My neck is killing me and my brain is broken but if I don’t write about stupid Japanese synthpop that literally no one on earth cares about, WHO WILL?
Shohjo-Tai
Forever 2001
Flamingo Island
Space Magic
I’ve been working here in Japan for nearly five years now, time flies. But in that time, I’ve rarely had any of my students recommend any music worth a damn to me. Very early on, someone suggested Capsule, and I got way into them. But most of the time, in the rare cases that students do want to talk about Japanese music, they only bother recommending acts like Mr. Children or Yellow Monkey, who are both fine bands I guess, but just sound like bland rock to me: Japanese Coldplays.
But I was teaching an adorable housewife a few weeks ago who knew that I dig older music, and she was all excited to recommend to me this band. She explained to me that her friends who like “techno-pop” all like this group, even though they never registered any major hits. She assumed I would like them too. And she was very much correct.
Shohjo-Tai somehow released eight albums/EPs in just five years. The general consensus seems to be that their best release is From S, a mini-album that features an assist from Haruomi Hosono and Koshi Miharu. Of course, that one’s a bit harder to find so I haven’t picked it up yet. I did find some good stuff though, especially the tracks from this single, which originally came out in 1985. Both “Forever 2001” and “Flamingo Island” are hella fun, bouncy tracks that probably weren’t hits only for the fact that the Japanese singles market was absolutely flooded with tracks like them at the time. The instrumentation is fantastic on both of those tracks, synthesizer saturation all the way, but with some depth as well. “Forever 2001” features some pretty solid guitar, and “Flamingo Island” is booming with dope bass.
This single was produced by Akihiro Shigematsu, a person whose name I had not heard before. According to Discogs, he didn’t do much, but that might just be because his page lacks his full production discography. Hell, he’s not even credited on Discogs with this release. One fairly notable artist he did work with was Junko Ohashi, another lesser-known idol of the 80s whose work has vaulted back into the spotlight thanks to that strange “City Pop” resurgence.
The final track of the three, “Space Magic” is a bit different than the first two. It’s a dance track first and foremost, with the vocals almost secondary. When I first heard it, I was reminded of Koshi Miharu, so I wasn’t surprised to find that she did, in fact, write and arrange the track. It’s a fantastic tune, and could be mistaken for a YMO b-side thanks to its excellent production and electronic arrangements. The girls of Shohjo-Tai are actually barely present on it, just showing up for a smidge of vocals halfway through and then again at the end. It almost sounds like an instrumental remix of another track, but I can’t find one with more vocals anywhere, so I guess this is it.
If you dig this music and want more Shohjo-Tai, check out YouTube, people have uploaded a lot of their best stuff there. And if I can ever get my hand on From S, you bet your butt I’ll be sharing it here. Gimme that Hosono.
