Francis -- VIVA! Coffee Jelly（Viva! コーヒーゼリー）

 

I've known that coffee jelly has been a sweet of desire in Japan for over a century since the Taisho Era but wasn't aware that its origins go back to the United States and England. Apparently, the dessert still gets served in New England but not much farther out than that. I've had coffee jelly on occasion when I was living in Japan. It doesn't pop up in my Top 5 of favourite desserts but it's fine enough with me.

But one figure in the music industry that does love his coffee jelly? It's DJ and New Wave dandy Makoto Francis Ori（小里誠）. I just referred to him in my previous article focusing on aidoru Emiri Kanou（加納エミリ）since she and Francis collaborated on "Sabakaru Emiri"（裁かるゝエミリ）a few years ago.

I am rather curious about Francis and what else he's done. On the way, I learned to my surprise that he'd been the bassist for the bands Original Love and The Collectors. According to his biography on his website, he'd formed The Red Curtain (Original Love's immediate predecessor?) with OL OG Takao Tajima（田島貴男）as the bassist there, and they were apparently making music that couldn't be readily categorized even though the band was known as a psych/garage group.

So, perhaps Francis' penchant for avant pop has continued onto his 2021 "VIVA! Coffee Jelly". And the man does love his coffee jelly when one looks at his Instagram account. With him cooing into the microphone like a satisfied man following some nocturnal activities with a partner, I can hear a bit of Shibuya-kei and music that got me thinking of famous Swiss duo Yello (and it's not just because of the repeated "Oh yeah!") but it's indeed a technopop creation. As commenter Brian Mitchell has stated, Japanese songwriters can base their works on literally anything and everything. So, why not coffee jelly?

Francis feat. Emiri Kanou -- Sabakaru Emiri（裁かるゝエミリ）

 

A few days ago, I caught the teaser for "TRON: Ares" and was intrigued enough by it that I actually and finally watched a copy of the original 1982 film "TRON".

Yep, that's right. I never saw "TRON" in its entirety although of course, the scenes of the light cycles are absolutely iconic. Having lived through that time, I can understand how mind-blowing the concept of a movie that has a good chunk of its running time take place within a computer program was back then, but I was still surprised at how much of the real world was still shown before Flynn got sucked into Digital Wonderland.

Back in late 2010, when I made what would be my final Xmas trip back to Toronto before returning for good, I caught "TRON: Legacy" at the theatre during its first run. To be honest, a combination of confusion since I hadn't seen the first movie and major jet lag had me sleeping for a lot of the movie. I felt a bit less guilty when some of my other friends told me that they hadn't been too impressed by "Legacy". But now here comes "Ares", so let's see how this one turns out. The amazing thing is that Jeff Bridges is back once more in a sequel whose original movie he had starred in 43 years ago.

Well, why don't we start this new business week with something appropriately blippity-bloppity technoppy? I found just the tune. I posted about techno aidoru Emiri Kanou（加納エミリ）for the first time last week via her debut single "Gomen ne"（ごめんね）.

A few years later in 2023, Kanou collaborated with DJ and self-professed New Wave dandy Makoto Francis Ori（小里誠）to release a scintillating single called "Sabakaru Emiri" which could mean "Emiri Under Judgement". Well, I've made my judgement...I like it. I like it for its old-style technopop feeling which had me reminiscing of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）and the collaborations between Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）and Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the early 1980s. While Francis took care of the music and arrangement, Yasuharu Konishi（小西泰治）came up with the lyrics.

Not sure what Emiri is under judgment for, but she looks to be battle ready...like a Kanou of Arc!😤