Underrated and overlooked.

HEEY! Guess what’s back? ….. Yes! (lol), Al and I are indeed back again with J-Music Exchange/Rate, here to bring you guys your monthly fix of Japanese music album reviews this year, starting with this one!

IF, however, this is your first time coming across this series ー

The Exchange/Rate is a monthly album review series conducted by  myself alongside my friend and fellow Japanese music fan Al (from Omunibasu). Each month we decide on a particular theme. We then pick out albums from our respective libraries that we think best coincides with the theme we selected. We will then give the album we picked to the other person and vice versa (exchange), after which we then listen to and subsequently review the album we received (rate). This project has not only allowed me and Al to explore music beyond our libraries, but it provides an opportunity for us to potentially see our favorite albums in a new light. It is our hope that this series is able to do the same for you and that you either find a new artist to try out and/or we offer you a new perspective on one of *your* favorite albums 😀

Al and I take turns on who gets to pick the theme for the month, and as it just so happens, I get to be the one for the first album review of 2024. The theme for January is: underrated artists that should get more attention/exposure. I thought this one would be particularly fitting to start with, especially if we can get more eyes on these artists as soon as this month that way we can all be excited for them throughout the year (XD) Now, “underrated” can be a bit subjective so Al and I decided that we’d classify a band/artist/group as underrated or not based on their current Spotify Monthly Listener counts. Specifically we were looking at those who had less than 10K monthly listeners. They also have to be a currently active band/artist/group as well.

After much deliberation, I went and picked out xYZ by none other than the very promising ExWHYZ (check out Al’s review here!). Al on the other hand gave me SANDAL TELEPHONE’s REFLEX for me to listen to.

For the first time this year, let’s give it a whirl!

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SANDAL TELEPHONE is the third iteration of a previously defunct group that originally formed in July 2017. Formerly known as “Shuuengo Buppan”, the group’s founding members would go on hiatus on December of that same year. The introduction of a new second lineup issued a resumption of activities for the group in 2018, however they too would end up going on hiatus the year after. In April 2019, a *third* lineup was introduced, now marked by a change in the unit’s name to “Sandal Telephone”, ushering a new era for the group. The current iteration consists of Komachi Mai (小町まい), Kagami Natsu (夏芽ナツ), and Fujii Erika (藤井エリカ).

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(＊Spotify link to the full album)

CDJapan Affiliate Link(s):
REFLEX [CD+DVD / Edition A] / SANDAL TELEPHONE
REFLEX [Edition B] / SANDAL TELEPHONE
REFLEX [Edition C] / SANDAL TELEPHONE

＜T ｒａｃｋｌｉｓｔ＞

０１・REFLEX
０２・恋の魔法使いにはならない/koi no mahoutsukai ni wa naranai
０３・Silent
０４・Lightsurfer
０５・Be Free
０６・レビュープレビュー/review preview
０７・It’s Show Time!
０８・SYSTEMATIC
０９・碧い鏡/aoi kyou
１０・微熱フェノロジー/binetsu phenology
１１・かくれんぼ/kakurenbo
１２・Groovin Drive

Ａ　ｌ　:  SANDAL TELEPHONE has been one of my ‘under-the-radar’ idol discoveries in the past couple years, as I just ended up stumbling upon a song of theirs one day (“Kakurenbo”, which is actually on this album and I thought was good when I first heard it) and that was kinda the extent of it. But only recently did I take some time to listen to their 2022 full album release in REFLEX, and I quickly realized how solid the rest of their music actually is.

“Koi no Mahōtsukai ni Hanarenai” hooks you in immediately with its funky dance vibe, the atmospheric EDM sound within “Lightsurfer” had such an cool energy to it, and their take on a more 90’s hip-hop sound within “SYSTEMATIC” was a bit surprising-yet-fairly well executed. While I wouldn’t call myself a full-on fan/follower of SANDAL TELEPHONE, I think what they showed off here with REFLEX was still pretty remarkable; due to the fact that this was the first album that this trio released since going through a lineup change. The worries of losing fans’ interest in the group certainly waned on them because of that, but even then, I can tell that SANDAL TELEPHONE really gave it their all with this album, in order to prove that they are worthy of people’s attention. Whether it’s the sick compositions, strong vocal performances from Mai, Natsu and Erika, and even the slight sense of familiarity it may evoke (a few of the featured composers on REFLEX have worked with other idol groups such as Nogizaka46 and AKB48)… this was definitely a solid release and even as someone who is more drawn to conventional/cutesy idols, I thoroughly enjoyed the vibe that SANDAL TELEPHONE showed off here.

