''Body'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

electronic musician

Aaamyyy Honami 'Amy' Furuhara (born in Kawakami, Nagano), known professionally as Aaamyyy (, stylized as AAAMYYY) is a Japanese people, Japanese electronic musician. Originally a member of electronic pop groups Go Retro and Eimie, Furuhara began working ...

, released on February 6, 2019.

Background and development

Aaamyyy first worked as a musician in the early 2010s after returning to Japan from Canada, as a member of electropop groups Go Retro and Eimie. In 2017 and 2018, Aaamyyy made her solo debut, releasing a series of three extended plays digitally and on

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

. Aaamyyy began recording ''Body'' in October 2018. A concept album set in 2615, the release was inspired by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

television shows such as ''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fictio ...

'' and ''

Maniac Maniac (from Greek μανιακός, ''maniakos'') is a pejorative for an individual who experiences the mood known as mania. In common usage, it is also an insult for someone involved in reckless behavior. Maniac may also refer to: Film * ' ...

'' (2018). The album featured collaborations with four musicians: Matton, vocalist for the Japanese band Paellas, Conyplankton from Tawings, and two US-based musicians,

Computer Magic Danielle "Danz" Johnson (born February 20, 1989), known professionally as Danz CM and formerly Computer Magic, is an American musician and producer based in New York City. She is a singer, songwriter, composer, music producer, DJ, and the founder ...

and Jil. Aaamyyy traveled to New York to collaborate with these musicians, which was shot for a

Space Shower TV is a Japanese music television channel operated by Space Shower Networks, Inc. The company is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The channel launched at 6:00 on December 1, 1989. The idea behind establishing Space Shower TV was to create a speciali ...

programme called ''Plan B''. Aaamyyy first met Danielle Johnson of Computer Magic when she interviewed her after coming to Japan, and felt like Johnson was an extremely similar artist musically. The pair created "Z" in a three hour session primarily on an

omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate known as "Sonic Strings", preset rhythms, auto-bass line functionality, and buttons for ma ...

. Aaamyyy's session with Jil lasted around 20 hours, and she felt like the band created music similarly to her own band,

Tempalay is a Japanese Lo-fi music, lo-fi psychedelic pop band that formed in 2014. Biography Tempalay was formed in 2014, when Ryōto Ohara and Yūya Takeuchi met drummer Natsuki Fujimoto in Tokyo. The band's vocalist Ryōto Ohara, originally from K ...

. The cover artwork was produced by Margt, a Brooklyn-based creative team. The cover artwork and promotional photoshoot was shot in New York during her trip. The album closes with the song "Eyes", a song from her previous release ''Etcetra EP'' (2018). Originally a different track was intended to be released in its place, but Aaamyyy could not secure the rights to the song.

Promotion and release

"Over My Dead Body" was used as the leading promotional track from the album, and was released as a digital single on January 30, a week before the album's release. Aaamyyy held a two-date promotional tour for the release of ''Body'': one performance in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

, Tokyo on 9 March, followed bu a performance in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

on March 30.

Reception

Music journalist Tomoyuki Mori highlighted the album as one that had the potential to get popular outside of Japan, noting ''Body''s "distinctive groove, incorporating

alternative R&B Alternative R&B (also referred to as alt-R&B, indie R&B, hipster R&B, dark R&B, emo R&B and left-field R&B) is a term used by music journalists to describe a stylistic alternative to contemporary R&B that began in the mid 2000s and came to pro ...

and

bass music Bass music is a term used to describe several genres of electronic dance music and hip hop music arising from the 1980s on, focusing on a prominent bass drum and/or bassline sound. As one source notes, there are "many different types of bass musi ...

". He praised Aaamyyy's songwriting and trackmaking skills, especially the storymaking in "Over My Dead Body", feeling that the lyrics "painted a feeling of romantic loss (despite the frightening title)", while her vocals simultaneously expressed dread and warmth. Daisuke Sawada of ''Bounce'' described the album as a collection of songs with light synths interwoven with strong melodies, and felt that he could feel her potential as a pop maker on this album. He singled out the urban R&B-style songs "Island" and

new jack swing New jack swing, new jack, or swingbeat is a fusion genre of the rhythms and production techniques of hip hop and dance-pop, and the urban contemporary sound of R&B. Spearheaded by producers Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle, new jack swing was mos ...

influenced "Ain't no Tame" as having an "exquisite" arrangement. CDJournal reviewers felt that ''Body'' was a strong work with a surprisingly low-key

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

Background and development

Promotion and release

Reception

Track listing

Charts

Release history

References