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One of the best things about this release was how excited Akane seemed to be about it. So much love and support.

It was definitely more layered and lush than I expected it to be. Never underestimate the intrepid 810 year old pigeon!

Great reaction! For me living in Japan, Miku's challenge is musically revolutionary. A pigeon flies down from BAND-MAID to the boring J-POP these days, and is flying around and playing. And she believes she can understand it to people like you who have ears who really love music all over the world. The important thing is that Miku will make something different from BAND-MAID in this project and deliver it to the people who are listening to BAND-MAID. That's amazing. And if you listen carefully to this, you can see that she is always with BAND-MAID.

This takes me back to the 80's when Bands weren't afraid of experimenting and being different.

Voice is becoming one of my all time favorite song, i literally love it.

It's been 24 hours and I still can't stop freaking out over how good Super star is.

What a genius! The last three songs are masterpieces among the masterpieces. If BAND-MAID is a parent universe, Cluppo may be a child universe that broke through the shell, but Maidiacs around the world can freely move between the two universes through wormholes.

I love Band-Maid, but never thought of buying the EP. Then I watched this video, I decided to place an order.

Kobato is fearless!!! She has so much drive and determination in everything she does. I have so much respect for her as a person and as a musician. Akane is her biggest fan who rushed over after it was released to get it autographed by cluppo and posted on her IG. also tweeted how much she loved it. On another note did you hear that YOYOKA will be appearing at Naon Yaon festival this year. She will be hanging out with Nemophila, Show Ya, Gacharic Spin, Hagane and others. i think it's April 29. something for the Gaijin Guys to discuss i hope :) Great job Wave as always. Cheers

Yep, “Voice” has ended up being my favorite song here. Miku really stepped up her vocal power for this song. You can really tell she is passionate about this one!💪🏻🤘🏻

Miku certainly is a rather extraordinary little dove. Brilliant.

Absolutely awesome. Fuwa, fuwa is so funky, po! Miku is a gem. Our favorite pigeon can do anything. A guitar solo? Why not ?

That last solo had some real Tom Morello vibes!

PS! That last song was crazy musically! I've been playing since 78 and I have no idea how they did those changes so smoothly! Incredible! God level! Thanks for this Wave! 😎🤘🤘🤘🤘

"Voice" totally blew me away. It 100% confirms in my mind that Miku *could* have been the frontwoman of Band-Maid, if she had really wanted to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad we got Saiki, but Miku definitely has the vocal chops these days.

Sadly the identity of the musicians involved will remains unknown under the "Crow Collective" name until Miku decides otherwise. You can check out the credits on reddit (can't post links here), the user haromatsu posted a lot of pictures of the Hatofull physical copy As for the songs, i'm pleasantly surprised with these 3. They're catchy, uplifting, varied, and the lyrics are really good (once again thanks to reddit user nair0n for the translations). The last song "Super star" kinda reminds me the most poppy side of B'z, one of Japan's biggest and coolest rock bands, wich i think it means a huge compliment for Miku

"holy flippety dippety"

I’m a little late to the party as I received my CD just two days ago. I have to say that I’m completely addicted by these 3 songs! I can’t stop listening to them and I can’t pick my favorite. I have literally all the 3 choruses in my head at the same time 😅 This is the best hippie-poppo songs I’ve heard in very long time Po! Congratulations cluppo 🕊☮️❤️

Definitely not an average pop. Love an upbeat funky-jazzy flavor mixed with experiMental vocals of our beloved pigeon Miku-Cluppo. You have to appreciate an intelligent sophisticated production of this release. Well done, Miku and her team!

As much as I enjoyed the first two songs Cluppo released. I really love the change in direction for Pogo and the rest of the mini album. Really enjoyed the songs and have played them a few times now without feeling they are repetitive.

Recent tweets from Akane said she want to play the drums of voice and superstar songs 😆😍

Lucky enough to have a physical copy...Much prefer to have it in my hand then download....kind of old school...Came with a lovely free picture of Miku ..Po!

I knew I was going to order it. Based on the earlier releases, I knew i was going to like it. Didn't know I was going to love it this much. Amazing! Thanks, Wave!

I received my copy today. Thanks for the breakdown.