＜Ｓｏｎｇｓ　ｏｆ　Ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔ＞

０２・恋の魔法使いにはならない/koi no mahoutsukai ni wa naranai
The first of four songs that we’ll be talking about today is Koi no Mahoutsukai ni wa Naranai, coming right after the opening track of the album REFLEX (also the title track; a nifty little sound sampler in itself). I’ll preface my thoughts on this song by saying that I actually share the sentiments I have for it with a lot of the songs on here, most notably Silent which is the next track after it, along with other standout tracks Be Free and SYSTEMATIC. Before I get to talking what I think these songs have in common though, I want to do a little experiment with you guys. I want you to play the song below and, without looking, try to guess when it reaches its halfway point.

Did you get it right? I’ll let you know I got it wrong twice: the first time was on Spotify when I first played the song, and a separate time on YouTube with the above video. Both times I ended up being short roughly a minute. I had similar experiences with the other songs I mentioned, and my takeaway from that is that Koi no Mahoutsukai ni wa Naranai might be… too long. Why does that matter? Well, this song, as well as the ones I mentioned, have great hooks. They’re nice, catchy, and really stick with you like a good hook should. That being said, you gotta let me come back for it on my own instead of letting me have my fill, which is largely what happens here.

０４・Lightsurfer
Compare and contrast what I said with what you’ll hear in Lightsurfer here and you’ll notice a difference. A couple of differences, in fact, starting with how the song is a full minute and some change shorter than the one we just talked about. Now, I don’t want song length (lol) of all things to be too much of a sticking point for this review so I’ll move on from that. I *will* say though that part of the reason why I ended up liking Lightsurfer a whole lot out (quite honestly my favorite track off of the album by a decent mile) probably has something to do with how long it goes for, specifically with regard to the the kind of sound that it has relative to what you just heard from them.

This ties into what I would think to be the clearer difference between Koi no Mahoutsukai ni wa Naranai and Lightsurfer and it’s in the respective music style being put on display by the two songs, which in turn (at least in so far as the songs on this album are concerned) appear to be the two predominant sounds of SANDAL TELEPHONE as a whole. With the former, you have this sort of Retrowave/Discotheque sort of vibe they seem to be going for whereas with the latter is good ol’ Future Pop. Granted, these two are pretty much two halves of the same Electro Pop coin, but it’s interesting that the group is seemingly trying to go with both sounds for their music.

０６・レビュープレビュー/review preview
I wanted to talk about Review Preview a little bit for this review. It’s the coupling A-side track to Lightsurfer and is at present the song from SANDAL TELEPHONE’s current iteration with the most plays on Spotify. Of course, that on its own isn’t particularly indicative of anything. For instance, Lightsurfer beats out Review Preview on YouTube play counts, though I imagine the visual element had bit more to do with that. That being said, I thought it was fitting to bring that fact up here now that we’re talking about the sounds that the group offers, as I believe it might have something to do with why those numbers are the way they are from purely a music-listening perspective.

While I did just mention how fond I am of Lightsurfer, Review Preview in my opinion does a lot of things better (or at the very least different) than most tracks on REFLEX which make it stand out. It’s one of only a couple of songs on the album that hit that middle ground of Retrowave and Future Pop: like, for example, the grainy Synth is still there, but the drum loops are very modern-sounding; the verses don’t also have that Kayokyoku-esque cadence to it. The song also incorporates some of SANDAL TELEPHONE’s earlier sound with the inclusion of guitar riffs (something that was otherwise very prominent in the group’s older songs) which I thought was a nice touch.

