f5ve cover Perfume’s “Electro World” and the spirit of Nocchi’s bob makes a brief appearance

J-pop girl group f5ve decided to get on Kawayuka’s Internet and shake things up a bit by releasing a cover of Perfume’s “Electro World”. Ever since “Underground” there have been a bunch of things about f5ve which reminded me of Perfume and felt Perfume-esque. And there is definitely an overlap of fans — most of f5ve’s fans are probably also Perfume fans. So, no doubt this cover is going to go down an absolute treat.

One of the creative minds behind the group is BloodPop, who is a big ol’ fan of Japanese culture. And if you are a white man in pop production who likes Japanese pop music, then you know of Perfume and you certainly know of Yasutaka Nakata. So, f5ve dropping a Perfume cover was only a matter of time.

Perfume dance covers fascinate me, because they always highlight how good Perfume are as dancers and how much they are actually doing. And this is no shade to those who do Perfume dance covers. There are many amazing Perfume dance covers out there, some of which I’ve posted here. But when you look at the routine for “Electro World”, it is really simple. Anybody could do it. And yet, whilst f5ve cover it well, their energy is very different to Perfume’s. When Perfume do the moves, they hit very specific poses and shapes and give a specific type of energy which all reads in a very particular way visually. You could freeze frame every moment of Perfume dancing and get a picture. And a lot of this just doesn’t come through in f5ve’s cover. There is so much skill and specificity to how Perfume dance, which you don’t notice until you see their routines being performed by other people.

And f5ve’s cover also highlights why Perfume wears some of the outfits they do — because the clothing affects the shapes, lines, movements and pictures. Sayaka was the only one in an outfit that I think worked. Kaede’s look was fly as fuck, but the coat was too big and too long and distracted from how well she was hitting the moves. (Side note. Kaede danced the routine the best. The spirit of Nocchi was in that bob). And Miyuu’s outfit kinda fucked up all of her shapes because of how boxy her look was. But the ladies looked great though. This cover was as much of a Diesel commercial as it was a Perfume cover.

f5ve - Electro World (Perfume Cover) | f5ve

f5ve have uploaded a couple of covers over the years, which include big songs from big names, such as Miki Matsubara’s city pop classic “Mayonaka no Door ~ Stay With Me” and Hikaru Utada’s “Hikari”. It’s a really smart way of putting them on the radars of other fanbases. And I don’t think this is the last time we’ll see f5ve cover Perfume.