myspace band of the week
Not really a band, but it kind of used to be. HNC is the solo project of Yuppa of Hazel Nuts Chocolate. Or you can say it’s the rebirth of Hazel Nuts Chocolate seeing as she didn’t bother changing her myspace URL or much else.
Hazel Nuts Chocolate formed in 2000 and was a major player in the shibuya-kei scene. Yuppa was the founding member and both Hazel Nuts Chocolate albums featured different co-members/collaborators. But she originally intended it to be a solo project so she officially renamed the group to HNC and released her first real solo album Cult in 2009. HNC is more M.I.A.-like with cute, nonsense vocals and electronic beats whereas Hazel Nuts Chocolate was going for the cute French-pop theme that the contemode artists were going for at the time.
None of the songs from Yuppa’s Hazel Nuts Chocolate days remain on her myspace. Instead we have songs from Cult, a few remixes, and a couple of unreleased songs. The songs from Cult highlight the direction Yuppa is going in with HNC. “Kitten Breaks,” which conveniently has cat sound effects in-between vocals, is easily the most danceable. The calypso beat makes for a great entry on a summer drive mixtape. The rest of the songs range from cute–“Girl Things”–to edgy dub step–“Arabian Nights.” And then we have the hilariously bizarre “Witches Party” (Go to human-hunt! Eat them from the hair to the bone!!!). The remixes are mostly okay. The only one I’ve listened to more than once is “HNC-TBA’s Dancing in the Blue Mosque RMX” which is a remix of The Brixton Academy’s “So Shy.” It gives the song a creepy Arab beat that doesn’t trump the original but is interesting. HNC may not be putting out the most original music, but it’s cute, and infinitely more listenable than Yuppa’s other project Love and Hates.
J-Rock Explosion 