Cherry Blossoms Are Blooming

『Cherry Blossoms Are Blooming』は、10代のHANABIE.がライブハウスで磨いた衝動を、初めてまとまった作品として刻んだ6曲入りEPである。短いインスト“Cherry blossoms are blooming”は、開花前の静けさと期待を作り、その直後の“Envy”が荒々しいリフ、切迫したシャウト、若い感情の揺れを一気に噴き出す。“TIME OUT”では時間に追われる焦燥を速度のあるビートへ変え、構成の切り替えに後のHANABIE.へつながる落ち着かなさが表れる。 “ghost mania”はA Ghost of FlareのYojiroを迎え、怪異的な雰囲気と複数の声が交差することで、初期作品の中でも特に暗く立体的な音像を作る。“ZERO”は立ち止まりと再出発を重い反復へ託し、“Drastic Nadeshiko”は大和撫子という既成イメージを勢いよく更新する。録音にはインディーズらしい粗さが残るが、その粗さがギターの切迫感、ベースとドラムの直進力、YukinaとMatsuriの声の対比を生々しく伝えている。後年の電子的な装飾やポップな洗練はまだ限定的である一方、日常語、女性像、サブカルチャー、激しい音を自分たちの視点で結び直す発想はすでに明確だ。桜の「開花」という題名どおり、世界へ向かう独自性が形を持ち始めた原点である。

Cherry Blossoms Are Blooming is a six-track document of teenage HANABIE. converting live-house urgency into its first substantial release. The brief instrumental title track creates a moment of calm and expectation before “Envy” releases raw riffs, pressured screams and unstable young emotion. “TIME OUT” turns the anxiety of running out of time into a fast beat, and its abrupt structural movement already suggests the restlessness that would become central to the band’s later writing. “ghost mania,” featuring Yojiro from A Ghost of Flare, creates the darkest and most dimensional sound on the EP by crossing multiple voices with a supernatural atmosphere. “ZERO” places hesitation and restart inside a heavy repeated figure, while “Drastic Nadeshiko” energetically rewrites the conventional image of ideal Japanese femininity. The recording retains the roughness of an independent first release, but that quality carries the urgency of the guitar, the direct force of bass and drums, and the contrast between Yukina and Matsuri with unusual immediacy. The electronics and pop polish of later records are only beginning to appear, yet the central idea is already clear: everyday language, female identity, subculture and extreme music can be reassembled from the band’s own perspective. True to its image of blossoms opening, the EP captures the moment HANABIE.’s distinctive identity first became visible.