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Shokumotsu Rensa
The cover image features Miki Nakatani in a patterned tank top against a red, curtained backdrop. Cover image is textless.
Studio album by
Miki Nakatani
ReleasedSeptember 4, 1996
Recorded1996
GenrePop
LabelFor Life Records
ProducerRyuichi Sakamoto
Miki Nakatani chronology
Shokumotsu Rensa
(1996) 		Cure
(1997)
Singles from Shokumotsu Rensa
  1. "Mind Circus"
    Released: May 17, 1996
  2. "Strange Paradise"
    Released: July 19, 1996

Shokumotsu Rensa (食物連鎖（しょくもつれんさ）, lit. Food Chain) is the debut studio album by Japanese singer Miki Nakatani. It was released on September 4, 1996, by For Life Records. A former girl group member, Nakatani concentrated on her acting career before returning to music in partnership with musician Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Nakatani was praised for her "cool" vocal performance on Shokumotsu Rensa, and critics made note of the album's sense of "mystery". It features contributions from Taeko Onuki, Yasuharu Konishi of Pizzicato Five, Vinicius Cantuária, and Arto Lindsay. The album was preceded by two singles: "Mind Circus" and "Strange Paradise". Shokumotsu Rensa peaked at number five on the Oricon charts and is her best-selling album.

Background

Nakatani began her career as a member of the girl group Sakurakko Club in 1991, performing with the group for two years. After her departure, she released the single "Anata ga Wakaranai" (あなたがわからない（）) in 1993, which saw little success.[1] Nakatani began focusing efforts on her acting career, and gained wide exposure after starring in commercials for Nippon Oil.[2]

Nakatani met renowned producer Ryuichi Sakamoto by chance, and the two hit it off after learning that their interests matched.[3] Nakatani herself had always been a fan of Sakamoto, and frequently attended his concerts. She was subsequently signed onto Güt, a subsidiary of For Life Records and Sakamoto's own label, as their first female artist.[3][4] Nakatani appeared on his 1995 album Smoochy, dueting on the song "Aishiteru, Aishitenai" (愛してる, 愛してない, transl. "Love You, Love You Not").[5] Sakamoto reportedly held a long-term desire to produce a female artist, and others opined that Nakatani saw it as an opportunity to dispel her idol image.[3][6] Rui Takeshima of Pop Master compared their partnership to that of French musician Serge Gainsbourg and actress Jane Birkin.[6]

Composition

Shokumotsu Rensa was produced by Sakamoto, who arranged nearly all of its songs and composed five.[7] Primarily a pop album, it draws from a range of genres: "Mind Circus" takes on city pop, while the electropop "My Best of Love" was penned by Taeko Onuki.[8][9] "Tattoo" channels R&B and features the only lyrics written by Nakatani. A bossa nova influence can be heard on "Shikisai no Naka e" (色彩の中へ, transl. "Into the Colors") and "Sorriso Escuro"; both credit Brazilian musician Vinicius Cantuária as a composer, while the latter was written in conjunction with American musician Arto Lindsay.[10] Elsewhere, "Strange Paradise" was remixed for inclusion on the album and references the 1985 Jean-Luc Godard film Hail Mary in its lyrics.[6][7]

Masao Urino wrote the lyrics to five songs on Shokumotsu Rensa.[7] Pressuring himself to match the quality of Sakamoto's "imposing" arrangements, Urino spent a month working on each song. He reflected on their collaboration with fondness as Sakamoto gave him a newfound confidence to write with "instinct".[11] Urino counts his work with Nakatani as among his favorites.[12]

The album title was chosen at Sakamoto's suggestion. In an interview with Tomomi Kahala, Nakatani iterated that Sakamoto saw her at the top of a food chain: "I thought, am I some kind of food chain pyramid? I was under the impression that I would be at the bottom of the pyramid with all these great artists, including Mr. Sakamoto, providing me with their songs. [...] But, according to Mr. Sakamoto, 'Miki Nakatani eats and eats and eats men and women.'"[13]

Release and promotion

Shokumotsu Rensa was released on September 4, 1996, through For Life Records and Güt. The cover photograph for the album was taken by Kazunali Tajima, who became a frequent collaborator of Nakatani's.[14] The artwork positions the singer against a backdrop of red curtains, with Nakatani gazing into the distance.[7] Ryutaro Amano of Mikiki noted the cover for its "melancholic" quality.[15]

"Mind Circus" was the first single issued from Shokumotsu Rensa on May 17, 1996.[16] It peaked at number twenty on the Oricon and charted for a total of eleven weeks. It played on the Nippon TV drama Oretachi ni Ki wo Tsukero with Nakatani in a lead role. "Strange Paradise" was released as the second single on July 19, 1996, peaking at number thirty and charting for nine weeks.[16] It was used in Nakatani's commercials for a green tea beverage by Ito En.

