Review | TRIGGER “Hidden Region”

TRIGGER stylishly celebrates its 7th anniversary with the funky pop tune “Hidden Region”.

TRIGGER consists of Gaku (CV: Wataru Hatano), Tenn (CV: Soma Saito), and Ryunnosuke (CV: Takuya Sato).

Before kicking off this written review, this song was requested for this year’s edition of Review Advent Calendar 2022 on THTFHQ’s YouTube channel. So you also have this song reviewed on video (and with slightly different insights, frame by frame).

Title: Hidden Region
Release date: 18/09/2022
Label: Lantis
Genre: Funk-pop/Disco

Tracklist:

1 - Hidden Region

Track by track analysis:

1 – Hidden Region

Funky guitar riffs arrive muffled through the instrumental for “Hidden Region”. 

As the curtains open, you are led into a soundscape that feels like a throwback to 70s disco music.

The bassline is punchy and fun, the drums are splashy, and the bassline is groovy while the guitars can’t help but enhance that fun while bringing sweet melodies to the spotlight.

The first part of the chorus is disruptive, going really low and putting a bassy synth on the spotlight before letting everything go and embracing its groovy and fun sound, bringing to the 70s-inspired strings hits, more funky guitar riffs, minimalistic synths, a bassy beat and that awesome reverberating bassline that is setting the cool vibe to this track since the start.

I believe you don’t need to arrive at the chorus to know that this song is a blast to listen to and that it will make you want to dance along to it (right away). It is really fun, more so than many of the songs in TRIGGER’s repertoire but it still retains the group’s maturity – which is new to them – and their sexy vibe and risqué lyrics – that is their essence – creating the perfect synergy between both.

But not everything shining in this song is about the instrumental. TRIGGER goes all out for the performance in “Hidden Region”.

The vocals are clean and groovy and effortlessly alluring and charismatic. As a unit, the harmonies are insanely clear and clean, going quite high, serving as a perfect contrast to the bassy, lower-toned instrumental.

There is a lot of vibrato going on in the vocals for the group. Soma Saito is going all out in there however with the focus of having an awesome balance between those and his crystal-clear high notes. Wataru Hatano is bringing a bit of a raspy edge alongside Takuya Sato which is ridiculously clean and melodic in this performance.

The unity and chemistry in TRIGGER can be felt in this performance that is flawless on the vocal end – from the quality down to the way they connect with each other from part to part.

Since the very first second, TRIGGER’s “HIDDEN REGION” impresses. This is a throwback to the good old times of fancy disco and funk music but approached from a modern lens, giving a mature twist to TRIGGER’s music but also not forgetting their origins and essence. Stellar vocals and an equally stellar instrumental shine in what is a sleeper hit tune by TRIGGER.

“Hidden Region” is available for streaming on Spotify.

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