The Square -- Kawaii Techno（かわいいテクノ）

 

I've used the situation portrayed in the above video, one of many commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the 1970s and 1980s, to illustrate how "Kayo Kyoku Plus" came to be. Over a decade ago, I decided to use my blogging experience and mesh it with all of those Japanese popular music CDs that I'd collected over the decades. Now, I can also use it to describe the song for this article which almost sounds as if fusion band The Square had bumped into technopop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra and somehow exchanged ideas.

Ironically, this track, "Kawaii Techno" (Cute Techno), was placed as the final song on an album called "Magic" which was released in November 1981 (alas, no "yellow" or "orchestra"). Also, there was no involvement by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏） or Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）at all with The Square's keyboardist, Daisaku Kume（久米大作）, handling everything. It's definitely not the usual The Square fusion piece and I still can't help but hear some of the more whimsical aspects of YMO, especially via their album "Service", although that album wouldn't come out until 1983. 

Another notable thing is the guest appearance of comedian Tamori（タモリ）, who has since become one of the most venerable television celebrities in Japan, on two of the tracks in "Magic" including "Kawaii Techno". He's the one on the trumpet jamming in with the rest of The Square and he's providing some of the weird background vocals near the end.