(M)otocompo×Kit Cat -- FLASHBACK 50

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Two points I'd like to make here: 1) I've been a sucker for old-time diner décor and food and 2) I don't think Japanese pop culture ever fell out of love with the aesthetics of 1950s Americana. As for the first point, I love having my meat loaf sandwich with gravy along with a tall cold strawberry milkshake in any place that looks like Arnold's from "Happy Days" (and there have been a few places over my life here in Toronto and Tokyo that tried to emulate that style like Toronto's Lick's). Point Two has me remembering all of that 1970s and 1980s weekend Harajuku phenomenon of girls dressing up like teenaged bobbysoxers in poodle skirts and guys decking on the leather and pompadour haircuts as they twisted again. 

And though that Harajuku scene has largely disappeared from the pop culture zeitgeist, the 1950s style has still popped up in Japan here and there on occasion. I encountered one very florid example only recently when I saw this music video of "FLASHBACK 50" by the collaboration between (M)otocompo and now-defunct synthpop unit Kit Cat. A track from the former's one-and-only album thus far "POPLOT TIMES 2016" released in September 2016, although both groups have enjoyed their synthesizers, "FLASHBACK 50" dives headfirst into the good old mid-century rock and roll and pop with some fine harmonies and a catchy arrangement that had me thinking about those Formica counters, jukeboxes and gingham table covers.

(M)otocompo is indeed a spinoff unit from the former MOTOCOMPO electropop group consisting of Dr. Usui and chiho which had its time between 1997 and 2010. From 2010, chiho left while Dr. Usui dropped most of the all-caps and added brackets along with several other musicians. He also opted for a bit more ska and New Wave to his electro. As for Kit Cat, they'd been around since at least 2013 when they had their first live event until they called it a day in 2018. The three members were Jose, Asuka and Eve.

MOTOCOMPO -- Coming Age

 

It's been a while since I've posted on electro pop unit MOTOCOMPO. Back in 2022, I wrote an article on the title track from the 2004 mini-album "Dream Flows", which is something that I compared to Pet Shop Boys and Tommy february6.

Well, back in 1998, MOTOCOMPO was placed with other bands such as Spoozys and Polysics as this music scene known as Tokyo New Wave of New Wave. From that same year, MOTOCOMPO (Dr. Usui and chiho) had come up with a demo tape called "Comin' After MOTOCOMPO" and on the B-side was "Coming Age". It is certainly a nostalgic age that hits me as I listen to "Coming Age"; one filled with sounds and images of Plastics and maybe even some B-52s. If the duo had put out a music video for this one, I could have imagined them pulling off some angular robotic dance moves.

MOTOCOMPO -- Dream Flows

 

History is repeating itself here and now. After writing about the first ending theme for "Doki Doki! PreCure" (ドキドキ!プリキュア), "Kono Sora no Mukou" (この空の向こう), I was intrigued by its songwriter, Dr. Usui. Finding out that he had once been a member of the now defunct band MOTOCOMPO, I wanted to know about that unit and so I ended up taking care of an article with them and their 2007 "The Higher I Fly". 

Well, I'm doing the same thing today after writing about the second ending theme for "Doki Doki! PreCure", "Love Link". I began looking up for any more MOTOCOMPO music. It didn't take too long either because I found "Dream Flows" which is the title track for their November 2004 mini-album. There's something very glacially regal and nearly dance-worthy with "Dream Flows", and I'm getting vibes from all sorts of sources ranging from early Pet Shop Boys to Tommy february6.

I'm also getting a lot of memories from my early 1980s with scenes of emotionless New Romantic and New Wave figures racing through my mind. And now the pounding syn-drums are getting me into New Order mode.

MOTOCOMPO -- The Higher I Fly

After writing an article about a PreCure ending theme song that was more on the synthpop end of things last month, I was curious about the composer, Dr. Usui...not just because of the doctor moniker but also of any other synthpop-related music that he was involved in.

Well, it turned out that he was a part of an electropop unit called MOTOCOMPO that was active between 1997 and 2010. There were a number of members in it, but it seems as if the core was synthesizer operator/vocalist Dr. Usui and vocalist chiho.

According to J-Wiki, in their early phase, MOTOCOMPO was heavily influenced by the New Wave band Plastics, but then in 1998, the band became part of the music scene known as the "Tokyo Newwave of Newwave" alongside Polysics, and another unit known as Spoozys. Some more time down the line, MOTOCOMPO then started embracing an electropop sound in reaction to the electroclash movement that was becoming popular overseas. Finally, the group called it a day in 2010. I've put out the above information straight from the J-Wiki article, not knowing what the differences are among technopop and electropop and electroclash (somebody, please educate me!).

All in all, MOTOCOMPO released a total of 7 albums (a 7-inch, a couple of full albums, three mini-albums and a live album), and with their penultimate release, "Chiptop Lips" in March 2007, came the song of this article "The Higher I Fly". In terms of describing it, I could say that it possesses some cold and some hot: the glacial feeling of that synthesizer operated by Dr. Usui and then the warmth of chiho's vocals letting folks know that she's taking off to newer, higher and better levels. As well, MOTOCOMPO doesn't sound anything like any of the other Japanese technopop bands that I've known such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Polysics or even Denki Groove. Maybe there's something European about it.