Tokyo's Coolest Sound radio show on La Face B: "Tokyo's Coolest Sound" vol.11

This is Tokyo's Coolest Sound's own radio show, which is featured on La Face B (Facebook page), an Internet radio based in Montréal (Québec, Canada). It brings you some favorite songs and artists that you've read about in these pages. If you couldn't tune in at the times below, or to listen once more, you can still listen anytime on Mixcloud.

This time, enjoy a selection of songs with syncopation, measures of unusual times, and melodies with a touch of surprise. There's no sticking to any specific genre. Let's free our minds from the 4/4!

"Tokyo's Coolest Sound" (vol.11) aired at http://lafaceb.live on November 25, 2020 from 22:00 (EST = Montréal/New York).
* Japan time: November 26, 2020 from noon.

Below is the full tracklist with liner notes.

1. Takeshi Nakatsuka "parkour" (2016)
(Japanese title: 中塚武「parkour」)

The show starts with an addicting jazzy track titled "parkour" by Takeshi Nakatsuka (Qypthone), from his latest album "EYE" (Spotify, (Japan)). Crazy measures as catchy as can be!

Takeshi's most recent work is a tribute song to Pac-Man, released as part of the Pac-Man 40th Anniversary Album "Join The Pac" (Spotify, , YouTube Music).

2. ○△□ (Marusankakushikaku) "Hoshi Ga Furu" (2020)
(Japanese title: ○△□ 「星が降る」)

○△⬜︎ (read "Maru-sankaku-shikaku") is a piano trio led by singer-songwriter Mira Parameter with bassist Mutō Masataka (of band Cherry's) and drummer Yu-ki Nakamura, and also featuring violinist Akie Doi. The follow-up to Mira Parameter's album "Reborn" (2017) and single "Phantasmagoria" (2019, Spotify, ), this album as ○△⬜︎ titled "Hoshi Ga Furu" (Spotify, ) came as a pleasant surprise last spring. Included are some new versions of songs from "Reborn" rearranged in a jazzy style, and also several brand new songs such as this title track.

3. HALLCA "guilty pleasure" (2018)

This song is from HALLCA's first album "Villa" (2019) (Spotify, ).

Aside from HALLCA's latest new songs "Twisted Rainbow" and "Pink Medicine" released in April (Spotify, , YouTube Music), this year has been marked by many collaborations for the singer-songwriter, such as ones withAmamiyaMaako ("Floating Trip"), kiarayui ("Strawberry Moon"), Tsudio Studio ("Promise of Summer"), yuca ("Catch your night") and waiai ("Palm & Radio").

HALLCA performs live on YouTube every Sunday at 21:00 (Japan time), performing her own songs and covers from home (the latest is here). Subscribe to her channel to stay tuned every week. HALLCA has just recently done a live show backed by a full band, which has been released for download (details in Japanese here).

4. conte "Kisetsu Wo Nerae" (2020)
(Japanese title: conte 「季節を狙え」)

conte is a pop band formed of Yōsuke Kurosawa, Nozomu Satō and Shin Rizumu. Two of the members had been active for a while as Orangeade, but changed their name to conte as they welcomed new member Shin Rizumu. "Kisetsu Wo Nerae" (Spotify, ) is their first single under the new name.

Hear more of member Nozomu Satō just a bit later in this episode with Fujin Club, unit which he produces.

5. Mukaju Dan "Girls Band in Times Square" (2020)
(Japanese title: 無果汁団 Mukajū Dan 「タイムズスクエアのガールズバンド」 "Times Square no Girls Band")

Mukaju Dan is a production unit formed of arranger Shock Taro and composer Ton-chan. The two had also been active before as blue marble, and Shock Taro has also been heard playing keyboards for Frenesi live and in recordings. Mukaju Dan's first album "Madoromu" (Spotify, , YouTube Music) has just been released in August, and features guest singer Misaki. Check out the music video for this song below.

Mukaju Dan has also produced voice actress Inoue Honoka's mini-album "First Flight" of which a song can be heard in episode vol.2 of this radio show.

6. Fujin Club "The Gold Rush" (2020)
(Japanese title: 婦人倶楽部「君にやわらぎ」 "kimi ni yawaragi")

Fujin Club is a conceptual unit formed of housewives who live on Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata prefecture. In their songs they sing the daily life and history of their beloved island. The group has an amount of mysteriousness as the singers never reveal their faces. The song "The Gold Rush" (Spotify, , YouTube Music) is their brand new single released digitally earlier in November.

