Berkshire-based Japanese-British four-piece Re:O have released ‘Marionette’, the eleventh single from a band who keep refusing to sit still in one sonic lane.
‘Marionette’ explores how we cope with extreme stress, the changes we go through under that weight, and how often it can feel like we are no longer in full control of ourselves, like someone else is pulling the strings. Re:O take that idea and build a song around it, with Rio Suyama’s vocals flowing with absolute certainty over Japanese-styled synths that sit underneath in a much more chaotic, glitchy, unstable register. That contrast is the whole point. The vocals feel rational, the music feels like everything is fraying, and the song keeps building to a boiling point before falling back into another cycle of pressure. Exactly how stress actually behaves before it takes over.
Sonically, this marks a return to formidable form. Heavy guitar riffs drive the whole track forward, throwing you into the maelstrom of uncertainty and confusion the lyrics describe. Re:O have spent their previous releases shifting focus across instruments, with early singles leaning hard into the synth work and recent tracks centring the guitars. ‘Marionette’ lands as the harmony point. Synthonic, glitchy, chaotic synthesisers meet raw, energetic, aggressive guitar and bass, and the result still sounds undeniably and distinctively Re:O.
That refusal to repeat themselves is one of the more interesting things about this band. Working out of Berkshire with one foot in Japanese musical tradition and one in Western rock and metal, Re:O occupy a space that very few UK-based acts have access to. UK listeners who came to heavier music through Dir En Grey‘s game-changing Download Festival appearance in 2007, Babymetal, Lovebites, Band-Maid or the wider visual kei scene have a real appetite for Japanese rock voices, and Re:O deliver that.
Re:O is Rio Suyama (vocals), James Wright (bass and vocals), James ‘J’ Stevens (drums) and Alex Carli (guitar and vocals). ‘Marionette’ was composed by the band along with Jon Roberts, with lyrics by Rio Suyama and James Wright, and produced by Rio Suyama and Simon Jackson. The single artwork is by Suyama herself.
Stream ‘Marionette’ now.