Shokumotsu Rensa peaked at number five on the Oricon, charting for a total of seven weeks.[17] It ranked at number eight on the Hits of the World Japanese albums chart published by Billboard for the week of September 16, 1996.[18] The album was promoted through a live concert at Club Quattro in Shibuya on February 26 and 27, 1997. Nakatani performed seven songs from the album, including "Aishteru, Aishitenai" and the then-unreleased "Suna no Kajitsu" (砂の果実).[19] It was filmed and published under the title Butterfish on March 21, 1997, her first and only live release to date.[20]

Critical reception

Shokumotsu Rensa was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. Tower Records commended the "mysterious atmosphere" that Nakatani brings to the album, naming it a masterpiece.[21] Tomoyuki Mori of Real Sound called it a "chic pop album where restraint and sophistication coexist", while CD Journal highlighted the "gorgeous" contributions by Onuki and Konishi and said that she sang in an "ultra-cool style". They furthered compared her to singer Tomomi Kahala.[9][22]

Writing for Pop Master, Rui Takeshima noted the album's lyrical complexities and felt that Nakatani's vocals had a clear quality to it, "as if she had just stepped out of a sterile room, without pretense".[6] After Sakamoto's passing in 2023, a retrospective piece in Vogue Japan by editor Toru Mitani echoed this sentiment, where Nakatani's debut "exuded a sense of transparency and divinity" and likened her to a mysterious "vessel" in accepting beautiful melodies. They contrasted Nakatani with her contemporary, the Tetsuya Komuro-produced Namie Amuro, and called the album a masterpiece.[23]

As part of a feature evaluating Japanese actresses' forgotten music careers in Cyzo magazine, "Mind Circus" was well regarded and one of the few not to be given a negative "dark past" or kurorekishi (黒歴史) rating. Nakatani's relaxed vocals were praised and "Mind Circus" was commended because it was neither a song that relied purely on atmospherics, nor was it a song that shouted with diva-style.[24]

Track listing

All songs composed and arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto except where noted.[7]

No.TitleLyricsMusicArrangementLength
1."Mind Circus"Masao Urino  5:16
2."Strange Paradise (Paradise Mix)"Urino  6:13
3."Aibiki no Mori de" (逢いびきの森で "In the Forest of Encounters")Yasuharu KonishiKonishiKonishi5:26
4."Yogoreta Ashi The Silence of Innocence" (汚れた脚 "Dirty Legs")Urino  6:01
5."My Best of Love"Taeko OnukiOnuki 5:03
6."Where the River Flows"Urino  6:44
7."Tattoo"Miki Nakatani  6:02
8."Shikisai no Naka e" (色彩の中へ "Into the Colors")Hiroshi TakanoVinicius Cantuária 5:58
9."Lunar Fever"TakanoToshiko MoriMori4:30
10."Sorriso Escuro"Urino, Arto Lindsay, CantuáriaLindsay, Cantuária 4:24
  • Tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, and 9 are stylized in all uppercase.
  • Tracks 5 and 10 are stylized in all lowercase.

