Tokyo's Coolest Sound

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.

Then she introduced her "students", acting as if the stage was a classroom and herself the teacher. After introducing her usual musicians, keyboards, electronics and drums, she said "Today you have two new friends, students transferred from the Inn Japan school." and introduced the guitarist and bassist from this Enban-scene indies rock band she has been hanging out with for a little while. She warned them to wear their school uniform from the next day, as their cheesy rock outfits contrasted with the white shirts and ties of the other band members. A song later these two were told to go "home" and left the stage.

For the rest of the event, VJ team onnacodomo made real-time cute projections made using two cameras, many of small toys on a table, and a lot of imagination. The show went on with songs from her two latest albums ("Cupra" and "Märchen") such as "Marginal", "Leucochloridium", "Computer obaachan", "chikyu kūdōsetsu", "Inflation"... This one was announced as the last song, and everyone left the stage. Not being the last band an encore wouldn't normally be expected, but the two of Inn Japan came back on stage alone and talked about how no other school would accept them and how much they owe to Frenesi sensei, and soon started calling for an encore: "sensei! sensei! sensei!" Frenesi and the band came back on stage for one song, a cover of Inn Japan's "onigashima".

I like how Frenesi always remains mysterious by avoiding having artist photos anywhere, something that's rare in this Internet age. Photos weren't allowed at the show either. New fans who go to her show for the first time must really be excited at finally getting to see her!

Next up was Kaseki Cider, a rapper I wasn't too familiar with except for a few of his more famous songs. He hadn't been very active as a solo artist for a long time and this year will be released his 3rd album coming 13 years after his 2nd, which is a big gap especially considering that he debuted 15 years ago. I was really looking forward to his show and he didn't disappoint. Cider has a really good voice, plus he was backed with a band of 5 talented musicians (guitar, bass, organ, chorus and drums) that sounded really Shibuya-kei. The show consisted of several new songs and a few new covers to be included on upcoming album "Sound Burger Planet" (to be released June 29, stay tuned for details), and some of his older hits too. I'll be really looking forward to hearing the album when it comes out!

Set list (partial): Cider ga tomaranai (new song) / tokimeki Tonight (new cover) / Stay Tune (cover of Totem Rock) / Cider Blues / natsu o Playback (new song) / Skynuts

While Frenesi and Kaseki Cider wouldn't fall into the same category, this was really a wonderfully thought event. Also even though neither quite classifies as Shibuya-kei, I wondered that anyone into both must be someone really into Shibuya-kei.

Frenesi "fukumen chōsain"

Frenesi "furyō Mannequin"

Kaseki Cider "Cider Blues"