the chef cooks me -- Saishin Sekai Xīnxīnxiāngyìn（最新世界心心相印）

 

Welcome to the first full weekend of June 2024. It's not too warm or too cool out there so we're in the ideal Goldilocks zone of temperature. Hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start.

Scott from the J-Xmas-based podcast "Holly Jolly X'masu" was the one who first put me onto the band the chef cooks me a couple of years ago. Though I couldn't find their contribution to Xmas on YouTube, I was intrigued enough by Ryo "simoryo" Shimomura's（下村亮介）eclectic group (starting with that band name) to post up a couple of songs by them.

Recently, I came across them again via another song that they had placed as a track in a split CD mini-album "Tidings One" released in December 2016. Apparently, they shared track space with the musical duo Turntable Films with two songs each. For the chef cooks me, one contribution was the track "Saishin Sekai Xīnxīnxiāngyìn"（最新世界心心相印）. Trying to find out how to pronounce those last four kanji which I guessed were Mandarin was a pretty arduous undertaking but I finally used Google Translate's Mandarin to English function to find out. If I'm not mistaken, it means "Latest World Heart-to-Heart" (please let me know if any of you have a better translation).

The music video, created by AC-bu, is just as weird and wonderful as the title and I was left wondering where it was going second-by-second. That's the way to keep those eyeballs focused on the video. 

There will always be YouTube music enthusiasts who have better and more specialized insights into songs than I do, and Baka Broadcast gave his own opinion on "Saishin Sekai Xīnxīnxiāngyìn" back in 2020. He was somewhat split on the song although I feel that he was tending toward the Like side of the fence; part of the reason was that he felt that the melody hewed a bit too closely to Gen Hoshino's（星野源）massive hit "Koi"（恋）which had been released only a few months before the chef cooks me's own tune. To be honest, I only caught the slight similarity when Baka Broadcast made the point itself. I actually compared it more to what one commenter had said: more along the lines of Sakanaction（サカナクション）. I even thought about TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND as I was listening to "Saishin Sekai Xīnxīnxiāngyìn". Personally, the similarity strikes me more as a coincidence than anything else but again, feel free to check out the links for all the artists that I've mentioned in this paragraph and come up with your own opinions.

P.S. For some bizarre reason, Facebook won't allow me to post this song since it apparently goes against their policies. I've asked them for a reason. 

the chef cooks me -- WEEKEND MAGIC NUMBERS/Now's the time (New Feeling)

 

Scott put up a new episode of "Holly Jolly X'masu" last week featuring a compilation album called "We Wish You a Happy" from 2010 which has some new J-Xmas tunes and interesting covers of J-Xmas songs of yore and Christmas numbers from across the pond. So, if you have a chance, give those a gander. None of the acts in "We Wish You a Happy" are bands that I had ever heard of, and there were a few of them whose contributions on the album can be found on YouTube so once KKP's annual Xmas season gets underway again in a few weeks, I'll be happy to cover those.

One band whose Xmas contribution of "silent night" I couldn't find on YouTube was the chef cooks me. The name might sound like a threat from a horror movie involving deranged kitchen masters and frankly, I have no idea why that name came about. However, they formed in 2003 and are still going with the categorization of genre on J-Wiki being pop and techno.

Still, the first track of their debut album from November 2006, "Our Cooking Hour"（アワークッキングアワー）, "WEEKEND MAGIC NUMBERS" sounds more like a party-hearty indies rock tune for the college kids. Written by keyboardist/vocalist Ryo "simoryo" Shimomura（下村亮介）and composed by the chef cooks me, the music video features the band and a couple of chefs having a time of it in the studio. The overall feeling is "What the heck...let's party like there's no tomorrow!". Speaking of that video, the YouTuber izmint uploaded it all the way back in October 2006, so it's gotta be one of the oldest examples on the platform.

Now, let's warp ahead by thirteen years into 2019. By this point, the chef cooks me's lineup had decreased down to just simoryo, who's also been a support member for the bands chatmonchy（チャットモンチー） and ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION. In October of that year, he released his fourth album "Feeling" in which can be found the track "Now's the time (New Feeling)". It's a pretty catchy piano pop piece with some added cool sax, and I like the video which was recorded on one of those old shopping streets that can be found anywhere and everywhere in Japan. I've certainly enjoyed them in Asakusa and Nakano in Tokyo.