The name Mecha Maiko is a clever conceptual fusion of ‘mechas’–massive, futuristic battle robots and ‘maikos’–geishas in training. This dichotomy of hard-biting dystopian mechanics and the soft and tender performance of the maiko is meant to reflect the very same yin and yang dynamic found in her works as in her debut album for Canadian label ORO Let’s! available now.
Listen to Mecha Maiko’s Let’s! here
For Let’s!, Mecha Maiko has drawn inspiration from her favorite upbeat 90s dance and freestyle jams to create a sound that is uniquely hers. Aimed at a more DJ-friendly approach, these tracks will find a happy home on the dance floor. Mecha Maiko has taken a stylized, deliberate approach to the writing process with hardware accompaniments that expand on the stylistic framework laid out in her debut EP Okiya, released earlier this year. This record draws on the anxiety felt in a late-stage capitalist society and seeks to agitate that uncomfortable energy within us to shake us from our collective paralysis of shock. Inspiring, uplifting and motivating, these songs are unmistakably laser-lit dirges of the dystopia. Among the 10 tracks featured on Let’s!, the single “Phones”—released earlier this year—is one of the most popular tracks on the ORO roster and serves as an indication that this record is a strong entry in Mecha Maiko’s discography.
“Meet Me At The Arcade” wastes no time leaning into the coin-op synthesis stylings of 80s game cabinets. Complimented by a male counterpart Vandal Moon, this track works back and forth between its two modes effortlessly and stylishly, a technological love-and-rejection song. There’s also “Apathy” which opens the album with a big band recording from 1947, hearkening back to a troubled yet optimistic postwar era. Hear the infusion of a modern palette that creates an infectious hip-twist effect as Maiko’s vocals compliment the arrangement.
Mecha Maiko will celebrate the release of Let’s! October 20 at The Baby G in Toronto with a DJ set. Tickets and information can be found here.
