Generally speaking, the Japanese pop music that finds its way to Western audiences is either cartoonishly cute (in the vein of Shonen Knife) or punishingly noisy (à la Boris or Boredoms). Refreshingly, the all-female quartet the Suzan are neither. On their debut, Golden Week for the Poco Poco Beat, the all-girl Suzan mine garage-rock, pop, new wave, surf-rock, riot-grrrl, and even gypsy-folk for inspiration. This makes for a collection that isn't unified in sound but has an omnivorous attitude that permeates throughout. While some may find the lack of stylistic cohesion to be a drawback, Poco Poco Beat doesn't sound scattered. Rather than coming off as an overstuffed collection by a group who couldn't stick to (or make) one singular aesthetic choice, the album feels like it's burning through a history of girl groups from the Shangri-Las to the Raincoats and the Go-Go's.
Despite that fact, there are a few stylistic markers that act as glue for this willfully disjointed collection. One is the charming vocals of frontwoman Saori Suzuki: Eschewing any of the cloying girlish notes of her versatile voice, she sounds self-assured and womanly, whether she's cooing, scat-singing, or snarling. Another is the band's facility with creating ambiance. They're as adept at creating a sense of creeping dread as they are at summoning celebratory cacophonies. On an album this varied, the Suzan have room to show off all their different sides, and the fact that they sound perfectly natural in both pub-punk screamer mode ("London Tonight") and in a more soulful 60s pop style ("Ha Ha Ha") is a testament to their musicality. Perhaps their most essential skill is their ability to temper their most sugary, most melodic impulses with enough tough, raw, or sparse ones to keep things from becoming too precious. For example, despite the almost sickly sweet xylophone that kicks off album opener "Home", the song smartly builds an ESG-worthy groove with its rhythmically chanted vocals and tom-heavy drive to become the LP's best track.
As you may have already heard, the Suzan were "discovered" on MySpace by Björn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn and John), pulled out of the vast, overwhelming Internet-music morass by a producer with a proven track record. Then they became the first traditional rock band (although the term "traditional" here is a slight stretch) signed to A-Trak and Nick Catchdub's Fool's Gold label. It isn't hard to see why these independent music heavies were won over by this developing-but-driven group from half a world away. The Suzan have an infectious energy, and the ambitious scope of their debut is impressive (if, admittedly, exhausting). Would the band have been better served if they'd tightened their musical scope and not made such a genre-hopping collection? Possibly, but the Suzan's up-for-anything enthusiasm is part of their charm.
