About the Dadaism#... series, and about Dadaism#4 +translations

[2018.11.14] dadaism#4

>> You can buy this CD by clicking here << 

1. 蛍 (hotaru)	Translation	Tradução	Kanji
2. 部屋とブラジャーと私 (heya to BURAJA to watashi)	Translation	Tradução	Kanji
3. トゥルリラ (TOURURIRA)	Translation	Tradução	Kanji
4. カリスマロックスターは売れないぜ！(KARUSUMA ROKKUSUTA wa urenai ze!)	Translation	Tradução	Kanji
5. キスをしよう(KISU wo shiyou)	Translation	Tradução	Kanji
6. A PLAIN	Translation	Tradução	Kanji
7. 狼少年と毒林檎 (ookami shounen to doku ringo)	Translation	Tradução	Kanji

Before start talking about the Dadaism#4, let's go back in time and understand a little about the Dadaism#... releases series and about DADAROMA.

Since the beginning of the band, in 2014, DADAROMA bring 1 mini-album per year, titled in series as Dadaism#1, Dadaism#2, Dadaism#3 and this year, in the band's birthday month, they released the 4th mini-album from this series, Dadaism#4, with six new songs in the type A, and a bonus track with the piano version of "ookami shounen to doku ringo (狼少年と毒林檎)" in the type B.

First of all, to understand DADAROMA we need to understand that they don't have an specific goal, Yoshiatsu (vocals) already said in some interviews that DADAROMA is just a way of expression, and that the content of the songs varies according to what they are feeling at the specific moment, so, they do not aim to be X or Y, they just want to do whatever they want whenever they want.

Yoshiatsu: I suggested the name. "Dadaism" is known to unite unrelated parts in one thing. As in our music. We create a solid thing from several different parts. But on the other hand there is no direct connection to it. [...] The whole series of mini-albums "Dadaism" is not only about CDs, it is always a form of expression of what we want to say, or of what we want to do. This is the concept. That is why all our work is the essence of our thoughts and what we want to express.

[part of an interview about the Dadaism#3 to JaME world, 2017]

Considering all this, any review of their work can only be subjective, and sometimes, superficial. Particularly, as a translator, I review the themes and constructions of the lyrics, I hope this to be clear, my analyses are just one among so many others.

So, before we dive right in Dadaism#4, let's talk a bit about the other Dadaism#...:

Dadaism#1 was the first of this series and it was released a few months after the band's debut, looking the construction of this CD we can already notice some personal songs and more general songs, the jewel of this mini-album is, undoubtedly, "'Oboreru Sakana' (「溺れる魚」)" that, even that the theme has been dissected by the rock genre closest to metalcore in visual kei, has very well-structured metaphors and a personal content that makes anyone identify with the lyrics. Dadaims#1 have 7 tracks, being the first a SE (sound effect) used in the "'Oboreru Sakana' (「溺れる魚」)" music video. Making a simple division, are 3 song criticizing the society as a whole (“Oboreru Sakana” (「溺れる魚」)", MONEY and BELKA to STRELKA) and 3 songs directed to criticizing the romantic relationships (MORPHINE#1 and #2 and SEX).

It should be noted that, considering that this was the band's first mini-album, this is a very solid and structured release, with a presence that many bands took a long time to conquer.

A curiosity about the Morphine#... song series (or not), is that most probably the criticism that Yoshiatsu makes in these lyrics is about himself, he gave an interview to Rock and Read magazine (vol. 63) in 2015, where he talks a little about having a selfish tendency in his relationships.

Yoshiatsu: Simplifying, probably my love stories so far, I guess. Because I'm really selfish ... (laughs). Putting it on pretty childish terms, I'm the kind of very restraining someone [possessive]. And because of that, relationships break up. When I think about why I do the things I do, I imagine it to be because I don't really trust the others. Then I changed to stop restricting people, and instead of saying stubborn things, I decided to trust people more. And that's how things become as they are now.

[part of the Yoshiatsu’s interview to Rock and Read vol. 63, 2015]

In Dadaism#2 we can note a very similar structure to #1, there have not been big structural changes so far, just the fast maturation of the lyrics density, it is not hard to find people who believe that Lucid Dream was the highest point of the band, and that will be very difficult for DADAROMA to release something so good as this. The fact is that the order of the songs on the CD is very pleasing to the ears, starting with High and Low, the first dense track of the mini-album, following with Morphine#3, and slowing down gradually with the next three tracks, ending with high note on Lucid Dream, without losing at any moment all the characteristic revolt of the band.

We wish to confront the ideals and ideologies that
manipulate us by playing our sound.
Our dreams, our future, and even our genitals are stolen,
and the fragments of our childhood dreams rot.

[High and Low, dadaism#2, 2016]

Dadaism#2 as Dadaism#1 has in itself very much revolt, a thirst for revolution that is in a very tenuous line between real criticism and teenagerism, that is the biggest impression we see dividing opinions on internet. The lyrics in general have similar constructions, and, considering the age and history of the musicians, everything was absolutely promising, with relevant criticisms and instigating metaphors.

