There's definitely something about AYAKO

This song is my first time listening to the artist known as AYAKO. As always, I approach with an open mind and suspicion or two of what may be waiting for me behind the play button. The air of mystery about her is... not exactly resolved by the time I'm done pouring over the song, on the contrary, I feel like, after all, the mystery was and is the whole point of the experience.

A little bit about AYAKO, before we move on.

Starting her career around the age of 16, AYAKO was discovered by a scout representing AVEX, one of the largest major entertainment conglomerates in Japan, There she worked for about two years across the greater Tokyo area, cutting her teeth in front of audiences while being developed as a Jpop artist by AVEX. In 2014 she made the move to the U.S. where she attended USC’s Thornton School of Music. Since, she has released music through the Manchester-based label, High Hoops. In 2019 she teamed up with producer SEROW to release her official debut single. She has also placed songs for Film/TV through Extreme Music, a production arm of Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

"Something About you" is one of the most compelling Pop tracks I've heard I've heard all year, and it achieves this feat almost entirely by its stunning ambiance. AYAKO delivers her smooth, celestial vocals with a satin-coated R&B glove that gently plays into every note of its melodic framework. The song is fairly straightforward in every aspect, almost as if the description I'm looking for is "simple" but I feel like that would belie the huge aesthetic value that I found flowing effortlessly from every individual piece.

Minimalism is a dangerous musical game, in my opinion, as it is more often the case that such songs can land on the side of being bland and forgettable or perhaps even too high-brow for their own good -Not here though, AYAKO had my full attention every second of the track, and as it went on I found myself invested more and more into the sound, dissecting the ethereal synth backing for all its worth and latching onto every syllable she weaved into being. So the best word that I can use to fully describe the song is "Elegant", almost divinely elegant even.

At first sight, there's a certain simplicity to it: There are no exotic instrumental flourishes, no complex beats spliced with samples, and even lyrically, the song relies on the power of mantra-like repetition rather than any particularly flowery prose. So how does it work then? Every element is weaved together with almost ritualistic care, so as to deliver a beautiful and cohesive whole that feels far more like an experimental new-age ambiance piece than it does an alt-pop song.

This last bit of New-age influences aren't necessarily outright obvious or thoroughly explicit, but taking a deeper look at her existing catalog of songs collabs, the vibe pops up more clearly and you can feel this very nice mix of earnest Y2K new-age nostalgic sentimentalism that plays up to the vulnerable side of her lyrics and vocals.

Even beyond "Something About You" I think AYAKO demonstrates that she's a very special artist with a far more original vision than I could have anticipated. Definitely worth your our attention.

MEET THE AUTHER

Samuel Aponte is Venezuelan-born, raised and based. 

I joined Rival Magazine after a few years of doing PR work for independent musicians of all stripes; understanding their struggles to be heard in a sea of constant  ADHD noise and paywalled access to platforms, I now bring a willingness to always appreciate and encourage the effort and creativity that artists put into their work. Can also find some of my writings on LADYGUNN and We Found New Music.