capsule -- Hikari no Disco（ひかりのディスコ）

 

For any City Pop fan, isn't this the video for you? Driving around the Tokyo Bay area at night in a convertible with all of the wonderful lights of the city smiling at you?

And yet, "Hikari no Disco" (Disco of Light) isn't a City Pop song per se. The duo capsule did have their early Shibuya-kei fun with songs like "Music Controller" before ramming into their EDM which I have to admit that I still have yet to explore in greater detail, but perhaps their "Sugarless GiRL" is one example which I've covered. In any case, getting back to capsule's first regular single in several years, "Hikari no Disco" is actually a throwback to the synthpop of the 1980s and the video even tries to emulate that somewhat dated look of VHS tape. However, I'd like to think of that slightly blurry appearance as the viewer's bleary-eyed sight after getting a little too drunk during a Tokyo pub crawl and vocalist Toshiko Koshijima（こしじまとしこ）dutifully driving them home. I say that because I have been in that very situation in the backseat once when I was an undergrad who had multiple Screwdrivers and Creamsicles one night to my later great discomfort and dismay.😵

Of course, Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）prepared "Hikari no Disco" for its release a couple of weeks ago and being a literal student of the 1980s, I've been having a good time with this nostalgia trip, and perhaps a lot of the old Vaporwavers are swooning at this right now. However, for an even better insight into "Hikari no Disco", I refer you to Eddie Lehecka's article about the song on the "Otaquest" site.

I've only known about this anime franchise "Knights of Sidonia"（シドニアの騎士）by name only but it looks to be quite the space opera, and apparently "Hikari no Disco" is the theme song for its second motion picture "Knights of Sidonia: Ai Tsumugu Hoshi"（シドニアの騎士 あいつむぐほし）which came out in theatres on June 4th this year. The other interesting thing that I've learned is that the "Hikari no Disco" music video that I've been swooning over has some resemblance to that of a past capsule song "World of Fantasy" which came out as a digital single over 10 years ago. I will have to definitely take a look at that one, too, and perhaps write about it soon enough.

Anyways, may we all have our chance to take that drive over Tokyo Bay Bridge soon enough once the pandemic is over.