Tokyo's Coolest Sound

On Monday June 27 was an event organized by CTO LAB. at Koenji High, a good venue for which I've heard many praises for its good sound and tall stage.

I got there just on time, catching a mini-live by Hitorimisaki who played instrumental electronic music with good beats. He was followed by Tenorierie, a girl who stood in a yellow raincoat (it was a rainy day after all) singing electro-pop songs accompanied only by her Tenorion, adding live parts and solos. She played 3 songs including "yowamushi no hikoshi" that can be heard at MySpace. For a song she added percussions by using scissors to pop small balloons kept in a transparent box by her side.

Hitorimisaki, Tenorierie

Then was (M)otocompo (read "otocompo") that I had been curious about. It's a unit of 5 guys (otoko) put together by Motocompo's Dr Usui. The 4 other guys act like robots who he controls, giving them their cues, although when presenting them he said that the leader is actually the guitarist. :) Usui explained that their style is ska-electro, even joking that they were the only band in the world to combine these styles, though they often sounded more like new wave. The show had an awesome amount of live synths and electronic drums played all while dancing, with also guitar and bass.

They played I believe mainly covers, like Motocompo's "Detective" and "Drive My Car", and closing with a crazy version of K-pop band Girls' Generation's "Gee" driving everyone into laughter (watch a clip from another show below). Here's hoping for an album sooner or later!

(M)otocompo

Next up was Shampoo, a techno-pop who I was unfamiliar with, but checking out their site before the show I found out that they debuted in 1982 produced by P-Model's Hirasawa Susumu. Now it's a unit of two, with singer Orimo Masami and keyboardist KC. They were later joined on stage by a female bassist Romina and also Pevo#1, guitarist from band Pevo. Most surprising to the inexperienced is that the singer has an amputated right leg, and also uses a mysterious instrument named Leg Two, played with a bow, which gets mounted to her right leg when needed. The songs ranged from electro to slower ones with elements from French chanson. They played original songs and also a cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie and Clyde".

Shampoo has a 2nd album titled "Blizzard Drive" that came out a month ago (Amazon, HMV).

Shampoo - Left to right: Romina, Orimo Masami, Pevo#1, KC

Next was an intermede by Uda Michinobu who presented the instrument he invented, the Udar, on which he played a few songs from Final Fantasy. Udar is a hand-held electronic instrument with small tubes spiraled around its core. It produces beautiful tones when the tubes are pressed with the fingers. It's polyphonic and can slide between tones. The instrument is hoped to be released with magazine Otona no Kagaku before the end of the year.

Then came CTO LAB., the super-unit of polymoog (Elektel), Imai Kentarō (The Aprils) and Okada Tōru (The Moonriders). Each member stood in front of their usual arsenal of small electronic instruments, and while sometimes they take time to present each instrument, this time the show was all music. After a few songs, Okada-san took the mic and called Shampoo's Orimo-san on stage, it was to sing her and also Imai-kun a happy birthday! The show was originally planned to be held on Imai-kun's birthday, and it's only after they invited Shampoo to play that they realized the coincidence of the singer's matching birthday. The audience all sang along, one verse for each.

CTO LAB. - Left to right: polymoog, Imai Kentarō, Okada Tōru

The set list included some of CTO's best tracks, and also a session with "Caméra Égal Stylo". For the encore, they did a cover of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" accompanied with Udar, and then ended with "Crash Bandicoot" with Taichi (of Genius) doing his dance.

Set list: 2001: A Space Odyssey / C.DISCO / One more thing / Happy Birthday / Session with Udar / itoko dōshi (Moonriders cover) / shōtokai kōkyōgaku (Moonriders cover) / Flashback
Encore: Smile (Charlie Chaplin cover with Udar) / Crash Bandicoot (with dancer Taichi)

It seems like the Tokyo Outbound event might become a series, and I'm definitely looking forward to what it will bring up next!

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr

(M)otocompo "Gee" (from a show earlier in June)

Shampoo album "Blizzard Drive" promo clip

CTO LAB. "C.DISCO" (live clip from 2009 show)