George Miller goes by many names: Filthy Frank, Pink Guy and Salamander Man are just a few. The 25-year-old Japanese-Australian rose to fame by being one of the most vile, irreprehensible figures on YouTube, filming absurd vlogs that he describes as “being an unapologetic parody of the whole social media machine.” Amassing over 800 million views and a strange, obsessive fanbase, it seemed like no matter what turn Miller would make, his fans would follow. That is why over the past year he has decided to switch gears, focusing more on his music than anything else.
Joji is his artist name, the name he had been referred to throughout his life in his home country of Japan. Under that moniker, he has steadily been releasing more mellow, emotional songs and lo-fi hip-hop beats. This may come as a shock to some of his fans who are more used to his raunchy, over-the-top rap songs under his Pink Guy alias. “In Tongues,” his first EP under Joji, released by the up-and-coming label 88rising is a moody, dreamlike mix of tracks filled with found samples, piano chords and a surprising amount of singing. The EP is extremely short, only 16 minutes long, but showcases an artist on the verge of breaking through to the next level.
“Will He” kicks off the project as a slow, depressing track about heartbreak and getting left behind. It is densely layered, with an echoing piano notes playing over a chopped up trip-hop beat. The weak point of the song is Miller’s vocals, which just do not sound passionate enough to match up with the instrumental. He sounds flat, almost like he is holding himself back without even knowing it. While the chorus is catchy and memorable, the song is not really structured all that well, and a lot of listeners might not see a point in playing it over again.
Unlike his Pink Guy songs, there are not a whole lot of surprises packed into “In Tongues,” with the remaining track list sounding roughly the same. “Pills” has a slightly different instrumental, but Miller’s vocal performance is almost identical to the one in “Will He,” as he repeats “please don’t run away, please don’t run away” without giving any context to who is running away from what. The pretty fluttering guitar sample makes the song listenable, but there is not much beyond that.
“Demons” sounds a lot like his older releases, with a crunchy drum loop and tossed in vocal samples. It has the most interesting ending out of all the songs on the track list, as Miller sings quietly over simple piano chords. Unfortunately, most of Joji’s songs are mostly not interesting enough to hold listeners’ attention. His biggest problem is with the structure of the songs, with most of them running themselves into the ground with a repetitive beat and hook.
Miller has proved that he can bring in listeners, but that does not mean anything if he cannot improve the quality of his music. Some of his more hardcore fans might stick around, but if he cannot find his footing soon, everybody else will lose interest.
Photo from 88rising via Youtube.com