From now, there's a small turning-point. Dadaism#3 left lots of people confuse, DADAROMA always had a sexual appeal but it was here, with the release of the MASTURBATION MV as the main track of the CD that many people got more confused than John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. Dadaism#3 brings another facet from the DADAROMA guys, a more industrial facet, so to speak, notice that the themes of the songs are still the same, but the lyrics and the melodies are more simple, which may have been a very disappointing blow for those who was following them closely and was enjoying the slightly heavier course that the band was taking, they had just released zouka to KALASHNIKOV (造花とカラシニコフ) that is a very close Single to Lucid Dream and “Oboreru Sakana” (「溺れる魚」), at the level of lyrics, depth and arrangements (preserving due proportions of when the songs has been released, and the maturation level of this specific period).

Tracks like NPD and Watashi, Bangya janai wa (私、バンギャじゃないわ) made people who was already frustrated with yume TARAREBA (夢タラレバ) to be more disappointed with the band, mainly because a lot of people didn't even understand what about these songs was, and for having more POP rhythms it just got down in disapproval.

Despite all this, in Dadaism#3 we have a really wronged track: "ookami shounen to doku ringo (狼少年と毒林檎)" (which have been re-realised in a new version on Dadaism#4) can, in the middle of all the eroticization and industrialization surrounding the Dadaism#3 pull the DADAROMA listener back to the band's debut with exactly the same construction of metaphors and depth that occurred in “Oboreru Sakana” (「溺れる魚」).

Without noticed, the tragedy has become the entertainment of the society
Bad news about the world seems funny
The boy becomes a man, and his book sells quickly
[while he is] over a puddle of tears, lost in the shadows.

["ookami shounen to doku ringo (狼少年と毒林檎)", Dadaism#3, 2017]

Finally, Dadaism#4 comes after turbulent releases as This is “live” and boku wa ANDROID (僕はアンドロイド) that divided the fandom by following the same line of Dadaism#3, investing in simple lyrics and contagious chorus. What we can see in Dadaism#4 is basically a resume from what happened in the previous releases. We have sexual musics, dense musics, and musics with a contagious chorus, in the Dadaism#4 they use all they learned in the previous releases, doing no less than what was already expected from the boys of DADAROMA.

The progression is simple, 蛍 (hotaru) begins the CD saying that it came for, inviting the listener to stop with useless discussions and to live a brief adventure observing the beauty of the fireflies with his beloved person. Then, 部屋とラジとーと私 (heya to BURAJA to watashi), which particularly reminds me a lot 赤いワンスース (Akai One Piece) of the GazettE, even they don't have anything in common besides the way of using the lyrical self and the theme. This is a song that, analyzing shallowly, looks like that old musical porn, but goes a little further, such as the GazettE's Akai One Piece, it's about a person who feels empty in his hedonistic way of life but even so doesn't give it up. A person who is caught up in his own vanity, causing suffering to himself.

At first, I though the choice of トゥルリラ (TOURURIRA) as the main track of this mini-album a bit out, but after taking a good look at the lyrics I understood why.トゥルリラ (TOURURIRA) deepens the invitation of 蛍 (hotaru), in a way that may seem quite pessimistic because they repeat too much that the "things don't make sense" but it is very hopeful if we take another look.トゥルリラ (TOURURIRA) invites the listener to accept that things don't need to make sense to be good, and says that we just need to listen to the musicality of nature itself to realize this, this song invites us to prioritize the relevance we impose to the things that happen in our lives, because if we compare with the magnitude of nature or with the great orchestra of the sounds of rain, everything will seem smaller, so let's dance in this great chaos that we call life!

"inside the nature laws, people are powerless and small existences
people are born to devote to these graces and have no choice but to die
things like laugh and cry has no meaning, no worth"
tururitururira sing and dance in such a powerless life tururirara”

[トゥルリラ (TOURURIRA), dadaism#4, 2018]

カリスマロックスターは売れないぜ！(KARUSUMA ROKKUSUTA wa urenai ze!) or "the charisma of a rock star can not be sold!" is one of those silly songs that at seems to be an indirect to someone, I think the title already makes it clear what the theme is.

The fifth track of this minialbum, キスをしよう (KISU wo shiyou) seems to be inside the theme of "futilities" to be left aside. Although I think it was more about politics than anything else and it makes sense that it doesn't have a theme connected to the other songs on the CD, I think it does a link to some aspects of that theme.

キスをしよう (KISU wo shiyou) the way it is arranged on the CD, followed by A PLAIN and ookami shounen to doku ringo (狼 少年 と 毒 林檎) seems to say that, no matter how much we discuss about disasters, policies and the issues of world, no matter what, we can't forget to be with our loved one, and as bad the world can be, laughing and crying about disasters, it will only be worth if, in the end, we have an important person to hold hands and kiss.

Hey, let's kiss.
Until this night this world will end,
so you and I will can give hands until we fall asleep.

A PLAIN seemed like a good way to finish the CD, to finish all the series of calamities covered in this mini-album, the boys of DADAROMA pass their message: life is not just about fun or about sadness, it's about being who you are, even if people hate you for it.

A new thing of in the Dadaism#... series that happens in Dadaism#4 is that you can take a conclusion from that CD, and the conclusion I take from Dadaism#4 is that no matter our worldly issues, let's live like children, adults make wars and promote discussions that, in essence, are not even really important, let's enjoy the fireflies, and the moments with the people we love, let's sing and dance even if people laughed at us, let's not use a title as an excuse to be bad people or hold onto our vanities, let's just be who we really are.

… to be continued?