Miho Hatori - Ecdysis

When the much-beloved Cibo Matto broke up in 2001, band mate Yuka Honda reportedly explained that, “We felt the need to move to the next step… Things just need to grow out of things sometimes." For main-Cibo, Miho Hatori, this impulse to change appears to be on prominent display. After all, she did name her first proper solo record, Ecdysis -- that being the process of casting off a shell or skin by insects, snakes, or crustaceans -- but thankfully for Cibo Matto fans, Hatori didn’t shed too much of her style. On Ecdysis she allows the world to peer into the hidden world of her daydreams and obsessions: from insects to androids, ecological degradation to Amazon warriors, and to the nature of change itself. All this is woven around beautifully subtle and exotic beats and, of course, her famously child-like and simultaneously sexy voice. All these songs are just as good and could easily have been featured on Cibo Matto’s first record, Viva! La Woman. But for all of Ecdysis’ day-dreamy subject matter, it still carries an air of seriousness. The album never gets flat-out wacky, unlike either Cibo Matto offering. There are no “Beef Jerky”, “Know Your Chicken” or “Sci-Fi Wasabi” on this record to break it up and keep it from being suitable listening for chi-chi hair salons and spas. It was that very sonic versatility which made Ms. Hatori and Cibo Matto so interesting in the first place. Hopefully she hasn’t shed that element forever. [www.mihohatori.com]