Outside the larger production companies and talent organisations there is the vast world of underground idol, the type of groups that perform three times a week on some basement stage in front of the same 20 to 30 people. A tough world where the average life span of a group is less than 18 months and it is not uncommon for members to drop out or get replaced. These young women (we’re talking girls groups here for the vast majority) usually have jobs on the side and try to make ends meet. This is the rough,unpolished and yes, pretty hard side of idol culture in Japan.
NEVE SLIDE DOWN: from left to right Mizuhi, Layna, Arisa
So this is a story about NEVE SLIDE DOWN, formed late 2016 as a sister group of PASSCODE. Three girls of about 19-20 years old from Osaka: Arisa, Layna and Mizuhi. They perform an odd mix of electronic dance music and hard rock with very poppy, catchy choruses, mostly in English and accompanied by tons of autotune. For a three piece unit they have a rather specific set-up, with Arisa being the main vocalist while Mizuhi tends to rap on a single note. Layna operates somewhere in between.
Does this stoner metal head really enjoy EDM? Yes, he does…
Most of 2017 they perform on various stages in the Tokyo and Osaka areas supporting their mini album “That is not my real name”, including the perfect break-up song “Let me out”. And yes, as usual in underground idol, Arisa, Layna and Mizuhi are not their real names of course. Backed by an ambitious production company, some videos are produced and two more singles get released that same year: “Mellow Dawn” – where Mizuhi shows that she actually can sing pretty well – and the ultimate party song “Leaving”. Upon releasing that last single and accompanying video, the group casually mentions that they will be disbanding in January 2018…
Dafuq?
The members’ statements on Twitter were the usual “we did this, we had struggles but overcame them, we love our fans, sorry, we’ll do our best until the end”. But I didn’t know that this was the usual thing to do back then. When watching their performancesand the way they keep performing like their lives depend on it, one just wonders. NEVE SLIDE DOWN seems to be upwardly mobile and the performers get better every week. Yes, they’re smaller than their seniors, but also less prestigious and loaded with sparkle, glossiness and cool features.. Why axe such a group?
There is no definite answer to it, since communication about these things is very limited. But a major factor is their sister group PASSCODE. During 2017, their career kicks off like no other. PASSCODE seems to end up in the perfect storm and just keeps gaining momentum, reaching new audiences and performing on larger stages, often accompanied by a live band. It’s one of the few underground idol acts that actually makes it into the mainstream of Japanese music. But that’s a different story. The production company needs to focus. NEVE SLIDE DOWN is ballast…
So what happened after January 2018? Well, just a lot of quietness at first. But a year later, a group called WAGAMAMARAKIA releases the same single “Leaving” and then announces that Layna has joined the group. The only surprise is that it took an entire year, since NEVE SLIDE DOWN and WAGAMAMARAKIA have shared the same stage very often and even covered each other’s songs on many occassions. But even here there might be a perfectly normal explanation, and that is that the three members of NEVE SLIDE DOWN probably had a contract limiting a transfer to a different group for several months.
If you get into Japanese music with rock bands as the main point of reference, all of this feels pretty silly. The confusion was real. Here I was, thoroughly enjoying an interesting and developing group bringing an interesting mix of music styles in a very convincing way, and all of a sudden it was over. The grievance was real, it’s like a small scratch on my musical soul that will never heal 100%. But then again, their music didn’t disappear. Not only do I own their entire collection of releases (all three of them, no funny stuff with different versions) but WAGAMAMARAKI re-recorded a couple of songs and performs them occassionally to this very day.
That was my rough introduction into the world of underground idol. May NEVE SLIDE DOWN rest in Pappa Peppe’s CD collection. There are many more stories like this just waiting to be told, all of them bittersweet and somewhat confusing. I think I just might do that.