The music of this pop unit with a twist is produced by M. Lemon, aka Nozomu Satō (of conte heard earlier in the show). Nozomu Satō also recently started a solo project named plantar — releasing the song "Moon Flower" in a collaboration with Maika Loubté (Bandcamp, Spotify, , YouTube Music), and then another titled "Plant Ethics" (Spotify, , YouTube). He also produces girl duo Madame Croissant — which just released its 2nd 7" single titled "Lyrical Dance / A.S.C." (Spotify, , YouTube Music) — plus he's a member of unit caméra-stylo.

7. Genius "This is not new." (2016)
(Japanese title: ジーニアス「This is not new.」)

Genius is a group active since 1997, doing distinctive live performances which combine singing and dancing, with a musical-like feel. The unit's leader Taichi Asahi is an active choreographer (making dance moves for Bed In among many others), and he's also part of fun chiptune unit Virtualboys (SoundCloud) which you've heard in previous episodes of this radio show (vol.4 and vol.2). The song "This is not new." is from Genius' album of the same name.

Despite Genius' music not being widely available online, some performances can be seen on YouTube and some songs heard on SoundCloud.

8. Neil and Iraiza "supreme day" (2000)

Here's an old favorite by Neil and Iraiza! "supreme day" was first released on EP "Wasted Time" (2000) and a bit later it was included on album "New School" (2002). The duo formed of Gakuji "Chabe" Matsuda (now of Learners, and also known as cubismo grafico) and Hirohisa Horie (The Cornelius Group) has released not long ago an album titled "Timeless Melodies" (Spotify, ), also available on 10" vinyl.

9. Akane Hosaka "Non disposition" (2004)
(Japanese title: アカネホサカ「Non disposition」)

Akane Hosaka (SoundCloud) is an electronic artist who has for many years used Moog, Stylophone and various other toy instruments and even toys for making her music. This song is from her first album "Electric for small drop channel", released only on CD-R. The artist has been updating her YouTube channel recently, starting with a performance she did for an online festival a few months ago (watch it below!) and also some older songs such as this one.

Her latest release is an EP titled "Loop Music" (available for free download at Bandcamp) for which she has been using a minimal set of a Korg MS-20 Mini and loop pedal. Her SoundCloud is also full of more of those! Her 4th album "pikkonoco" can also be found at Tokyo Recohan.

10. Yucca "echo" (2012)

Yucca is an alternative indie-pop band that's been around since 2003. I always enjoy their sounds every time I stumble upon them again.

Since album "our journey (to anywhere we want)" (2012) — which includes the song "echo" — they have released a few singles. I believe that pretty much all of their music is available on Bandcamp.

11. nimit & co. "Bask" (2018)

nimit & co. is the recent bedroom pop unit of Kunimi Tomoko (Twitter), who is best known as a trumpeter in the groovy collective Wack Wack Rhythm Band (which released this year a brand new album titled "The 'Now' Sounds"). In nimit & co., she finds new directions with lots of synths and a very cool post-rock kind of feel! So far only two songs have been released, as a split-cassette with BANK. Check out the music video for "Bask" below.

This song is also featured on "new generation Shibuya-kei" compilation "Magical Connection 2020" compiled by Sally Kubota, which was just released this week (and only available on CD). Highly recommended!

12. Francis "DELAWARE" (2016)

Francis is the solo project of bassist Makoto Ori (who was previously in The Collectors, and has also played in Original Love). "Delaware" is a song that was released so far only on CD-R in 2016, "2016 Summer EP". It is available on Bandcamp along with several other releases (some of which are in collaboration with new wave gyaru icon Haruko Tajima).

Francis is said to be working on a brand new album which I can't wait for!

13. Ryomei Shirai "Of 8 Minutes 7" (2017)

Ryōmei Shirai is the lead guitarist of Japan's 1975-founded band Moonriders. The song "Of 8 Minutes 7" appears on his solo album "For Instance" (2017) (CDJapan, Amazon) which celebrated his 45th anniversary of becoming a pro musician, and the 40th anniversary of him joining Moonriders.

Since then, his band's name became for instance, and they just released a brand new album last month titled "door that wind" (Spotify, ). Check it out!

Thanks for tuning in!

Find previous radio shows right here. You can also listen directly and follow on Mixcloud.

Below are videos of songs and artists featured in this radio show.

Takeshi Nakatsuka "Ladies and PAC-MAN"