For those unfamiliar, World’s End Girlfriend has been producing a unique brand of cinematic music rooted in classical composition, post-rock sound palette, glitchy and warped electronics since 2000’s debut Ending Story—very much a stepping stone on this long and forlorn path. Though there’s plenty to enjoy in this Japanese one-man exploration, it was 2007’s Hurtbreak Wonderland that first took my breath away and signaled a string of increasingly wide-viewed, somberly-toned albums that cemented me as a WEG die-hard. Having released only in spurts and singles since 2016’s Last Waltz, Resistance & The Blessing functions as a reinterpreted collection of those smaller works in the grand context of an epic that details the heart-breaking cycle of love, loss, and memory. What a tale it is.
Sometimes your words come back to haunt you, and often sooner than you realize. Kind of like when you ask whether something can go wrong in a given situation. Or when you lambast a one-hundred twenty-four album of unearned epic proportions but end up falling deeply in love with a one-hundred forty-five-minute experimental electronic album that showcases a career’s worth of ideas and a lifetime’s worth of heartache. But I already knew that I was in love with World’s End Girlfriend before I hit play, that’s the way insanity works. And the more I listen to Resistance, the less I feel that any of it is out of place.
True to the nature of a work that looks back at an artist’s past as much as toward the future, long-time enjoyers of WEG will find little details that earmark already striking moments with a stronger sense of purpose. Opening on “unPrologue Birthday Resistance” plays on this most directly by taking a familiar piece from Hurtbreak Wonderland (“Birthday Resistance”) and fizzling it with scratchy obstructions and hard skips, as if a broken cycle threatens to turn again. And in closing it does, with the same melody picking back up, giving way to an ominous sample of a child’s birthday song, and then instead of fizzling out in wild guitar feedback like the Hurtbreak original, “unEpilogue JUBILEE” tumbles up a rising synth clamor that breaks away to what sounds like a heartbeat, amplified and cut away for a short and sweet goodbye message. Songs like “MEGURI” and “RENDERING THE TWO SOULS,”1 originally lacked context as statements of unwanted departure and frantic longing, but in their new respective positions (and with slight re-workings) can give movement to the fragments of emotion that surround them.
Despite the other nature of an album of this magnitude—it’s significant length—each movement of this piece has a powerful and entertaining identity. If you’ve a taste for the whimsy and naiveté of bright love, the initial swing up to “IN THE NAME OF LOVE” will waltz you between triumph and smile alike. If your dreams place you in a world inhabited by vocaloid choirs and reimagining the Edward Scissorhands ice dance in a tunnel of neon lights, the one-two flaying of “Reincarnation No.9”2 and “RENDERING THE TWO SOULS” will twirl you a fanciful landscape. “Blue/0/ +9” might be the best R&B ballad I’ve heard in ages, complete with a tasteful Isley Brothers-kissed, fuzz-filled solo wail. The “Black Box” duo, featuring Japanese footwork specialist CRZKNY, shakes the floor in a way that only hellish EBM can. And, if you make it this far, the final movement from the delicate “himitsu” through the dutiful but frightening rendition of “Ave Maria” leading up to “SEE YOU AGAIN” may cause a tear or twenty to drip from your weary and wondering eyes.
It’s entirely possible that Resistance & The Blessing is a masterpiece. It’s equally possible that it didn’t have to be this much all at once. However, when the heart bleeds with this kind of passion, the only proper reflection rests in staring at the sanguine pool and letting it be what it is. We only know snippets of what has occurred throughout World’s End Girlfriend’s life to release an album full of so much pain, catharsis, hope, and adoration. If Katsuhiko Maeda, the man behind the mask, could ever sit down and explain what each moment means to him, I’m sure words wouldn’t be enough. I’ll be listening to this one for a long time to see if I can get even that close.
Tracks to Check Out: Haha… All of them?3
