Wednesday, January 7th 2009
"Shibuya-Kei" is a genre of Japanese pop music that stormed the domestic scene back in 1990's. The movement, represented by great acts like Pizzicato Five, Original Love and Flipper's Guitar (whose member is now known as Cornelius) etc extended their influence over to the Japanese youth fashion and culture scene, and had the power to entirely change the listeners attitude toward music.
Toward the late 1990's the movement began to lose its momentum, but from then on lines like "Shibuya-kei revival" or "Re-assessing Shibuya-kei" often appeared here and there in the Japanese media. The recent hit movie "Detroit Metal City" also put a spotlight on the movement again.
Also, the hottest producer Yasutaka Nakata and his techno-pop music well known via Perfume and Capsule actually originated from the "neo-Shibuya-kei" movement.
Thus, Shibuya-kei undoubtedly remains highly influential in Japanese music scene. Now's the good time for us to recapture what the movement was all about. We picked up a number of Shibuya-kei classic titles to decipher the specific piece of Japanese pop culture.
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CD Singles
Flipper's Guitar
A great pop icon created by the pair of Keigo Oyamada aka Cornelius and Kenji Ozawa (a niece of the renown conductor Seiji Ozawa), F-Guitar epitomise the Shibuya-kei sound that stormed through the Japanese music scene from late 80s to early 90s, along with Pizzicato Five and Original Love.This is a long-selling compilation of their singles.
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CD Head Hakase no Sekaito
Flipper's Guitar
Released in 1991, the title strongly reflects heavy influence from the UK rock scene back then. Fully utilising the "sampling" technique, the title boasts a unique and eclectic pop world combining all sorts of past masters. It gave birth to the guitar pop/ neo-acoustic movement in late 80's,
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CD Singles
Pizzicato Five
Highly praised for its pop sensibilities not only in Japan but more so internationally, Pizzicato Five managed to build its presence in pop scenes around the world. This is a compilation of the songs from 1993 when Maki Nomiya joined the unit.
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CD Love Love And Love
Original Love
Here's the "Standard of 90's" series featuring Original Love who are still much respected by their fellow musicians and music lovers. This is one of their best classics from 1991. Digitally remastered in 24bit by the very own leader of the band Takao Tajima.
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CD Sunny Side Of
Original Love
Released in 1993, this item bears the title of "best album" but content-wise it's pretty much an original album, with 2 new songs, 5 newly-recorded tracks and 2 songs in new versions. Again remastered in 24bit by Takao Tajima.
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CD Tokyo
Sunny Day Service
With the overwhelmingly-convincing songwriting sensibilities and unique dry, wryly characters, Sunny Day Service caught the heart of youths around the world. This is their 2nd album, containing breezy melodies with light, but somewhat melancholic, sound. Gentle as a wind - may be this is what we need more than ever.
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CD Best Sky
Sunny Day Service
Sunny Day Service abruptly broke up in December 2000 with tons of classic titles behind them. From the 7 original albums this title contains the tracks strictly selected by the very own members of the band. A total of 13 tracks puts a celebrant end to the history of the band.
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CD Setagaya, Japan, The Universe
Fishmans
The world is full of mind-numbing news and incidents - we need something peaceful and comfortable, which is just what this title provides. Floating lightly, so fluffy and sweet it could melt you to the bones. The title tells you happiness is about all these trivial things of everyday life.
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CD 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare
Fishmans
The 2nd of this double-disc title is simply amazing. The last single track from the band titled "Yurameki In The Air", their best hit ingle "Ikareta Baby" and "Long Season" that excites you to no end, the album makes you feel that you'd never want to leave their world. And while you listen to their sound you'll be crying, before you know it.
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CD Life
Kenji Ozawa
The title boasts "the poppy side of Oza-Ken". A true masterpiece. Full of unique love songs that just represent what this singer/ songwriter was all about, the title remains influential in the world of Japanese pop.
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CD Setsuna
Kenji Ozawa
All the singles by the singer between 1993 and 1996 in different, unreleased takes are contained in this album. Selected and remastered by Kenji Ozawa himself, the album explains why the artist could be so charismatic as to create one big trend in the Japanese pop scene.
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Still UP on the Front Line! |
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CD Point
Cornelius
The music inside this title consists of true "sounds" of this world - water drops, birds chirping, and noise, noise, noise. But the artist never lets all these elements turn into anything comfortable or organic. Here's 2001 Space Oddity by Oyamada aka Cornelius.
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CD Specialothers
Kahimi Karie
Kahimi's collaborations with other artists, and her contributions used in CF music, game music etc are compiled in this title. All the tracks are not by the artist herself, which makes it all the more unique and objectively tells of the artist's character.
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CD J-pop
Denki Groove
Denki Groove's latest album and the first one in 8 years and 2 months! What do they want to tell us about J-pop is all in here...
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CD Guzen No Album
Schadarapar
The band's singles compilations, from their debut "the end of shine" to the latest "Hoshikuzu Sunset". Yuki's originality fully boasted in this title - a must-have for anyone who's interested in Japanese hip-hop!
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CD Dusk & Dawn
Tokyo No. 1 Soul Set
All the best tracks collected across different labels! The 15 classic tracks never cease to mesmerise any genuine music fans.
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CD Noface Butt 2 Eyes
El Malo
The true don of Shibuya-kei are back after all these long years. The pair are the busiest producers in Japanese pop scene but managed to squeeze out time to produce this album, which turned out to be as full of quality and chaotic as any of their past titles.
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CD Super Roots: 9
BOREDOMS
The band's live materials from their show on Xmas in 2005 reedited. This is actually the first live material officially released by the band. The show kicks off with beautiful choruses by 13 singers, and moves onto their trademark tribal rhythms played by 3 drummers. It consists of just one track extending over 40mins but is fully, sensitively, produced.
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Check out other pivotal Shibuya-Kei titles!
