Fujiya and Miyagi "Collarbone"
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Fujiya & Miyagi are to LCD Soundsystem what Jet was to The Strokes. I once got in a drunken argument (I forget who took which side, if there were sides) about something to the effect of how the Strokes could get away with totally ripping “American Girl” while Jet is pilloried for doing the same thing with “Lust for Life.” And whoever took the anti position had a less than satisfactory answer. It may or may not have been me, I don’t remember. But that’s not important right now, Fujiya and Miyagi are. On the first track (”Ankle Injuries”) and again on the fourth (”Conductor 71″) from their appropriately named Transparent Things, F&M serve up the most blatant Neu! cop since the duo themselves played one of their own tracks on fast-forward and included it on the same record, which is only a step away from how Murphy photocopied ESG (and others) on “Too Much Love” (and others). And I love LCD Soundsystem. Why can’t I feel the same way about Fujiya and Miyagi? Well, because (like Jet) they don’t do it quite as well. I’ve learned that there’s a difference between simple appropriation and inspired reimagining, and that’s the difference between James Murphy and Fujiya & Miyagi. But that doesn’t mean Transparent is bad—at least, not as awful as Jet—in fact, even the most, er, transparent songs are enjoyable. Take “Collarbone” (mp3), for instance. With its dark, dense bassline and smart-ass vocals about being cool by doing cool things, it actually takes a page from Murphy himself, slowing him down to 16 rpm and weaving a shadowy, twangy guitar line throughout to add a slight but effective sense of noirish foreboding.Buy Transparent Things here. F&M’s myspace.
ALSO: Incredibly sad all of a sudden. Just incredibly sad all of a sudden.