Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Takkyu Ishino -- gimme some high energy




I heard this virus-level infectious tune by techno wizard Takkyu Ishino(石野卓球) when I was doing my monthly crawl through Tower Records in Shibuya one day over a decade ago. I just kept hearing this bass computer voice intoning the title over and over again through my ears and into my brain before the bouncy techno rumbled in over the store speakers. Gradually, I realized it was by one of the members of Denki Groove(電気グルーヴ).

I tracked down "gimme some high energy" to Ishino's 4th solo album, "Karaoke Jack" (2001). The Ishino sense of humour was there right on the cover with his calm face superimposed over a model's body. And that sense of glee was also evident in the official video for the song, although I can't find it on the Net. It had a couple of men, which included disco-lovin' tarento Papaya Suzuki, in a squash game. Their rather tight gear ends up attracting the two to each other by the end of the video (you really have to be watching). As for the song itself, it sounds like as if it were made to musically accompany a rather impish villain up to no good. Perhaps, it could have made a good theme for Superman's rather less-than-impressive enemy, Mr. Mxyzptlk.



March 23 2018: Thanks to the contribution of a commenter, I found out that back in May 2001, Ishino collaborating with Tavito Nanao, released a single called "Last Scene" with none of the growling "gimme some high energy" vocals as they were replaced by a whispery sexy voice over the relentless and catchy melody. And even better, the commenter led me to the video! However, looking at the Amazon page, the single also has the original "gimme some high energy".

3 comments:

  1. The video is actually for Takkyu Ishino's song Last Scene, not Gimme Some High Energy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there.

      Thanks for telling me. I was always trying to find that hilarious video and it was because I had no idea about the title change (and a slightly different arrangement).

      Delete
  2. You're welcome. Gimme Some High Energy is one of the tracks on the Last Scene CD single. If you search on Youtube under Last Scene, you'll find the video with Papaya Suzuki...

    ReplyDelete

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