Often Mofun -- CITY DANCER

 

For the most part, I'm not so into art that I actually buy works on the artist's name alone. I would never say anything in a Stewie Griffin voice such as, "Oh, you must NEVER put the Rembrandt next to my Henry Moore!! That is so unnervingly gauche."

However, I have to admit that in recent years, I have taken a liking to the creations by manga artist/illustrator Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）. According to his J-Wiki profile, he's in his mid-70s now but he's been working since 1974 and his most celebrated work is "Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）which ran between 1983 and 1989. I've never read that but I've seen plenty of his illustrations through examples of advertisements and City Pop albums to such an extent that I rather consider him to be the epitome of City Pop artistry. As for why I like his stuff, I'm still exploring that in my mind but first off, I would say it's because of the pure innocence, optimism and luxury of what life may have been perceived to be like back in the economic glory days of Japan in the 1980s.

There's Watase on my Junk Fujiyama（ジャンクフジヤマ） BEST album and I think one of the Omega Tribe releases also has examples of his work. I ended up getting his 2021 calendar through CD Japan last year and it's proudly hanging on my wall. What you see above is the cover and the illustration for January/February.

Anyways, I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce onto KKP, the band Often Mofun. From what I could glean from a few websites including Tower Records, this four-piece unit debuted in 2016 with an EP "Tiny boxes" and it's known to be one of the new breed of City Pop/Shibuya-kei bands that has been making the rounds in Tokyo via the trendy neighbourhoods of Shimo-Kitazawa, Koenji and Yoyogi. Checking the Apple site, Often Mofun has been associated with Awesome City Club and LUCKY TAPES.

In "Tiny boxes", there is the track "CITY DANCER" which pairs vocalist/lyricist Rumi Ishikawa's slightly whispery voice with the jazzy boss (synth?) brass and funky bass/keyboards. The song has a hint of "Just The Two of Us" but since it is an uptempo tune, it's also got that driving groove. The band itself was responsible for the melody. Speaking of the band, the rest of them consist of Hiroki Uzawa on guitar, Kento Mishima on bass and Kanako Mori on drums.

Checking their website, it doesn't look like anything really happened past the release of "Tiny boxes" so I'm wondering if they soon disbanded or decided to just stick with being a club band. If anyone can update me on their whereabouts, I would be most appreciative.