Tokyo's Coolest Sound

Last Friday was a public holiday, Japan's National Foundation Day, and early evening I went to Roppongi SuperDeluxe for an event organized by multi-talent Ohno Yumiko of Buffalo Daughter. Yumiko is the one who plays Moog/synths as well as bass and she also sings. She's also known as the voice of Caroline Novac in the Doopees, as it was revealed some years ago. This event was the release party for a soundtrack she did for a contemporary dance show titled "The Rainy Table" by Strange Kinoko Dance Company.

I first thought the event was going to be the main dance feature from the soundtrack, with some of Yumiko's projects served aside, but it was rather her projects which took most of the place. Throughout the event whenever songs from the soundtrack were played, a few dancers would appear, sometimes wandering far away from the set. This is the kind of event SuperDeluxe is the perfect place for.

The first band to play was named Two Buffalo Daughters, a sized-down version of Buffalo Daughter with just Yumiko and guitarist suGar Yoshinaga. Yumiko alternated between her synths and bass while singing along with suGar. The two played several BD songs including "I" (from album "I") and "Bird Song" (from "euphotica").

The next unit was named ZAKYUMIKO, featuring an electronics guy named zAk who is engineer for the Fishmans (band which is making a come-back this year). Searching on the net I found out that ZAKYUMIKO have done a few releases and remixes around year 2000. They were accompanied by "noise-drummer" Yamamoto Tatsuhisa who nearly stole the show with his inventive drumming, throwing small metal sticks in the air and hitting them on their way down to produce different tones. The best though was towards the end where he managed to keep up with a crazy fast beat that must have been up around 180 BPM. This wasn't even the last band to play but the audience called for an encore!

Last up was small BIGS, a unit formed of Yumiko and Oyamada Keigo (Cornelius)! They said that they have performed with that unit name a few times before. Cornelius played guitar, and as soon as he sat down his characteristic sounds took over the atmosphere. He used pedals to do various loops, echoes, reversed samples, etc. Again they were accompanied by the same great drummer. They played some more songs from the soundtrack, and towards the end they threw in Cornelius' "Beep It"! That was awesome!

There was no further encore, although everyone came back on stage for final presentations and thanks. A really nice event!

Buffalo Daughter can be caught at an all-night event on February 25 at Club Asia. Also the Fishmans, with zAk mentioned earlier, will be playing their comeback show on May 3 with many guests including Oyamada Keigo.

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr