Review: Seamo with Bennie K: "A Love Story"

Released: Oct 12, 2005

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Artist: Seamo f/ Bennie K

Other songs you might enjoy: Sky - Bennie K Loop in my heart - M-flo loves EMYLI & Yoshika Sakura - Ketsumeishi

Landing on the market today in a release sure to pique some interest among the English-speaking jpop fandom, relative unknown Seamo teams up with awesome hip-hop starlets Bennie K for the 10/12 release of "A Love Story".

Hot on the heels of their collaboration on m-flo's "Beat Space Nine" album, the addictive " Taste Your Stuff", this single had a lot to live up to, and in my opinion, it delivers. With rousing beats interspersed with Yuki's power vocals and Cico's aggressive rapping, "A Love Story" doesn't break very far away from the formulaic hip-pop sound that has worked so well for their last couple years' worth of efforts, but though not revolutionary, it's still a damn catchy, fun song.

Listening to the song, it's hard to remember that Bennie K are the guests here, not the main act, because together they are far more prominent in the song than the headlining artist. Several websites have already mislabeled the artist behind the track as Bennie K featuring Seamo, and they're not far off. Seamo opens the song with a quirky, rapid rap segment, and then is mostly relegated to supporting vocalist status with the choruses. His rapping sounds like a sort of mesh between the Beastie Boys and Ketsumeishi, not half-bad. So who exactly IS he, anyway?

I could be alone in the dark on this one, but I'd never heard of Seamo, and hadn't noticed any discussion or fandom for him creeping onto the english-language sites, so I had not a clue. Looking up his official site*, he's a 30 year-old hip-hop artist who used to be part of a duo? group? called "Seamo-nator & DJ TAKI-SHIT". Yes, this group, sounding for all the world like some gay japanese fetish mag, seems to have been pretty active, with a list of releases dating back to early 2000. Kind of matches his physical appearance. With the first few shots of him on screen in the "A Love Story" PV and I could have sworn he was a drag king, small build, thin eye-brows, and facial hair that looked for all the world like pubic hair glued to his chin. Confusing, but I digress.

Seamo's solo career, according to his site, started just this year and as such, "A Love Story" is only his third single, which is pretty impressive. His biography also shows he's a fan of MC Hammer and The Terminator, which, provided with his assumed interest in Bennie K, make him a man of impeccable taste.

It's going to be all too easy for Bennie K fans who are pulled to this single for them to forget entirely about Seamo ten seconds later, but I found myself enjoying his voice. He's got a solid delivery with a bit of humor and quirkiness to it, and seemingly a pretty great team working with him. The b-sides to the title track, "Runnin'" and "Honey Honey" (oddly, a remix of the b-side on his second single) hold enough merit for repeat listenings on their own. " A Love Story" is still the best on the disc and Bennie K are very much the main attraction, but Senor Seamo manages to prove he's an artist worthy of his own recognition. I'll definitely be interested to give his future efforts a listen, hot diva guest stars or not.

(http://www.seamo.jp/)