EVERY GENRE PROJECT - April 13 - Fanfare

Genre of the Day - Fanfare

Album of the Day - ズッコケ三人組 サーカスへゆく! by Stoned Soul Picnic (2017)

April 13, 2024

I don’t know what is up with European kitschiness and what the random picker selected for me the past couple of days, but today we get yet another slice of it, although the actual album of the day is a modern interpretation by a Japanese band. Whereas cabaret developed its unique style based on its intimate nature in clubs, fanfare sits at the polar opposite: it’s a family friendly, broad-daylight affair musically aimed at the public perhaps more than any other genre. This encapsulation of revelation makes fanfare a great genre if you’re a musician looking to infuse your own music with that same bounce, which we observe on today’s album.

People have long invoked the blaring of trumpets and horns to signal the coming of something important: not least the notion that exactly seven trumpets will be played with the coming of the end times according to the Bible’s Book of Revelation. There's not much that can live up to the hype of the literal apocalypse. Nevertheless, western Europe has historically used trumpets, horn arrays including cornets, trombones, trumpets and saxophones, and percussion to announce other important matters, such as the arrival of a royal figure. In fact, fanfare was so important that there was a specific trumpet made for the setting: the herald trumpet. Horns permeate through audibly more than other instruments, making them the perfect medium to stop throngs of people and call their attention with immediacy. 

While fanfare has historically been the standard bearer of European royalty and important political figures, Mardi Gras carnival celebrations, and military marches, its kitschy, uproarious appeal struck a chord with Japanese producers starting in the 1990s. Today’s genre is one that shows how sounds can travel across the world hundreds of years past their peaks, where they can get picked up with glee in a different cultural context. It’s quite cool, and it’s a mini-revival we’re pretty familiar with. Fanfare musical motifs filtered into the Japanese mainstream and global consciousness via a lot of anime and video game soundtracks. A ton of Mario Kart music, for example, uses fanfare flourishes to add excitement, anticipation, and grandeur to pivotal in-game moments.

Fanfare music, as mentioned before, also has a lot of connection with Carnival music, which then got appropriated into the circus context. This is reflected in today’s album title, which translates to “Zukkoke Trio Goes to the Circus!” Most of the album reflects this in its raucous, dynamic horn melodies, like the bouncy standout “Stompin’ at the Circus.” In a look at what The Greatest Showman could’ve been if it was actually fun, we get a romantic duet set to fanfare on “月影サーカス (Circus in Moonlight).” At times these songs are so sheerly giddy I’m not sure what context you could even listen to them in. I was trying to work while listening to this album, but these songs are so relentlessly cheerful—and fast—that it began to feel like a self-inflicted psychic attack. There’s out of the blue electroswing moments like the crazy breakbeats of “楽しい魔HOO!!” breaking us out of the traditional circus mold SSP had accustomed us as listeners to. In the end, though, it was a gleeful listen that brought some needed light on a rainy day—although that light is essentially like if the whole sun was thrust a foot before your eyes. So enter the circus tent with caution.