Masako-san -- Psynomey

 

I know about some of the mythical creatures in Japanese folklore such as the kappa. However, it was anime that introduced me to the tsuchinoko（ツチノコ）, a supposed short pudgy snake. Maybe it came from someone long ago coming across some maggots on rotting tissue, but that's about as far as I will go into graphic details. The most recent exposure that I've had to anime tsuchinoko was via "Bocchi The Rock!".

The reason that I'm even mentioning tsuchinoko is that not too long ago, I encountered a band named Masako-san（マサ子さん）whose debut album was "Tsuchinoko Danshaku"（つちのこ男爵...Baron Tsuchinoko） from 1989. I had initially assumed that there would be close to no information on this group, but luckily enough, there is a J-Wiki article for this eclectic Tokyo band that had started life as a duo consisting of sisters Mayutan（マユタン）and Sabrina Brunei（サブリナ・ブルネイ）. The name of the band was derived from using the first syllables of the sisters' names and adding the suffix of "-ko" which is often used in Japanese women's given names.

Masako-san was first formed in 1986 with the ladies going for that New Wave sound including that distinct instrument, the Taishogoto, They made their break on TV in the late 1980s through the popular TBS equivalent of the Battle of the Bands, the show "Miyake Yuuji no Ikasu Band Tengoku"（三宅裕司のいかすバンド天国...Yuuji Miyake's Cool Band Heaven）, abbreviated down to "Ika-Ten"（イカ天） where they performed their own arrangement of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head". 

One of the tracks from "Tsuchinoko Danshaku" is "Psynomey" and my impression is that it feels like proto-POLYSICS if led by a couple of sing-songy aidoru. There's even a bit of avant-gardism through the inclusion of that Taishogoto and the robotic atonal delivery by Mayutan and Sabrina.

According to J-Wiki, there was no official announcement but Masako-san stopped their activities in 1991. The sisters would continue helping out in other events until Sabrina's untimely passing at the age of 26 in 1994 due to illness.