Afrirampo -- Afrirampo（あふりらんぽ）/PIKA☆ -- Taki no Sumika（龍の棲家）

 

Still digesting my breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and Eggo. Therefore, I figure that I should have a pick-me-up for a lazy Sunday.

Well then, how about a round of Afrirampo? It's been a few years since I put up the first article about this duo of guitarist Oni and drummer Pikachu and that was for one of their final entries before breaking up for a little while. This time around, though, I'm going to their early material. In fact, I'm going right to what seems like to be their theme song since it is called "Afrirampo" from their first album "A" released in 2003.

I think part of it is because the video has been up on YouTube at a low resolution, but there is something about it and the song that gives me those nostalgia vibes of the early days of music videos circa the late 1970s. As for "Afrirampo", it's a mixture of aidoru enthusiasm and thrashing rock that reminds me of The Ramones, and from what I hear about their concerts (if commenter Mark Wilson is still reading "Kayo Kyoku Plus", he can chime in once more), I think Oni and Pikachu were perhaps holding back a bit in the video. Not sure if I would have survived being at one of their outings.

As I mentioned in the first article for "Miracle Lucky Girls"（ミラクルラッキーガールズ）, Afrirampo got back together in 2016 following a hiatus of around six years. However, during that time, drummer Pikachu cut her stage name to PIKA☆ and has also been participating as a guitarist known as Moon Mama（ムーン♀ママ）. As PIKA☆, she released an album titled "Taki no Sumika" (Dragon's Lair) in December 2014.

The title track, written and composed by the artist, has already burrowed into my brain right from that opening onomatopoeia "Ooh, ooh, ooh....ahhh...ehhh", and what follows in the trippy music video is something that straddles the line between dream and kinda-sorta nightmare (well, if you're not a fan of eating raw eggs and slime). It's nothing like the Afrirampo rock...more on the side of alternative pop/rock that has some spiritual elements in it.

Afrirampo -- Miracle Lucky Girls（ミラクルラッキーガールズ）

Back in high school, I had an English teacher who was rather eccentric, to say the least. He was quite enormous in mind and body but wouldn't/couldn't teach conventionally. Basically, our classes with him were quite reminiscent of any sitcom. In fact, the other students would talk about any time with our teacher as being more along the lines of a tribal experience rather than a regular lesson. I heard that with one other group of students, he actually re-enacted the march of soldiers from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Hill from "Macbeth" (not sure where he got the branches).

From Nathan Wind at flickr

Speaking of tribal experiences, along with my classes with my dear old English teacher, the other phenomenon to which I would apply those two words is the band Afrirampo（あふりらんぽ）. I first heard about this wild and crazy duo, Oni and Pikachu, in an article from "The Japan Times" back when I was still living there.

From what I've read, Afrirampo performs any sort of rock, as long as it's supremely loud and involves a lot of sonic crashing. And just seeing some of the images through Yahoo and Google, their concerts probably define the word raucous with Oni and Pikachu taking on a day-glo jungle look with perhaps some of their fans feeling that the concerts are clothes-optional events.

From Facebook

Apologies to Facebook if they're not happy about me putting up this photo, but I did want to show readers the image I first saw of Afrirampo in the newspaper, and it's the image that I've always had of the ladies...looking like they doused themselves in fine paprika powder before deciding to play a game of Twister.

I had always wondered about how Oni and Pikachu came up with the band name of Afrirampo, and according to their J-Wiki page, they apparently just saw the name in the corner of a diary belonging to one of their elementary school classmates, and basically it doesn't have any sort of meaning. Good enough explanation for me. Anyways, starting in 2002, their first run lasted until 2010.

"Miracle Lucky Girls" is the first track on their 6th album "We Are Uchu no Ko" which was released in May 2010 as their final studio album up to now. I've seen a few other videos by them and the one other thing I've noticed by them is how often the ladies show off some gleaming smiles. It's kinda like being smiled at by Harley Quinn with the X-Men power of Banshee.

Afrirampo came from back from their hiatus in 2016 and have started touring again in Japan and overseas. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the duo is due to release their newest studio album, "Afriverse" next month. Nope, I'm not a fan but I have to admit that the band has made quite an entrance.

Mind you, if anyone is a fan out there, please let us know your Afrirampo experiences.