Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches

Whaaaaaaa’?! Grab your chopsticks and take a seat on this roller coaster ride. Swedish pop artist Robyn definitely means business with new single ‘Konichiwa Bitches’. Her weirdly pre-pubescent sounding rap vocals are punctuated by muffled electronic hip-hop beats. It’s like listening to the soundtrack to a harajuku princess’ life and is probably the route you’d imagine Gwen Stefani would have taken if she hadn’t bothered with No Doubt. A concentrated dose of slap you in the face kick-ass attitude, the song oozes girl-power taken to the extreme with so much ‘tude bubbling over you just can’t ignore it. It would be unfair to label the song as being confined to any one genre as it mixes elements from a broad array of musical styles including pop, electronic and hip-hop and is even reminiscent at some points of an old-skool computer game soundtrack. You can definitely tell that Robyn’s decision to drop her previous label and found her own has given her the artistic freedom she needed to express herself in her own unique way. ‘Konichiwa Bitches’ won’t be to everyone’s taste but is definitely worth checking out. She’s a musical force sent from beyond to challenge and destroy the typical conventions of modern pop music. It’s two and a half minutes of pure self-indulgent fun. Pop the CD in, turn up the volume and shake your butt like a crazy person.

8/10

Single released March 26th, Album ‘Robyn’ released April 2nd on Konichiwa Records
2 Apr 2007 by Naomi Misquita-Rice.