, but ultimately just felt safe and not much to write home about. 

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im done... wow this took kind of a while, basically all day. ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ ) its over though. i'll keep my final thoughts brief so i can get some sleep! 

i really like smart's output, even it is not that much. i would say that i can't imagine why they ultimately broke up, but i think we've all seen this kind of thing happen before. a new artist or group is really hyped up and has a great debut that well received, but their following output doesnt live up to their first and they lose traction. and, let me be clear, this is just me speculating. i have no idea how either album was received critically, but the fact that smart in general isnt really well known speaks for... something, at least.

 

i feel like this group honestly had really great potential, suzuki is a wonderful song writer, so i was surprised when i saw that she never really did anything after being in smart. same goes for sachi, whos only other credited on two other albums made during smart's lifetime. as i said before, it seems like yamanaka stayed in the music business for a while after being in smart, being credited in a few other albums besides smart's. 

i would end it there, but i hate ending things on a negative note... at least there is someone out there who decided to set up the smart official youtube channel, i doubt it means anything, but we can still hope!   

whether it was a failed album or musical difference or whether a ufo came that took two of the members that made smart stop releasing music, im still happy that we are able to listen to it thanks to someone going by the name ( edit: not anymore) space captain dick weiner. the future is now.

okay. im gonna pass out now. make sure to have a good day, okay?

monstii signing off... zzz...

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Miscellaneous - Connecting Keralino Sandrovich to Robert Fripp

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okay, hear me out here.

hi! my name is monstii and im slowly going insane. not really. or maybe actually really? anyways

i'm sure you might have heard of bacon's law before, or just of the theory of six degrees of separation before. today im going to show you how we can connect japanese director and singer of post-punk band uchoten keralino sandrovich to english king crimson guitarist robert fripp! 

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okay. so, we start with kera. kera owns independent record label nagomu records, and guess who was signed on to nagomu records at one point? carnation! they released their first single yoru no entotsu while they were signed there after kera took interest in them. 

then, we can connect carnation frontman masahiro naoe (jp wikipedia link) to hirofumi and keiichi suzuki of the moonriders, who were involved with early carnation collabed with them on the album duck-boat.

from there, we can connect keiichi suzuki to ymo member yukihiro takahashi, as they were both apart of the musical duo the beatniks. (takahashi also performed at moonriders 30th live, along with masahiro naoe, [he's there just kinda to the side] so technically we could skip suzuki entirely) and we can connect him to fellow ymo member ryuichi sakamoto. (we could also circle back to masahiro naoe AGAIN, third ymo member haruomi hosono has worked with singer chisato moritaka, and carnation was the backing band for moritaka's 4th album.)

ryuichi sakamoto has collaborated a few times with english singer-songwriter david sylvian, notably on the song 'forbidden colors' from the movie merry christmas mr lawrence. and, david sylvian, in the 90's, worked with robert fripp on improvisational lives and three albums. 

(note that the fact about the suzuki brothers producing gong show is actually something i probably made up. i have no idea where i got that from (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ))

ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ )

WOW that took a lot more work that you'd expect. its worth noting that you can connect a lot of people to anyone named beyond yukihiro takahashi. takahashi himself was apart of the sadistic mika band, which included some pretty big names in the j-music industry. ymo itself is a very big name, being very influencial on electronic music and j-pop. dont get me started on david sylvian and robert fripp. we'd be here forever.

really goes to show how many people are connected, huh? not just celebrities and otherwise big names, the people around you too. last year, two people involved in my school's production of mean girls found out they were cousins and had no idea. crazy! its a really deep, but otherwise interesting rabbit hole to go down.

im gonna go eat something now. you probably should too, if you havent already. also, make sure to have a good day, okay?

monstii singing off.

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