Label: Matador
Country: Japan
Release Date: 2000.11.14

More post-modern irony a-go-go, sliced and diced from the detritus of late ’60s and early ’70s pop culture by Japan’s swingingest kitsch merchants. “Room With a View”, for example, with its skittering harpsichord and strings and la-la choruses, could be a song Jimmy Webb forgot to give to the FifthDimension, or perhaps the theme from some alternate universe THAT GIRL tv sitcom.
Similarly, the charming flutes andchurning early ’70s bass and drums that undergird “La Guerre Est Finie” make the whole thing sound like music you’d expect to hear in a hazily photographed dialogue-less montage from a period romantic comedy. Oddly, several of the songs are preceded by spoken word intros sampled from Kermit Schafer’s old PARDON MY BLOOPER comedy albums.

Label: Matador
Country: Japan
Release Date: 2006

Godfathers of the Shibuya-kei scene, Tokyo kitsch-pop deconstructionists Pizzicato Five originally began taking shape as far back as 1979, when university students Yasuharu Konishi and Keitaro Takanami first met at a local music society meeting. Agreeing to form a band, they soon recruited fellow society member Ryo Kamamiya; their search for a suitable vocalist proved frustrating, however, and only in late 1984 did they settle on singer Mamiko Sasaki. The first Pizzicato Five single, “Audrey Hepburn Complex,” followed a year later, and in 1986 the group issued their debut LP, Pizzicato Five in Action; a slew of subsequent records established them among the most popular acts in Japan, in spite of a series of line-up fluctuations which saw both Kamamiya and Sasaki exit in 1988, replaced soon after by vocalist Takao Tajima (who in turn quit the following year). Beginning with the 1990 single “Lovers Rock,” Maki Nomiya was the new P5 vocalist; their popularity at home continued to soar, and in 1994 the American indie label Matador agreed to issue the compilation EP Five by Five. Takanami quit shortly after its release, however, reducing the group to a duo; after a pair of other US compilations, Made in USA and The Sound of Music by Pizzicato Five, in 1997 they issued Happy End of the World, the first of their LPs to enjoy simultaneous Japanese and American release. The International Playboy and Playgirl Record followed two years later, and the group’s last proper album of the millennium, Pizzicato Five ™, appeared in November 1999. (by amg)