Hiromix, "ロマンチック、テレパシー"

Perhaps my favorite song off Hiromix's one and only solo album, a pop-punk quickie with a naive amateurishness that was gussied up with help from Shibuya-kei veterans Kaji Hideki (加地秀基), Hirohisa Horie (堀江博久) from Neil + Iraiza, and Yasunobu Arakawa (荒川 康伸) from Favourite Marine and the band configuration of Flipper's Guitar.

Hiromix, born Hiromi Toshikawa (利川 裕美), was an it girl of sorts throughout the 90s; she garnered a reputation as a socialite and a photographer whose work took after Nobuyoshi Araki's (荒木 経惟), raw and colorful and gritty—joie de vivre.

"ロマンチック、テレパシー" ("Romantic Telepathy") is one of the tracks off Hiromix '99, released when she was everywhere and had cultural cachet to lose. It's an ecstatic collection of songs that wiggle around post-grunge pop and four-track indie and baroque jangle. This particular tune has been splashed with Jeff Lynne-style guitar for extra color. Throughout, her voice is either shrouded by reverb or laid bare, which seems apropos; her visual work is often the same, either blown out by flash or presented with unadorned care.