Charts and sales

Chart (1996) Peak

position

Sales
Oricon Weekly Albums[25] 5 131,000[25]

References

  1. ^ 中谷美紀(ナカタニミキ)の情報まとめ [Miki Nakatani Information Summary]. OKMusic (in Japanese). Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  2. ^ 渡部篤郎との15年愛乗り越え…中谷美紀が掴んだ"女の幸せ" [Overcoming 15 years of love with Atsuro Watabe... Miki Nakatani has found her "woman's happiness"]. Nikkan Gendai Digital. November 29, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "clamp of the week ：中谷美紀". Fuji Television. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  4. ^ Yoshimura, Eiichi (March 21, 2017). 予習 『Sweet Revenge』（1994年作品）と『Smoochy』（1995年作品） [Preparation: Sweet Revenge (1994) and Smoochy (1995)]. Commmons. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  5. ^ "スムーチー". HMV Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d Takeshima, Rui (September 30, 2017). 【音楽レビュー】食物連鎖／中谷美紀 [Music Review: Shokumotsu Rensa by Miki Nakatani]. Pop Master (in Japanese). Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e Shokumotsu Rensa (liner notes). Miki Nakatani. Japan: For Life Records. 1996. FLCG-3023.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  8. ^ Kanazawa, Toshikazu (March 22, 2023). 中谷美紀「MIND CIRCUS」収録！これはシティポップじゃなくてシティミュージック？ [Miki Nakatani's "MIND CIRCUS" included! Is this city music, not city pop?]. reminder.top (in Japanese). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Mori, Tomoyuki (April 8, 2023). "坂本龍一が携わった後世にも伝えたい音楽作品 日本のポップミュージックを豊かにした偉大なる功績" 坂本龍一が携わった後世にも伝えたい音楽作品 日本のポップミュージックを豊かにした偉大なる功績 [Ryuichi Sakamoto was involved in musical works that will be handed down to future generations — Great Achievements in Enriching Japanese Pop Music]. Real Sound (in Japanese). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  10. ^ Takeshima, Rui (September 29, 2017). "【音楽レビュー】Invoke／Arto Lindsay". Pop Master (in Japanese). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  11. ^ Fujii, Tetsukan (July 9, 2016). 35周年を迎えた作詞家・売野雅勇氏 明菜、チェッカーズらヒット曲誕生秘話語る [Lyricist Masao Urino, celebrating his 35th anniversary, talks about the birth of hit songs by Akina, The Checkers, and others]. Oricon News. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  12. ^ Takashima, Mikio (May 10, 2017). 売野雅勇さんインタビュー [Interview with Masao Urino]. Nippon Television Music Corporation (in Japanese). Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  13. ^ Nakatani, Miki. "CLAMP TALK VOL.84" (Interview). Interviewed by Tomomi Kahala.
  14. ^ "Tajima Kazunali - Music". Mild Inc. (in Japanese). Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  15. ^ Amano, Ryutaro (December 31, 2023). 坂本龍一 追悼――YMOから戦メリ、ライブの思い出まで、タワレコスタッフ10名がそれぞれの視点から綴る〈教授と私〉 [In Memory of Ryuichi Sakamoto: From YMO to War Merry and Memories of Live Concerts, 10 Tower Record Staff Members Write about "The Professor and Me" from Their Own Perspectives]. Mikiki (in Japanese). Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  16. ^ a b 中谷美紀のシングル売上TOP8作品 [Miki Nakatani's top 8 single sales]. Oricon News (in Japanese). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  17. ^ 中谷美紀のアルバム売上TOP5作品 [Miki Nakatani's top 5 album sales]. Oricon News (in Japanese). Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  18. ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 108, no. 38. September 12, 1996. p. 48. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  19. ^ "butterfish | 中谷美紀". Oricon News. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  20. ^ "駿河屋 -<中古>中谷美紀/butterfish（音楽）". Suruga-ya (in Japanese). Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  21. ^ "中谷美紀/食物連鎖". Tower Records. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  22. ^ "中谷美紀 / 食物連鎖". CD Journal (in Japanese). Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  23. ^ Mitani, Toru (April 3, 2023). 坂本龍一と中谷美紀が奏でた音楽。“知性あるアンドロイド”、その普遍性を探る [Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Miki Nakatani. Exploring the universality of "intelligent androids"]. Vogue Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  24. ^ 鈴木蘭々の隠れた才能、黒木メイサはいきなり迷走？ 意外なアノ女優たちのCDデビュー歴を暴く！ [Ranmei Suzuki's Hidden Talent, Meisa Kuroki is Suddenly Lost? We uncover the CD debut histories of some unexpected actresses!]. Cyzo Premium (in Japanese). July 15, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  25. ^ a b "オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」" [Oricon Ranking Information Service 'You Big Tree']. Oricon (in Japanese).
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