CHAI deliver a neon mutation of “PUNK”

The Japanese anti-Kawaï punksters can’t help being too cute themselves

CHAI’s second album claims to be PUNK (the first was called Pink… get it?) but it is not really what most people would associate with the genre. It is PUNK for the Instagram generation, eschewing anger and aggression for catchphrases, and sloganeering, in a frenzy of bubblegum color and manic sounds. Its all-caps title is like a neon sign, a message about what it wants–and believes itself–to be.

In reality, the album is more akin to New Wave, Punk’s immediate descendant which used the revolution as a launching pad to places where anything goes. And in the world of CHAI, it does: songs have cutesy yet bold titles, the themes are defiant feminist emancipation and empowerment, but they are ecstatically smiley. Musically, it is also all over the place: the first half mostly a post-punk-disco hybrid, with prominent bass and bold synth. After their own theme tune at mid-way, which is like an update of 1960s TV music (think Hawaii 5-0 gone Europop), the music seems to tend towards a more “mature” sound: the tempo slows down and there is a feel of Fantasy Island to it, only more delirious.

As you can see, a lot happens in these thirty minutes, and it is all fun and energy. In its refusal to conform, its overexcited rebellion, it is definitely PUNK, at least in spirit.