Shibuya-kei Lives: capsule
Since Pizzicato Five (the quirkiest thing to come out of Japan since Hello Kitty) broke up in 2001, I wondered if Shibuya might be taking a breather on the music scene for awhile. After all, between a sudden trend in amazing groups from places as disparate as Asakusa (on Tokyo's east end) or Osaka (on Japan's west), combined with a resurgence of rock on the Japanese scene, Shibuya - while still a mega-important series of venues and a major club scene - could easily be perceived as a stage rather than a source of new and exciting music.
After all, by the turn of the century, Shibuya-kei - the "Shibuya sound" born from the techno-glitz and neon optimism of Tokyo's trendiest hotspot - seemed quirky, quaint, and antiquated, if not still delightful. Pizzicato Five breaking up seemed at the time to be the death knell for a style of music that, for me, characterized the global optimism of the technological revolution that occurred in the industrialized world during the 90s. Combining elements of 60s go-go music, sampling, rock, electronica and dance (particularly house) with cutesy synths, pop vocals, vocoders, and breakbeats, the genre symbolized a cutting-edge Japan that still refuses to sleep and represents a decade in which Japan's pop-culture was suddenly and grandiosely exported to the world as a whole - especially America. On the darker side, it also embodied the glitz-and-glamor culture of the moneyed kids who make Shibuya their chief haunt.
Indeed, the scene changed, as scenes tend to, and I can't profess to know what happened in a shift of a local scene that occurred on the other side of the world from me. What I CAN profess to know is that Shibuya-kei never died; it just sighed a little bit and took a nap.
Want proof? Listen to capsule, one of the children of Yasutaka Nakata's "contemode" label. Consisting of a Pizzicato Five-like duo of Nakata and vocalist Toshiko Koshijima, capsule couldn't be more influenced by Pizzicato Five if they were trying to be - and they are. Started in 2001 - the year P5 broke up - it feels almost like a continuation of the brilliant evolution P5 began more than 20 years ago. In fact, the first track that comes to mind when listening to capsule's latest album is the spirit of one of P5's most successful domestic singles, "Tokyo wa yoru no shichiji" (packaged outside Japan as "The Night is Still Young") - a song that is, amazingly, 15 years old.
However, as influential as P5 may have been to the Shibuya sound, capsule possesses a more straight-up house and dance style that has only evolved over time. Compare the two selections I've chosen for y'all today; the first, a straight-up badass track called Starry Sky, is from their February 2007 album "Sugarless GiRL," one of the best electronic albums I've heard all year. The second, Uchuu Elevator (Space Elevator) is from 2004's "S.F. sound furniture," and it's considerably more obvious with this track how deepy the 90s Shibuya-kei movement inspired this newer generation.
Another facet of this, as fans of the contemode label will point out, is the gradual fusion between Perfume and capsule; while I don't deny - or decry - this evolution to a more danceable techno style between older tracks like Tokyo Smiling (2005) and newer ones like Sugarless GiRL (2007), you still have to note the retro-futura chic and clear stylistic reference to Pizzicato Five. To be honest, in the six years capsule has been around, their discography has managed to stay as interesting and diverse as, say, the soundtrack to Katamari Damacy, a soundtrack which was a major tribute in and of itself to Shibuya-kei. And that's what makes them as wonderful as Pizzicato Five - the ability to surprise you with each new offering.
So sing no elegies for the Shibuya sound - just dye your hair punk colors, don some in-line skates and knee-socks, play Dreamcast, and do other shit that was popular in 1999. As for me, I'd better go dig my raver pants out of the closet.
-Tommy
