Tokyo's Coolest Sound

Back in late 2009 Tomoe asked to let her listen to some Hikashu (MySpace) tracks, specifically "Biro Biro", a classic 1980 released track of theirs because she was going to their concert and guessed that I had it. I was wondering what was up but unfortunately she stopped talking to me not long afterward.

Turns out about a year and a half later I found out about Hikashu & Tomoe and didn't even have to go to Japan to find out when they played New York on May 13, 2011. While Hikashu had done 2 smaller shows in NYC before and Tomoe might have done an unannounced jam thing once, umm, this was more or less their first prominent gig and was sold out with half the ticket sales going to Japan relief.

First on line waiting to get in was a loyal male Shinorer (a person who dresses like teenaged Shinohara) wearing vintage 90s accessories and his female friend whom I think borrowed his "Dream & Machine" era T-shirt, but otherwise contrasted as not being a Shinorer.

On Sunday May 8 was a show of Sally Soul Stew, the band of bassist Sally Kubota (Les 5-4-3-2-1, The Phantom Gift), held at Shinjuku rock venue Red Cloth. Sally Soul Stew isn't quite an active band, it only comes up every once a year or so when the members get together and decide to do a show. At this day it doesn't have so much to do with the album under the same name that was released in 2007, which mainly consisted of Les 5-4-3-2-1 covers.

First on stage was opening act Keme, a singer-songwriter who is more often seen playing crazy guitar solos wearing a short GS dress as Kinoco Hotel's Isabelle-Keme Kamogawa.

Keme, DJ Jimmy Mashiko

Last Saturday, May 7, was another swinging cruise hosted by Nakatsuka Takeshi aboard JICOO, the water bus-turned-floating bar designed by manga artist Matsumoto Leiji. The event was a sort of reprise of the release party held last September, as everyone had loved the atmosphere.

This time, the boat departed an hour earlier at 19:00 (or a bit past 19:00 because of the number of passengers still boarding), and spent the first hour going around Tokyo Bay... I actually failed to pay much attention to the cruise itself, as I chatted with friends while enjoying the DJs who took turns playing mainly house tracks on the futuristic boat. It was unfortunate that Rainbow Bridge was in energy saving mode and wasn't all lit up as it used to be.

Friday May 6 was the first day of a series of shows celebrating the 11th anniversary of venue Astro Hall in Harajuku. It was only my 2nd time there (the first being last month), but I see that many artists I like are playing the venue so I will probably be there more often. This event featured Frenesi and Kaseki Cider. I was there more than anything to see Frenesi, but I was also really looking forward to Kaseki Cider, a rapper who is related in many ways to the Shibuya-kei scene.

Frenesi was first on, entering what looked like a thin stage with room just for herself in front of a large screen. Frenesi wore a pale blue dress with a retro design that seemed borrowed from an early 90's bargain French sport T-shirt. She put on her red shoulder strap keyboard, a Yamaha SHS-10, and started the show with "fukumen chōsain" along with its music video (watch below) with which her dress fit perfectly. The next song was also played together with its music video, "furyō Mannequin", but as soon as it began the screen moved up and revealed an impressive stage with 5 more musicians! The sound was both rock and techno-pop. Frenesi stared straight in diagonal and moved as little as possible, though after each song she would face the audience to say thanks.