“Tsukanoma Yotogi Bito” (or “Give Me Taboo”) by “Yuiko Tsubokura”
From her first full album, the 1986 “Always in Love”. This song is a favourite on the internet for it’s upbeat tone and excellent singing, arising with the recent desire of the internet for 80’s Japanese City Pop. It’s also commonly hear in Future Funk mixes, as the flair of this song is undeniable. There isn’t much information readily available in English about her, however she is apparently still active and did work producing tracks for the notably great sounding “Bubblegum Crisis” and “Kimagure Orange Road”.
As you can probably see I decided to change this from a weekly to a monthly piece because well… I kind of keep forgetting. I first found this band through the soundtrack to “Jet Set Radio Future” and just happened to click on the recommended album. From their a just fell in love, little did I know the band was pretty well known as a friend heard me playing it and said “isn’t this that band with John Lennon’s son in it?”. “No” I replied, “they’re a band I heard in a video game”, only to be shamed through fact checking. Formed by two Japanese women living in New York, their first album “Viva la Woman” was a mild success, all it’s tracks primarily related to food in relation to their band name Cibo Matto being Italian for Crazy Food. Following this they were discovered by Sean Lennon, who set about expanding the band to five members “including himself” and having a second album produced. This was “Stereo Type A” from which this track is taken, of which most songs are excellent (this isn’t even a well known or popular one…), however the band split in 2002 until 2011 when the original two members reformed in Japan to release their third album “Hotel Valentine” to mixed reception before their eventual break up in December of 2017.
Not had much time to write recently and it hasn’t been a great week so I’m choosing the easy route and going with another Catatonia song I’ve been listening to. The 1998 song was their highest charting at #3 in the UK. Surprisingly I’m not that knowledgeable about the “X-files” and neither were the band, the song acts more as a metaphor for relationships seeming alien, in the fight against loneliness you have to figure out the truth behind love.
I like to think I know a lot about music. I’m pretty much always listening to something, as it helps me keep my mood in check, so I’ll probably have destroyed my hearing by the time I’m 40. As such I wanted to do a weekly recommendation from classic rock to 70’s Japanese jazz. I recently remembered this song exists so I’ve been listening to it a lot to help me stay chilled, because surveys say there is no sound more luxurious than when singer Cerys Matthews says “roaaad rrrage”. Though the alt-rock band formed in 1992, it was in 1998 that they made it big with the release of their 2nd album “International Velvet”, which reached number one in the UK album chart while this song in particular reached number 5. The band broke up three years later though as Cerys Matthews went into rehab, though they’re remembered as a band with poetic lyrics about mental health. Plus as I’m almost done learning to drive this song is more relevant.
Geek in the Shell 