Great reaction. There was a discussion over on reddit about the composers for Cluppo and they talked about a group that wrote for early Band-Maid . My understanding was from her interview on "Barks" and reddit is that Miku was presented a number of songs and she picked the ones she like, then wrote the lyrics. She's said before that none of the others from Band-Maid were involved. For song #4 she said it was her highest range challenge for her.

When I first heard those new last three tracks I thought of you Wave, cos I knew you were going to love them!

What an amazing album. completely blew my mind. In case anybody wants to know "Fuwafuwa" means Fluffy in Japanese.

Well, I don't think Miku was exaggerating when she said that this EP has many different colors. 🤭 And even though I'm usually the type who prefers black, I love every single one of them. This album is for me another proof that Miku is an outstanding woman and musician who keeps getting better. Or in other words, this little pigeon is flying higher and higher, and I just love watching it do so. :) ----------- 「 _'Pigeons will save the world.'_ 」 --- from *cluppo* / Miku Kobato 'Peace & Love' 🕊️

She not follow the trend, she made the trend

I really appreciate you getting this up so quickly!

I don't know if there is any significance to 'FuwaFuwa' and 'voice' having the same length, but 'Peace&Love', the first cluppo song, comes in at 3 minutes and 9 seconds. 3 = "Mi" and 9 = "Ku". The cluppo EP was released on "Miku's Day", March 9th.

My CD from Ponycanyon is taking it's time to arrive, so Ive watched your review about 7 times now. Soundscapes throughout so lush!

Hippie pop PO! The Pigeon may be Tiny but she be Mighty! Reminds me of 70s band's. 12 tracks on an album. 3 or 4 different genres. Great breakdown brother! Enjoyed it!!😊😎✌🤘

Thanks! So a few thoughts… (other than I LOVE these last 3 tracks) If I recall at the beginning of cluppo as a project, Miku mentioned something about cluppo holding a guitar as more of an image thing more than anything. I’m sure Miku could handle the guitar parts with practice on all these songs with practice, but I’d guess that she didn’t record them since she didn’t mention anything. She’s honest like that. cluppo is more a vocal project than anything. I’ll go along with Miku’s official response to whether or not her band-mates are involved - no. Akane is cluppo’s biggest fan (seen her IG photos?) and she tweeted about how she has these 3 tracks on endless repeat, and how she intends to cover them on drums. Hopefully we’ll get to see those as video clips sometime in the future 😊. Miku only wrote the lyrics. The composer(s) are still the unnamed Crow(s). I still think it’s a group of different composers and if the project continues any number of different composers can participate as a new crow. So I mentioned that I love these last 3 tracks! Together with Flapping Wings, they cover pretty much most of what I love about Jpop - the Pop, the Jazz, the Brass, the electronic and synths… and I am so impressed with Miku’s vocals, especially the work on her higher range… she did mention how challenging it was to record. I think she’s in trouble now cos Kanami is going to start thinking about adding even higher key songs for Miku to sing as a maid.

At "Discogs" under the page for "Peace & Love" they have the following credits but nothing about the entire CD. In case no one noticed "hato" is Japanese for pigeon so the title is pigeon-full. Art Direction - Masashi Nakazato Bass Guitar [Uncredited] - Joe Nagaike Drums [Uncredited] - Shogo Yoshida Guitar, Vocals - Cluppo Keyboards [Uncredited] - Yuki Tanabe Mastered By - Crow No. 3 Mixed By - Crow No. 3 Photography By - Aya Iwamoto Producer [Sound Produced] - Cluppo, Crow (70) Recorded By - Crow No. 2

"FUWA FUWA"..means “fluffy fluffy” also can mean...“light and airy” or “soft.”..associated with Fluffy Pancakes.

This reminds me so much of Tokyo Jihen...and Ringo Shiina.

Very nice, Wave! Loved all the detail you went into here. My favourite musical genre is "Interesting" and with these 3 songs, especially, they've nailed it. I've always loved Miku's lower voice, which they used more in Band-Maid's super-early days, and it was great to hear it in "Super star". About the credits, I don't know. There's some info and speculation from various knowledgeable people in the community: So, Hitoshi Okamoto from a band called "Garnet Crow" composed "Before Yesterday" and "Time" for Band-Maid. What does that mean? Maybe nothing, maybe everything! Also, in the "Peace & Love" music video, the performers are: guitar: Hiroki Tanaka (from Lego Big Morl); bass: Jo Nagaike (from Scoobie Do) and drums: Shogo Yoshida (from Unchain). Did they play on the album? Who knows!

