Rustie / Green Language

Release Date: August, 2014


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前作も、かなりの音圧で聴く者を圧倒したRustie。今作も、そのパワーは衰えないといえよう。彼の音楽には、彼自身のバックグラウンド、つまりは彼がこれまでに愉しんで来た音楽的経験をコンピュータというマシーンに潜らせて、それを口からチューインガムの風船のように無数に吹き出しては、はじけさせるような、膨張感と破裂感がある。聞くところによると、彼は、子供の頃はMichael Jacksonに憧れ、そして、Nirvana、Pearl Jam、Prodigy、Wu-Tang Clanに夢中になったという、まぁ、いずれも今となっては「そりゃ、みんな好きだったわな…」的な人気者ばかりに影響を受けているらしい。若い人は代謝が良いというが、彼の場合は、自分の大好きだった人気者のおいしい要素をふんだんに吸収して、すごい勢いで代謝をするかのように音楽を作っているように感じる。

彼がファーストアルバムを出した当初は「レイヴのヒップホップとの出会い」的な言われ方をしていたが、本当はそんな、チマチマしたものではないことが、このセカンドを聴くとわかる。このアルバムの先行シングルともなった「Raptor」はロックの突き抜ける感じがあり、それこそMichael Jacksonの「Black or White」のPVでギターをかき鳴らす子供の頃のマコーレ・カルキンが父親をロケット噴射で家から吹っ飛ばす世界の現代版のよう。アルバムの冒頭の曲も腹をぶち抜く太いベースがジェットコースターの急降下のときの気持ち悪さを連想させる。疾走と急降下の不快感は個人的には90年代初頭のProdigy譲りの感じもするが、レイヴのきらびやかさで不快さを払拭している。今作は更にヒップホップ寄りの曲も多かったり、Daft Punk的なヴォーカルのRedinhoが参加の曲は、グラミー賞的なメジャー感がある。前作がロケット噴射で莫大なエネルギーをぶちまけている瞬間だったとしたら、今作はロケットが上昇するにつれて、周りのあらゆるものがキラキラと燃えながら巻き上げられて行く感じに近いのではないかと思う。





Like a Blast Off of an Rocket

I think many have been overwhelmed by Rustie’s last album, for its powerful beat, and I should admit that the strength is never getting weak, as far as I listen to this second album. His music is something like taking good aspects of all of his old days’ favorites, then putting them into a computer device, and bursting all out as if blowing thousands of bubble gum balloons out from his mouth, and popping them up. It is such kind of boosting and popping music, I would say. It is known that he was fond of Michael Jackson, and was influenced by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Prodigy, and Wu-Tang Clan –as many of us were in to them as well. It is generally said that young people’s metabolism is good. In this effect, I feel that Rustie had taken in all of the good parts of those pop stars, and is now metabolizing vigorously by creating his music.

When his first album has been released, many have called it as an album in which Rave meets Hip Hop. However, after listening to this album, I would not think that his style is as ‘modest’ as that. “Raptor” would be the most striking track in the album; this track is powerful as the scene when Macaulay Culkin blows off his Dad to outer space by his boosting guitar sound in Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” music video. The album’s opening track boosts the bass sound with high range power that makes me sick as if riding on a nose diving roller coaster. I feel that this darting and zooming effect in his sound has been inherited from Prodigy, but by making it into a glittering Rave sound, it turns out to be less unpleasant as it should be. As I keep on listening to the album, I find that it shifts more on to Hip Hop side compared to the last album. Moreover, the track featuring Redinho reminds me of Daft Punk, thus sounding quite gorgeous in a Grammy winning level. As a whole, I think that his debut album was something like the moment when a rocket is bursting out its enormous energy right before the blast off, while this album seems to be like when the rocket is exploding all of the surroundings as it blasts off and leaves the ground.