Dirty Androids & punipunidenki -- Private Sunset（プライベート・サンセット）

 

I'm currently in envy of a few of my friends right now since in a matter of weeks, they will all be visiting Japan for the first time since the pandemic damaged international travel for a few years. With all of the construction that's been going on there, one friend and I have agreed that certain parts of Tokyo will have changed a fair bit, notably Shibuya. I wish that I could go but my finances aren't quite ready to absorb the oodles of Canadian dollars and Japanese yen that it will take for a decent trip.

My last time in Japan was the fall of 2017 so perhaps it was just before the whole City Pop thing exploded onto the digital zeitgeist, and since then, folks have been digging deeper and perhaps discovering that there are subsections within this rather wide umbrella of genres. And one of those sections is the Neo-City Pop that has included acts such as Kirinji（キリンジ）, Hitomitoi（一十三十一）and Ryusenkei（流線型）. I realize that there are folks out there who believe that City Pop should be kept within the borders of the late 1970s and 1980s, but personally, I'm perfectly fine with the Neo tag.

Last fall, I noted the collaboration between electronica artist DÉ DÉ MOUSE & online singer-songwriter and music producer punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）which resulted in "Midnight Dew" (2021). Well, the latter has worked with a variety of other artists including fellow producer Dirty Androids, aka somewhat secretive Daisuke Akitsu. The Yokohama native's speciality is Nu Disco and Future Bass, and together with punipunidenki, they came up with a maxi-single or EP titled "On the West Coastline" also in 2021 (August, to be exact). 

"On the West Coastline" has been categorized by Discogs as a mix of Electro, fusion, Nu Disco and Chillwave. I'm still wrapping my head around the various techno genres but one track on the single, "Private Sunset", as sung by punipunidenki as tenderly as a fork going through filet mignon, simply strikes me as club-friendly and City Pop circa 2020s. It does have that languid coolness and sparkly flavour that the thumbnail of Roppongi shows at the top. Hey, I think it would also go well with that car drive through the megalopolis, too.