I, Doll (part I)

The sweet scent of madness.

Cho-co-rei-ito diss-co. Cho-co-rei-ito diss-co.  Cho-co-rei-ito diss-su-co.

Insidious.

The group responsible goes by the name of Perfume. Irrepressibly perky, this trio of girls is riding high in the Japanese charts.

When the gorgeous Miss Élysées turned me onto Perfume, she told me they peddled a fusion of 90s Tokyo club music and good old-fashioned Japanese idol style. She also mentioned the cuteness of it. She didn’t warn me about the looping brain screw.

Perfume – Nocchi, Kashiyuka & SA-chan – have been performing together since 2001, when they debuted in their hometown of Hiroshima. They tipped with the release of their single Polyrhythm (ポリリズム) in September 2007. It had been used in an NHK recycling campaign:

Since then, they have been growing in popularity. Perfume’s second album, GAME, was relased on April 16th 2008 and hit #1 in the charts. In a blaze of tie-in marketing, the group are starring in a Friday night TV show (Happy!) alongside comedian Nishioka Sumiko and CanCam magazine model Tokuzawa Naota.

For now, they look set to keep shooting up into greater stardom.

But, is there a darker, seamier side to the idol culture Perfume draw on? Tune in next time.

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Find Perfume here.

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Perfume-V