“Quiet Explosion” is an innovative single that showcases Mamoru Miyano’s experimental side and R&B pop roots, giving fans a little bit of everything in a new and exciting way.
Title: Quiet explosion Release date: 26/04/2023 Label: KING RECORDS Genre: Rock / R&B
Tracklist:
1 - Quiet explosion 2 - Invincible Love 3 - Greed
Track by track analysis:
1 – Quiet explosion
Mamoru Miyano opens the curtains to “Quiet Explosion” with a powerful performance, really going hard on his vibrato and emotional range. The beat goes low to the tops before leading up to the delicate violin melody contrasting with those low, aggressive guitar riffs.
And that is when things get really interesting.
As the verses kick in, you will find that “Quiet Explosion” is a song like no other in Mamoru Miyano’s repertoire.
The beat is slow and intense, electric guitars shift from muffled and low in the first part of the verses to higher-toned and brighter in the last part. The drums also suffer changes throughout, going from simple hi-hats to bassy, toms driven ones. The bassline is prominent in the latter part leading up to the chorus.
The chorus sounds quite intense on the vocal end for Miyano, bringing his vocals to a tone that feels and sounds hard to maintain – being in that thin line of high notes and a scream. As the song progresses, you will grow quite fond of how he pulls off those notes, adding a bit of legato and vibrato to it.
How Miyano goes from R&B style of riffing with that legato and vibrato touches and then brings the power of a rock performer is something that brought me back and back to this song.
On the bridge, you will find quite the groovy bassline going on in there. It punches its way through the – now – clear and wide soundscape presented to you.
The song wraps up with the same power as how it started, letting the electric guitars and violin prepare you for the following track.
Absolutely stellar song.
2 – Invincible Love
Following up is “Invincible Love”, song that brings forth a melancholic rhodes piano leading the way.
And hello romantic, downtempo R&B banger! The verses are sweet and bouncy, with a melodic bassline complementing Miyano’s sweet mid-toned vocals. The beat shuffles in the background as the piano melody dances around the soundscape.
What awaits you in the chorus is a beautiful soundscape. Guitars go wah-wah, the piano is stylish, the beat is deep and groovy while the bassline is the heartbeat of this track. Miyano takes the stage in such a gentle way, delivering a performance that is made to put a smile on your face.
Throughout the song, Miyano mixes clean singing and fast rapping, smoothly shifting through them and even adding R&B riffing to the mix.
What you get is a tasteful, laidback tune that takes you to a loving and intimate soundscape that wants you to feel welcomed.
“Invincible Love” is yet another top b-side track by Miyano.
3 – Greed
And wrapping up this single is “Greed”. The soundscape is wide and dark as electric guitars pierce through it.
Miyano brings his clean vocals and power to the mix, introducing the listener to the rock tune awaiting you.
While the whole song is quite awesome, I’ve got some reservations about the mixing for it.
It sounds muddy in the pre-chorus and chorus, especially with the massive focus put on the bass frequencies. As such, when the hi-hat or crash on the drums make their entrance, they almost sound like effect cymbals and barely make an impact in the instrumental. As such, the beat falls flat in the chorus, something I was not expecting.
A good example of how the mixing is weird on that part is when you compare it with that on the bridge. That part kicks in and all the instrumental is stripped away from the bass elements – drums and bassline – and Miyano sounds clean and clear and it is easy to tell apart each instrument in the instrumental piece.
The song only needed a small tweak on the bass frequencies in order to sound cleaner. I know that probably, the intention was to sound this deep and gritty due to the song’s theme but, you could still have both and also have all instruments sounding clear in those two parts.
As it is, “Greed” had everything to impress but its murky mixing takes a bit of the enjoyment away from it.
Final considerations
Mamoru Miyano got experimental with “Quiet Explosion” and I loved it a whole lot.
This is something really rare for him that, by now, has established himself as a pop artist with an EDM and R&B edge.
This time around though, there were innovative compositions. It’s not that Miyano hasn’t used some of the elements in these songs before, but he had never blended or delivered them in the way we all get in this single.
“Quiet Explosion”, the single’s title track, goes out of the box to mix classical with rock and hip-hop music, creating an edgy, tasteful, and yes, groovy tune that will make you come back for more.
The beat is tight, the synths aren’t overbearing and the song is robust and serious enough, straying away from Miyano’s usual laidback or sweet vibe. It almost feels like returning to the “NEW ORDER” era but if it had been given a mature, instead of a sexy, vibe.
It is more grounded yet as powerful or more than “NEW ORDER”. And I love this a whole lot, especially because this time around, those high notes that were basically auto-tuned in “NEW ORDER” are clean, clear, and natural high notes in “Quiet Explosion”.
This goes to show that Miyano doesn’t need fancy tricks to actually sound good.
And what Miyano pulled off on the vocal end is a delight. His R&B singing style is, easily among the best I’ve heard by a seiyuu artist. And in this song, he paired it up with his rock style of singing. So you get a melodic yet powerful performance made in quite a unique tone – as you will notice in the chorus.
One thing I absolutely love about Miyano’s music – if it was not obvious by now – is his R&B sound. Although he has strayed away from it in previous years, as of the past 2 years, Miyano made sure to return to his R&B pop roots and what he has been doing is absolutely amazing both on the vocal end and instrumentals.
And “Invincible Love” is no exception. Slow-paced and gentle, this song counts with a sweet and melodic performance by Miyano that teases you into wanting more.
As I was listening to this song, I couldn’t help but feel the warmth in the soundscape and how careful the composition was about making the listener feel good.
When I noticed, this song was already on its 10th repeat and I still had to review the rest of the single.
And “Greed” had everything to be THE song for me. Deep electric guitar riffs, a driving bassline, powerful drums, and Miyano’s emotional performance on top. This is a rock song like no other in his repertoire but…
How come the mixing was that murky in the pre-chorus and chorus? This is something that baffles me no matter how many times I listen to it.
Regardless, I believe this will be an undeniably better-sounding song if performed live so I do look – eagerly – forward to listening to it with a slightly different arrangement or live mixing.
All in all, Mamoru Miyano’s “Quiet Explosion” did leave a deep mark on me, especially due to how innovative it wanted to be and how interesting it ended up being.
From melodic performances to riveting drums or even downtempo R&B tunes, fans get a little bit of everything however, a new kind of everything that you will want to listen to more in future releases.
“Quiet explosion” is available for purchase at CDJAPAN.
“Quiet Explosion” is available for streaming on Spotify.
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