Awesome City Club -- Don't Think, Feel

I had just picked up on Sing Like Talking's latest lovely single "Kaze ga Fuita Hi"（風が吹いた日）from YouTube when I saw this video to the side called "Don't Think, Feel" by a band called Awesome City Club. So, I decided to give that a spin. No regrets whatsoever.

"Don't Think, Feel" is the 2nd single by Awesome City Club released in April 2016, and true to the title and the music video starring the band looking like a bunch of happy college kids in GAP wear with a touch of United Colours of Bennetton, it's all about having the fun in the big city. I'm not sure but I think the video was at least partially filmed in tony Aoyama in Tokyo. There's some good ol' disco, some funk and a bit of technopop in there which kinda fits what City Pop has been about. At first, I had assumed that the genre was a direct Japanese translation of AOR but I think it's actually a melange of different genres that can be mixed in various combinations, as long as the finished product has that feeling of life in the metropolis. Encountering Awesome City Club, I'm reminded of Marcos V's article from March 2014 which spoke about some of those hidden urban contemporary gems. It just goes to show that City Pop has continued to survive from the 70s and 80s through folks like this band and other artists such as Junk Fujiyama and Hitomitoi.

Awesome City Club started its journey in 2013 with a major debut in 2015. Its members are atagi (guitar/vocals), Porin (synthesizer/vocals), Morishi (guitar/synthesizer/vocals), Takumi Matsuzaka (bass/synthesizer/rap) and Yukie (drums). All of them came from different bands in the past. "Don't Think, Feel" is also on their 3rd album "Awesome City Tracks 3" which came out within the last couple of weeks in June.