my initial encounter with takako minekawa was about two years ago, jennifer was visiting from chicago. we're both music fiends, so we made a special point to hit up amoeba in addition to jen's tourist itinerary. she had a laundry list of cd's she wanted to buy, it was pretty cool. much more efficient than i am, as i tend to wander from section to section and can sometimes take hours to decide on one title.
one of the cd's jen picked up was takako minekawa's fun9 (from what i've read, it's supposed to be pronounced as "funk"). driving back, we popped in the disc. she skipped around, trying to find the song that she hoped was on there. i liked the sound of what i was hearing, kinda quirky, avant pop sung sometimes in english, and sometimes in japanese. the song she was looking for (we later found out it was called "fantastic cat") wasn't there, but i was very interested in hearing more takako. after jen left, i eventually picked up most everything i could get my hands on. "fantastic cat" turned out to be on an album called "roomic cube: a tiny room exhibition", which is probably my favorite album.
a couple songs for you to check out. the first is the original version of "fantastic cat". the second is a remix of "sleep song" from the "recubed" ep. "recubed" contains six remixed tracks from the "roomic cube" album.
download: fantastic cat
download: sleep song (portastatic remix)
links:
wikipedia entry
fansite info and pix (but hasn't been updated in ages)
emperor norton records info/pix/sound samples (us label)
polystar site (japanese label, but it doesn't seem like there's much going on there lately)
nick kent's discography (fairly detailed, lotsa info)
6 comments:
There is a problem with doing music based posts on artists I've never heard before.
While it's good and broadening my musical experience, it usually takes me a while to get round to listening to the tracks (work, too early, too late, wife watching telly etc) so that means I can't comment for ages!
Watch this space, I've just downloaded the tracks!
Hmmm... I've just listented to those two tracks and part of me was thinking "what the hell is this?!" but part of me was going "Hmmm... This is kinda cool."
I guess that's the point really. I don't think I'll be buying the album but I've enjoyed those in a strange kind of way!
that's cool, man. you're light years ahead of my friends, who wouldn't even give the time of day to stuff like this.
^_^
Of all the stuff I've downloaded off your site (via yousendit), this has been my favourite.
Funny that.
i really dig her sound, glad you like it.
Why does it not surprise me that Jennifer had a shopping list? :)
xx
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