Introduction

This is Konno, a member of the OKUDAYA CONNECT management team.
Last time, I mentioned ‘Still Not Getting Any…’ by Simple Plan as the third album I was really into back then.

Perfume entered a hiatus (cold sleep) as of December 31, 2025. Given the timing, I would like to feature them today.

Back when I was a university student, my only recognition of Perfume was as the idol group that had a hit with Polyrhythm. At the time, my impression of idol groups was limited to popular groups like AKB48.

At that time, I was working part-time at Joyfull, a family restaurant well-known throughout the Kyushu region. When I visited the house of Kawashima-kun, who was the same age as me, we watched a live DVD together because he had just bought one.
*Kawashima-kun, I wonder how you are doing…?

Perfume… an idol group?

The visual production of the live performance was amazing, but the music, in particular, was completely different from the image of idols I had in mind. It overturned my preconceptions in the best way possible. *I’m not sure how they were perceived by the general public at the time.

Leaving aside the individual charms of the three members, I ended up getting completely hooked on the Yasutaka Sound created by their producer, Yasutaka Nakata.

As always, I rushed straight to the CD shop.

Album Title: ⊿
Artist: Perfume

I was someone who usually only listened to bands, but I remember feeling like, hey, technopop is actually pretty good!

I also listened to the previous album, GAME, and while both were excellent works, I am featuring ⊿ in this article because the fourth track, edge (⊿-mix), was a particular favorite of mine.

That sensation of a song looping in your head might be something unique to technopop—or rather Perfume—or perhaps specifically the Yasutaka Sound itself. I continued to follow their albums on and off after that and listened to everything up to LEVEL3, released in 2013. I also checked out Capsule, the group where Yasutaka Nakata is a member, from time to time as well.

By the way, my absolute favorite song is Spending All My Time (Album-Mix) from the album LEVEL3.

When I attended Summer Sonic 2013 in Osaka for both days, I had the chance to see Perfume perform live outdoors. Their performance was so incredible that it completely erased any doubts I had about seeing them at the festival, and I was truly moved. A-chan was really cute, too.

Ever since I started listening to Perfume, I feel that my musical horizons have expanded toward so-called programmed music. I even began exploring artists like Daft Punk, The Prodigy, and Pendulum (though Pendulum is a band).

I haven’t really kept up with their newer albums for over ten years now, but since they have entered a hiatus, I decided to write this article to look back on those days. If you have never heard their music before, I hope you’ll give them a try without any preconceived notions.

Thank you for everything, Perfume. You all did an incredible job.

Date of Contribution: January 2026
Author: Daiki Konno
Development Department
Okudaya Giken Co., Ltd.