１０・微熱フェノロジー/binetsu phenology
The last track that I will shining a spotlight on before we move on to my general thoughts on the album is Binetsu Phenology here, in what I think of as a song that more than anything else shows a lot of promise in terms of them potentially realizing success with what they have going with their music relative to the kinds of music that have either already proven to be successful or are currently succeeding in today’s mainstream. For Idol/Electo Pop groups like SANDAL TELEPHONE in particular, I would even go so far as to say that the roadmap to making it as the kind of group that they are has been laid out for quite some time now by arguably the best to ever do it; Perfume.

That is to say, Binetsu Phenology does remind me a lot of Perfume the more I listen to it: extended instrumental breaks (presumably for dance portions of the song), a catchy uniformly repeating hook, the emphatic use of synth in the chorus; most of everything about it feels very textbook. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not necessarily… or at the very least not always. Like, one could argue that if you wanted to listen to Perfume you… would just listen to Perfume, and I totally get that sentiment. At the same time however, I’m personally of the mind that coexistence can be had in these spaces, and I do believe this is the route that SANDAL TELEPHONE should be taking.

＜Ｗｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｏｆ　ＲＥＦＬＥＸ＞

It’s honestly quite fascinating to think about how much more ahead of its time Perfume was when you you think about how we’re starting to see more and more of these idol groups and vocal units who have DJ/music producers creating music for them: Perfume has Nakata Yasutaka; vocal unit mzsrz’s main music producer is DECO*27 of Nico Nico Douga fame; Qumari Depart has Sakurai Kenta who had done a lot of work in the past with the now-defunct Maison book girl; the list goes on and on. After the group’s restructuring in 2019, SANDAL TELEPHONE came under the guidance of Chiba Kenichi, who is the man largely responsible for how this album sounds.

I alluded to the fact while I was talking about the songs but prior to Chiba taking most of the helm, the group had a completely different sound to them. The original SANDAL TELEPHONE was more conventional J-Pop-leaning than Electro Pop like how it is in the group’s current iteration. Granted, said group was comprised of all different people who are no longer even involved in the project so that’s definitely going to factor into why in terms of the singing and the range of styles available to the previous members of the group. Chiba wasn’t also the one predominantly making the tracks for the group at the time which could also be a contributing factor.

I would surmise the main reason as to why Chiba ended up taking the vast majority of the reigns on this project (in turn making SANDAL TELEPHONE predominantly have a more Electronic-based sound), as was highlighted earlier, has a lot to do with how much of a tried and tested formula this sort of setup is: we know it can work, as we’ve seen in the not-so-distant past; and we know there can definitely be an audience for this kind of music. With all that being said, REFLEX has glimpses of a bright future in store for the group in my eyes, but it’s not the whole picture just yet. I do think though that they are ultimately on the right track with this release.

＜Ｍｙ　Ｒａｔｉｎｇ＞

３.７５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ５

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７.５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ １０

The key thing that I would like SANDAL TELEPHONE to do from here is to commit to just one side of the Electro Pop coin rather than meander between its two sides. In as much as I’ve talked about the group’s Future Pop offerings over the course of this review, I didn’t really mind their Retrowave in the slightest. Be Free and SYSTEMATIC in particular I found to be fairly solid tracks in that regard. However, I *am* serious about them maybe shoring up some of these track lengths in future releases though. I mean, you guys have seen me show favor towards lengthier songs before so if I had to say it’s really the song structure relative to this particular genre if anything.

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What are your guys’ thoughts on SANDAL TELEPHONE’s REFLEX? Likewise, which underrated bands/artists/groups do *you* think deserve more attention? Lemme know down in the comments! 😀

I thought it was a neat coincidence that both groups that Al and I are album reviews for this month released new PVs within this past week so yeah, if you guys needed proof as to whether or now know what we’re talking about, here you go (XD) Seriously though, check these out 😉

With that, and before I let you go, don’t forget to check out Al’s review if ExWHYZ’s xYZ over at Omunibasu if you haven’t yet!

Happy Listening!