REVIEW · Songs & Albums
PSY・S’ “Angel Night”: An Electronic Night in Motion
Karaoke song numbers
“Angel Night” does not place the night in a motionless landscape. Fast-moving electronic sounds and CHAKA’s high-reaching voice propel the song together. For those who remember it as the City Hunter 2 opening, it also announces the beginning of a story. Speed and a sharply outlined sound become part of its nocturnal image.
Two Roles: Technology and Voice
PSY・S consists of Masaya Matsuura and CHAKA. Sony’s official introduction places the technological sound associated with the Fairlight CMI alongside CHAKA’s vocals. Electronic equipment and the work of handling it occupy one side; a human voice turning words into melody occupies the other. Their meeting explains the unit’s configuration.
Matsuura composed and arranged “Angel Night”, with lyrics by Yukio Matsuo. Sound and words pass through different kinds of work before meeting in CHAKA’s singing. The romance suggested by the title also exists within that collaboration. A human voice enters a space shaped electronically, making night a place somebody moves through rather than merely a landscape.
Names Learned Through an Opening Theme
An opening creates a doorway into a work within a short period. For returning viewers, the same music signals another encounter with its characters and world. “Angel Night” can consequently be remembered with scenes before its title is known. Musical familiarity accumulates first, followed later by the names of the singer and unit.
Following those names adds two musicians’ work to the opening’s memory. CHAKA’s singing and Matsuura’s electronic sound can be described separately, but the song’s vivid impression emerges as they move in the same direction. Their combination makes this night active and fast. A doorway into an anime becomes a doorway into PSY・S.
References
Music and production information
Sony Music: Angel Night song introduction ↗ · Sony Music: PSY・S SINGLES+ introduction ↗