Throughout 2017 my goal has been to listen to as many new idol songs and watch as many PVs as possible, so I can have a fuller grasp on the idol industry as a whole and help recommend what I think is good music instead of just doing the same “listen to Team Syachihoko please!” song and dance I do every year. One of the biggest surprises of doing this has been Tsuyogari Sensation’s single UG Stepper feat. MIZ, which is almost absurdly good for coming from such an indie group (I hadn’t heard of them before this).

It’s a pretty great rock tune that has a solid energy to it, but the real star is the violin part, provided by violinist MIZ. It works really well and works surprisingly well with the quality rock sound they have going. The instrumentation is great and actually works as a rock song, not watered down rock for idols. It’s a fast-paced song, and has a lot of energy to it. I feel like this song would be really intense and fun live.

While indie idols often have great music, UG Stepper is flat out fantastic and has a polish to it I didn’t expect from a relatively small group like Tsuyogari Sensation. I hope they catch on, because I can definitely see big things for this group in the future.