It is "Super Star" for me. It's full of interesting vocal transitions and techniques by Miku. She's a tremendous vocalist in her own right.

I can hear similarities to Shiina Ringo, one of Miku's influences.

Miku (koff koff) spreading her wings.

I am enjoying your enjoyment of this song! Fuwa Fuwa! I am more of a hard rocker, but Cluppo/Miku is just irresistible in her enthusiasm. She is a boat load of sunshine!

i just watched pogo the other day, loved it. gonna have to buy another cd if i can

pleasantly suprised by these tracks. glad i pulled the trigger and pre ordered the EP even though i wasn't fully on board with the singles. i was pre-ordering Bidear's upcoming album Aegis of Athena at the time and I also saw Cluppo and I was just like f it and got it too lmfao

Whoa! I just got Cluppo'd upside the head. 🕊 🤯 I wonder why they didn't pick these last three songs to be the singles/videos? To complicated perhaps. But I love 'em!

I wish we could see these songs live. Miku is really impressive here. I always thought she was often ignored in many reactions, but she is also a very talented vocalist.

Ok, I was already a documented Miku-gusher. I was even criticized about being one on KZfaq. So, to say I'm ecstatic about this EP would be understating it. Nevertheless, Miku has simply proven me right for having so much faith in her, hands-down, no questions asked! This is amazing stuff!!

I waited for your analysis before I went to the songs myself as you always bring insights to the music I may not hear, thanks for that ! I have to say that Voice is an amazing song, it is really heavy actually. I can picture a bunch of metal heads head banging at half time during the chorus, I was !

Miku is a freakin’ genius 😎

The record as a whole is soooo good! And light-years better on CD than streaming, btw: The first 3 songs sound like different mixes. Her vocals are so expressive with so many phrasings, tones and timbres (and not just the varied production techniques). There are no musician credits on the CD, though iirc it's not uncommon for studio musicians to go uncredited. Could be all Cluppo and Crow, though. EDIT: The drums on the "voice" chorus are a wild mix of that J-pop go-to off-beat disco hi-hat with a big half-time bass/snare pattern where you'd expect half-open hi-hat quarter notes.

What I truly love about Cluppo is that Miku finally fulfills her original desire to succeed as a J-Pop star. This has GOT to be a Miku/Mincho project. Anyway, Miku has re-created Tokyo Jihen. Ringo Shiina would approve.

Nice reaction and analysis. Thx and peace and love. 🐦

Pogo is still my fave. After that I'd say Voice & Superstar

Fun to watch its been a couple of days and sadly, currently noone else is doing a reaction to this. Fun little album makes you move which is what you want from music.

This took me by surprise, like, a lot. I loved Peace & Love (A LOT), felt OK with Flapping Wings, didn't really enjoy Pogo that much... So, I was thinking this would be a mixed bag for me. Nope, WRONG, the 3 new tracks all slapped in 3 totally different weird ways. Pidgeons will save the world.

I like Peace and love for it's cuteness and message but the last three songs are a real surprise. I'm going to have to buy the EP now.

Shear genius- I've always thought that Miku has been able soak up musical and ideas (shown by her guitar playing ability) and she has certainly learnt from the rest of the Band Maid members. How long before she enters the regular music charts on her own?

Ok, this is my first time hearing these 3 songs, & I'm impressed. I ESPECIALLY liked voice, like ALOT! I think it has rocketed past Peace and Love as my favorite Cluppo song. If the "Power Trio" was to add their talents to it, it would be a great "Miku song" for BAND-MAID, maybe even the best!

Miku is brilliant!

PONY CANYON has not released the information on the personnel on the CD. I have checked in English and Japanese.

if any of the Maids helped her with this, my money is on Akane (being a DJ and all)

I really wish that super star was on a band maid album

Hatoful is super 90s J-pop. Basslines remind me of Tetsu (in L'arc), arrangements reminiscent of TK (Tetsya Komuro) in projects like Globe. It's a great EP, but honestly no idea why Flapping Wings and POGO were singles (I get POGO's war themes but even then...).

Super Star seems to have a bit of a feel similar to Synchronicity by Wagakki Band - but it also has a bit of a REOL feel to it (vocal tone). I think Miku is really absorbing a lot of current Japanese music styles and pushing them into an EP. It's a really great strategy (and I'm impressed if this is largely driven by her own goals - rather than just being a producers experiment).

Exactly my reaction when I first heard them... But remember, Miku's favorite band is Tokyo Incident/Jihen and Shiina Ringo whose music is quite eclectic, so her music is also eclectic but more modernized. Miku, you have outdone yourself. Super star's vocal style is similar to Radwimps style. Now I got another heavy rotation setlist. ^^

I was fine with "Peace&Love" - good song, not great, fine. "Flapping Wings" and "Pogo!" were not for me. I have warmed up to the later however a bit. But these new 3 - somehow I didn't expect it to go that route - I love it! They are better for me than the first 3 songs, for sure. You know, Wave - ever heard "Tokyo Jihen" ("Tokyo Incidents") and "Ringo Sheena"? Miku is a big fan of the band and especially of Ringo, who is basically her idol. I hear definitely influences of Ringo in the last new songs. The jazzy parts, bass lines, trumpets (you mentioned Ska) and the fairly simple but well balanced guitar parts. The songs sound poppy - yes - HELL YES! - so they are more in the direction of Ringos solo stuff than the full band "Tokyo Jihen", but with even more Pop influences. Miku goes more for the "happiness", Ringo more for the "sexiness" - but the lyrics for the EP are not as happy at all (like all Miku lyrics, but these ones feel personal, something she claims she doesn't do in Band-Maid) Do I think it's as good as TJ and Ringo? No, it's not, yet. But I do think the second half of the EP is fantastic! I'm pleasantly surprised :D

"WOW" and "Holey Flippidy Dippity" you said it all Wave, nice breakdown and what a fantastic EP. To all the Cluppo naysayers, of course this isn't for everyone but this should absolutely silence those nastier Miku talent naysayers, what an amazing person/pigeon she is, hey Wave, wave hello for a jealous old Aussie boy when you see BM this year 😂 Peace and Love Po 🎼🥁🎤🎸🍻

Just play it twice 😎

Speaking of electronic music mix with rock and pop, and they are played with organic instruments, you should check out both of also my favorite bands but already disbanded, School Food Punishment and NEGOTO. Both bands are the best in electronic fusion genre.

The album credits don't tell us anything about which session musicians appeared, sadly. They only indicate that Miku wrote the lyrics and "Crow" wrote and arranged the music. Someday we'll hopefully learn who "Crow" actually is.

I loved the three songs released as singles. Peace & Love will always be my jam. BUT the three new tracks released with the EP are phenomenal. You are absolutely right, you could mix those three in with a BM playlist and they would absolutely fit. The differences are noticeable still, between cluppo and BM in those three tracks. They are just absolute groves. And yeah, I want to see the credits for the band members, and to see if Miku is doing those guitar solos.

Just had a thought- I've commented before, that these are the sort of musical arrangements that Kanami might get into post Band Maid.

These are actually my favorite! The last one is actually a lot like Ado. A pretty famous vocaloid artist on KZfaq. You check her out. But these three are a lot more up my alley.

A few months have passed and Cluppo has released "With You" - another gorgeous song with trademark Miku Kobato Sad yet Upbeat lyrics that has a perfectly matching Sad yet Upbeat orchestration. Beautiful pop song that nails it on all accounts. The composer and arranger is listed as Crow. Crow? Really? Cluppo writes lyrics that consistently reference pigeons, birds, flapping wings, and flying away like a bird and she gets a composer/arranger named Crow, another bird? If Cluppo is Miku's Pop-Star nom de guerre, then who is Crow? I have no theories, no guesses, I got nothing here.

I wasn't too sure about the Cluppo project from the first 2 songs, I appreciated the strangeness of Pogo!, but still wasn't on board. I went into the back half of this EP with tempered expectations, but I am kinda blown away by these 3 songs. I heard FuwaFuwa and instantly loved it. voice is very good too. Super star is very interesting. I think that solo in Super star reminds me of a Kirk Hammett solo on the Black Album. I hope that's Miku, and if so, she sounded great. I loved her vocals with this style.

While I am waiting for the physical ep I observe that Fuwa Fuwa has a definite tricot vibe. Miku is credited as lyricist and Crow is credited as Composer. Looking further Crow is credited as a production team

This is like tokyo pop but modern, And ye, we can hope Kanami, Misa and Akane have something to do with this, Voice is straight up anime vibe

That is one funky -chicken- pigeon PO!

This is a bit of a late comment, but there is one band known to Cluppo that could produce the variations on the last three songs and that is Unchain, who are a great band in their right.

"Voice" has Band-Maid written all over it...... but not!! ... a B-side, maybe?!?! Maybe Cluppo will become the "Anti" Band-Maid..... off on a tangent here. However, Miku's vocals sound so emotional on this song. She sounds Pissed/Angry in the chorus.....Really cool. Sayonakidori is My favourite Miku song, however this comes real close..... Such a cool song.

You’re not the only one... who hears MISA

Fuwafuwa is my favourite in this EP

did anyone send you the credits yet? it's written in the CD booklet. All 6 tracks are listed as - Words: cluppo Music & Arrangement: Crow the rest of the EP's credits cluppo (Gt/Vo) Sound Produced by cluppo, Crow Mixed by Crow No 3 Recorded by Crow No 2 Mastered by Crow No 3 Cover illustration, design, produced by cluppo Art direction: Masashi Nakazato (Number inc.) Graphic Design: Ai Nojima (Number inc.) Photograph: Aya Iwamoto Stylist: Chisato Yoshioka Hair Make: NANAMAI Special Thanks To : Kanda Shokai Corporation / ZEMAITIS Check out the recent Barks article - she talks about the process a bit and goes into detail about each song. It's always sounded like she tells them her ideas of the kinds of music she wants, they prepare a bunch of songs (maybe from PC's catalogue), and she picks which song to flesh out into a song with them and to write lyrics for. I think PC staff support the creation of these works rather than other Band Maid members doing any writing or playing.

Kobato Miku is the real deal. Pure talent.

I will probably receive my CD copy tomorrow together with the Unlucky Morpheus bluray that released on the same day. I don't see myself listen to the EP a lot since it's completely not my style of music, but that's ok. I really wish they would have stayed of the autotune or pitch correction on some of these because it really irks me and I don't think Miku needs it (some of these high notes were almost completely electronic sounding). And it was most of the time rather subtle to the point that it sounds like they tried to hide it, which bothers me even more. I do think I like these last 3 songs more than the first 3 though, they have more "real" instruments or it least it sounds like they do. That being said, I do wish her the best with this project and there is a good chance I will keep buying her bigger releases. I probably won't get the singles though if they are going to release in EP's or albums afterwards.

Fuwa Fuwa = Fluffy Fluffy

These three songs are pretty amazing...I could almost wish they were Band Maid tunes, 'cause I'm a huge fan, but some of their more recent stuff is a bit chaotic and less melodic to my ears....Miku is a Ninja Pigeon for sure

I was a bit disappointed in POGO tbh, I felt it was a bit all over place. I just couldn't get into it. 'Voice' sounds almost like a Miku song within the Band-Maid concept, but with electronic sounds added. Great vocals! 👍 Synth bass reminds me of the old C64 games back in the days (Yeah I'm old) 😝 Superstar is cool, I like the jazzy/funky feel. And the cool synth bass again! Verrry nice guitar solo 🤘 Surprisingly, FuwaFuwa is my favorite. It has a great swing feel to it. I can easily see Miku performing this in front of a big band! My foot moves on its own to this song 😄 I wasn't sure I'd buy this album but... now I think I have to! Because of all the Miku-isms 😁

I got the CD yesterday and there are no credits for whoever else played on this 🤷‍♂️

SO　cool!　cluppo

EDM-Metal

superstar is swing rock cool

I think I liked VOICE the most.

😍👍🕊🕊🕊

I’m surprised I like this so much… i liked the first 2 songs they released but Pogo was not for me. I don’t see it growing on me. The other new songs, though! Now i guess Pogo is the exception that proves the rule… all that Miku touches is gold.

I hear a lot of Quincy Jones in Super Star

You miss-spelled EP title: Not “hatoful” => “hatofull”

I know it’s blasphemous, but I like this album much more than Unseen World.

Personally I think super star is the best song.