Takako Minekawa -- milk rock

 

Happy Monday! Our first heat alert of the year has come out and the air conditioner is now ready to go. As well, the fan is thumping away behind me.

I didn't think that I would ever have to draw upon my education in first-year Linguistics for an article in "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but here we are. The voiceless velar plosive, aka [k], seems to be the sound of choice for Takako Minekawa's（嶺川貴子） "milk rock", a track from her third studio album "Cloudy Cloud Calculator" released in December 1997.

Minekawa's title and lyrics are chock-filled with final [k] words as she marvels at the happy synthpop rhythm leading to that floating white and liquid melody that she refers to in the end. The song and the accompanying video are very child-friendly for all those who need to practice their phonics (well, aside from the Japanese words), and it wouldn't surprise me if the producers of "Sesame Street" hadn't entertained the thought of hiring Minekawa for some of their segments.

A year later in September 1998, a Minekawa EP, "Ximer... C.C.C. Remix" was released which included remixes of tracks from "Cloudy Cloud Calculator". "milk rock" was given a more bossa-based Shibuya-kei sheen by musician Keigo "Cornelius" Oyamada（小山田圭吾）, one-half of Flipper's Guitar. The two would later get married in 2000.

Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong -- She He See Feel

 

I knew that singer-songwriter Takako Minekawa（嶺川貴子）had the flair for somewhat alternative fare such as the quirky "Fantastic Cat" in the latter half of the 1990s, but this one is quite out of this world.

Minekawa joined up with Hawaii-born but Japan-raised guitarist Dustin Wong, formerly of the art-rock band Ponytail, to form the duo Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong and together they released their debut album "Toropical Circle" in 2013 and then a sophomore effort in 2014 called "Savage Imagination". From that second album, I came across this ultra-quirky track, "She He See Feel".

The video alone would probably get attention on any of those music video shows like my old university-age favourite "City Limits" which specialize in the weird and wacky. We get to see a large diorama, spaghetti arms and Minekawa taking on a Pippi Longstocking look as she goes really high-pitched while a familiar cutesy keyboard plays on. I guess that this would be as avant-pop as one can get, and one YouTube commenter compared the performance to anything by the 80s band Chakra. The only entity missing is Meme Man.

Takako Minekawa -- Sleep Song

 

With Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Insomnia", there was always that Nosferatu-like sinister feeling paired with some traditional Japanese vibes filtered through an eerie filter as Chris Mosdell, in a Kafkaesque mood, gives his exhausted opinions on not being able to sleep. If there had been a music video for "Insomnia", it would have borrowed liberally from Dadaism.

I did find a soulmate of sorts for "Insomnia" and it comes as the first track on Takako Minekawa's（嶺川貴子）3rd album "Roomic Cube" from May 1996 (released overseas in February 1997). With a synthesizer "mwoop" (not too good at describing onomatopoeia) leading things off, "Sleep Song" comes across as somewhat less sinister and more whimsical as Minekawa keeps intoning "I can't sleep...let me sleep", sentiments that I have echoed from time to time from my bed at 2 am. Not sure what was eating at the singer when she was coming up with "Sleep Song", but perhaps I can suggest some warm milk with a touch of nutmeg.

As well, I'm kinda wondering about that Shibuya-kei tag that I've put into Labels. On the face of it, "Sleep Song" feels like an avant-pop tune but there's a part of me that also feels as if this might be a gothic Shibuya song, knowing that Minekawa has been identified as being one pioneer in the genre. But I will also let you Shibuya-kei fans make the choice.

In any case, following "Sleep Song" in "Roomic Cube" is "Fantastic Cat", a song that I have already written about.

Fancy Face Groovy Name -- Love Is Yé-Yé (Looking For My Idol)

Ah, Vie de France...along with kaiten sushi, tonkatsu and a can of Max Coffee, any time I visit my old stomping grounds of Tokyo, I just gotta have some sort of meal at this patisserie chain. Whether it's that fancy hot dog with the ketchup or the really buttery danish, I know that I will be gaining many calories there.

For those fans of Shibuya-kei chanteuses, Kahimi Karie（カヒミ・カリィ）and Takako Minekawa（嶺川貴子）, this may make your night. It sure surprised me since I hadn't known that the two of them were actually singing together, however brief the time was.

Back in 1990, at the very beginning of their careers, Karie and Minekawa (under her stage name of Mamene Kirerie) were together as a duo known as Fancy Face Groovy Name. They recorded just one song together titled "Love Is Yé-Yé (Looking For My Idol)" which was created by their genre brethren, Flipper's Guitar, and inserted into a compilation album called "Fab Gear".

I'm not too well versed in the French pop genre of yé-yé, but "Love Is Yé-Yé" strikes me as being the story of Karie and Minekawa as happy-go-lucky teens going through some merry anarchic times in Paris or a particularly bohemian corner of Tokyo. Berets and croissants not included.

Takako Minekawa -- Christmas Wish

After a fairly intense spate of Indian Summer on Sunday, things have become suitably more wintry in the last couple of days. May come with some snow later on tonight, to boot. According to my social calendar, things are starting to shape up for the usual Xmas/year-end get-togethers.

So, appropriately then, let's have a J-Xmas song to start off Tuesday. I found this nice and light Shibuya-kei Yuletide tune from 1995 by whisper-voiced Takako Minekawa（嶺川貴子）called "Christmas Wish". After hearing it a few times now, it has that aural feeling of a sugar-sprinkled baked meringue, and for some reason, I can't quite shake the image of puppies frolicking under the Xmas tree (and I hope that is all they do to the tree).

"Christmas Wish" can be found on Minekawa's 2nd album to be released in Japan, "(A Little Touch Of) Baroque In Winter" which came out in December 1995. It can be considered to be either a mini-album or a maxi-single depending on how you consider four songs together.

Takako Minekawa -- Fantastic Cat

Once again, I have to marvel at some of the things that I have learned in the years of doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Even the little things make me want to go "Oh-HO!". Case in point, the Japanese voice that pops up whenever the Sony Playstation logo appears. The voice belongs to one Takako Minekawa（嶺川貴子）, singer-songwriter.

Now I've heard the name off and on over the years but never bothered to research about her. But then last night, I was listening to one of the "Japan Top 10" podcasts hosted by Ethel about Shibuya-kei (Episode 245: August 2018). There were the familiar sounds of Flipper's Guitar and Pizzicato Five, of course, but then came Takako Minekawa who hadn't automatically registered as someone who was in the Shibuya-kei genre. But from reading her Wikipedia profile, I found out that she loved French pop and the works of Kraftwerk. Incidentally, that is also where I realized her Playstation connection.

"Fantastic Cat" was the song played on the podcast and it's this catchy love child of the theme from the old "Batman" TV show and cute minimalist technopop ditties delivered with a breathy sex appeal, reminiscent of Kahimi Karie（カヒミ・カリィ）....if Karie had grown up as a Valley Girl. Looking at the music video, I would definitely nominate it as a "City Limits" entry.

This ode to this amazing cat was also a track on Minekawa's 3rd album "Roomic Cube" released in May 1996.

I also read on Wikipedia that "Fantastic Cat" had also been used in a commercial for Miller Beer. Happily, I was able to track down that ad and wondered about the possibilities of recursive environments and Dyson Spheres afterwards.