LAUSBUB -- Telefon

 

After finding the news about The Vocoders, that side project of POLYSICS, a few days ago, I decided to check out YouTube for any other technopop groups in Japan that I had yet to be cognizant about. Did find a few all over the temporal spectrum.

This duo formed just in the last few years. LAUBSUB which means rascals in German is a duo consisting of guitarist and synthesizer operator Riko Iwai（岩井莉子）and bassist and vocalist Mei Takahashi（高橋芽以）, both from Hokkaido. They were both in the light music club in their high school there and in March 2020, they formed the band despite the fact that due to COVID-19, all club activities had to be cancelled. But that didn't stop their creative energies and they worked on their music from home. Iwai and Takahashi got interested in technopop thanks to the music of Yellow Magic Orchestra that they saw on YouTube, and they were influenced by the old techno stuff and dance music from Germany.

Just a little over a half a year later in October, they won an award for their performance of Iwai's creation, "Telefon", in a prefectural high school music competition. That song would later come out as their 3rd single in December which hit No. 1 on Soundcloud. The above video was the first one that I caught of LAUBSUB, and it grabbed my attention since it was the first time that I'd ever seen a high school pair in uniform doing a techno tune.

But the official music video for "Telefon" is so "City Limits" worthy for its "aged" VHS tape look and the bizarre angle shots of the duo and the city. Meanwhile, Takahashi's soft and whispery vocals are nice to hear but almost get drowned out by the interesting pairing of bubbly techno and the twangy guitar. At this point, I'm assuming that at their ages of 19, they may be in college right now so I'm not sure how much time they can afford for LAUBSUB, but here's hoping that they can also continue with the music. According to their J-Wiki profile, their music has been described as New Wave, technopop and Industrial.