Tokyo's Coolest Sound

Last weekend, on Sunday June 13, was held an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of two bands, Elektel and Pyokn, incidentally formed around the same time. The event was held from 15:00 to 21:00 at the café/lounge area of Sasazuka Bowl, a popular bowling lane, so the show was enjoyed with people bowling in the back.

I got there around 16:00 and chatted with Elektel's Polymoog and Uehara Kenichi (aka Ueken), and I got to touch an iPad for the first time, as they use one in their show.

After some DJing by Magnaroid, Pyokn's set started around 17:00. I wasn't too familiar with Pyokn, although I believe I had seen them (or just the singer maybe) at Usagi-chang Night Fever several years ago. The songs were good electronic pop songs, and singer Miki's vocals were precise. The show made me want to check out their first album "Colorful vibration" (2004). I really liked the song "Halo", hear it at MySpace.

Next up came Elektel, after taking some time to set up all their gear. They wore their orange JAXA uniforms (Japan's NASA) which they said they hadn't used in shows for a long time, but they pulled them out for this 10th anniversary. Polymoog (front) had a considerable amount of instruments, including iPad, iPhone, SX-150, DS-10, Stylophone and more. At the back, Ueken sometimes played a Yamaha EZ-TP electronic trumpet. They were accompanied by Magnaroid, who has been doing support for them for a long time, on Korg Wavedrum.

Still need more iPad action? The next unit up was soundtrackage, a brand new unit of two that was playing their first show. They used no less than 4 iPads, along with an iPhone and a Mac. I'm sure Apple would love them! One of their two tables was nearly wireless, with only one apparent cable coming down to the floor, but the other had a huge amount of cables all attached with tape. Their sound was quite good, electronic with vocoder'd vocals. One song they played actually reminded me of The Aprils.

Last band up was a special unit of formed of Okada Tōru (Moonriders) and Imai Kentarō (The Aprils), both who are part of a new unit called CTO Lab together with Elektel's Polymoog. The two were accompanied by a 3rd guy, I overheard the name "Wonder 3". They just played one song, with Imai-kun on Omnichord (as he plays on the latest Aprils' album) and Okada-san singing "congratulations" through a voice changer to each party celebrating their 10th anniversary, as well as little kids from the audience.

Shortly after that I left to go home, and it's only when I got home that I realized that the DJ who was going to play last was Suzuki Akira (of Usagi-chang Records)..!!! He wasn't advertised on the event's flyer, so he must have been a sort of secret guest?! I'd have went to an event just to see him, and there I missed the best chance. I tortured my mind to no end trying to figure out how I could not have noticed him.

Anyway, I had a great time, and now I think I really want an iPad!

CTO Lab. (known for a little while as "CTO branch") is a new unit which features Elektel's Polymoog, the Aprils' Imai Kentaro, and the Moonriders' Okada Toru, has a first album titled "Okie Dokie!" coming on July 28. There will be a release party on Friday July 16 at Mandala (Minami-Aoyama). Watch original song "C.DISCO" below.

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr