10 Japanese acts that would have been way way better choices than AKB48 for the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack

I just saw that the super-creepy Japanese pop act AKB48 is on the soundtrack for the video game themed animated film Wreck-It Ralph*. While I suppose it should come as no surprise that such factory processed mega-sleaze could manage to shlerm its way onto the soundtrack (we are talking about Disney here after all), it does send this fanboy into something of a tailspin. Because for God's sake, there are exactly ONE ZILLION better Japanese acts to choose from for this sort of fun, nostalgic, vibrant love letter to video games. (I'm assuming most of that. Haven't seen it.)

So I took two seconds and wrote a list of the first ten acts I could think of. HERE IT IS, in order of relevance and everything, just in case you get bored of listening to incredibly awesome music halfway through like a moron who deserves total junk like AKB48 forced into your slack jaws and down your bloated food-chute.

*Looking up the correct punctuation is the beginning and ending of the research I did for this post.

#1 Sexy Synthesizer



If you get 15 seconds into this and don't know why it's number one then stop reading and smash your damn fool face into a brick wall until it's nap time. COME ON. Sexy Synthesizer is amazing and uses a handful of Namco arcade game sounds in just about every song he writes. Including Galaga which is the best game ever made. Disagree? See above advice.

You can hear his entire ROCK album below.



#2 Plugnet



THIS IS THE COOLEST CHIPTUNE ALBUM EVER CREATED. Why? LISTEN TO THE RAPPING OH MY GOD. Oh, and it should be obvious unless you're a dummy but Sexy Synthesizer had a hand in its creation. GOT MORE SPICES.

#3 Omodaka



OK, so we've been pretty spastic right out of the gate. Maybe what you'd expect. And then BOOOOM. Omodaka. That's right, funk-tastic chip driven funky funk courtesy of a Stevie Wonder bass line and some wickedly weird traditional folk singing layered over the top. If Disney really wanted to blow people's minds, THIS would be playing through Wreck-It (I'm too busy to bother with the Ralph and more) non-stop.

#4 YMCK



"Y! M! C! K! Let's go! Let's go! *clap clap* Y! M! C! K! Let's go! Let's go! *clap clap* Y! M! C! K! Let's go! Let's go! *clap clap* Y! M! C! K! Waaaaaaaa!"

I rest my case. (They also built their own chiptune software.)

#5 Perfume



I mean come on, it's called "Electro World" for crying out loud. And Perfume is HUUUGE. And waaay less creepy than those dead-eyed AKB slaves. Much more family-friendly and all that. And the bass line rules my soul.

#6 The Aprils



Alright, if the over-the-top commercialism is getting to you, then The Aprils are here to wash it away with a blissful wave of super duper cute synthpop. Absolutely non-ironic and just plain happy. All in a way only Japan can pull off. This should be the ending theme to every happy animated film, in my totally factual analysis.

#7 Halcali



Remember when people made good, clever videos? This is one of them! And it has blurred out Super Mario Bros in it! And it's an amazing song! COME ON GUYS JEEEZUS! AKB48? Really? When THIS IS A THING THAT EXISTS???

#8 Capsule



Screw Tron. THIS is what living in a video game from the 2000s would sound like.

#9 Floppy



Sorry if I fell off the chiptune tip for a second there. Back on track! Floppy brings a more rock/punk/weirdo vibe to their tunes. A nice foil to all the happy crappy girls, am I right? Look, we can all get along because chiptunes!

#10 Polysics



BECAUSE I WILL NOT REST UNTIL POLYSICS RULES THE ENTIRE WORLD. Because reasons, that's why.

So there you go. Take your stupid factory-pre-set J-pop and CHOKE.

VIDEO: YMCK "Endless World"

If there's one thing you can always expect from 8bit, chiptune superstars YMCK, it's consistency. Every song sounds essentially the same and every video looks essentially the same as well. But that's not a bad thing! Everything YMCK does is of a very high quality. Their video for "Endless World" is no different. This one tells the story of an intrepid band of RPG characters as they travel the world, all in glorious 8 and 16 bits. It was the ending theme for the anime series Arad Senki - Surappuappupati.

Review: Katamari Forever OST

Now, I'm no video games journalastic historianist, but I seem to remember that the very first Katamari Damacy game was something of a slow burn. In my own circle, it was the very definition of a word of mouth sensation. I had no idea what it was, but I had heard from a gradually growing number of people that it was awesome and amazing and weird and totally addictive and all those other things that it is. I think the thing that finally sold me was hearing about how "Japanese" it was. Well OK then, I guess I'll have to check it out, I said to my dog, who I don't think I had at the time and who I am now retconning into my narrative.

My dog and I found the game for a super low price and we instantly won over by the simple box art and design. Two seconds and it already looked like nothing we had seen before. A few minutes into playing it and we were both eternally lost to its bizarre charms. And by "we" and I mean me and my dog. Seriously, the thought of her playing a video game is so cute and is now distracting my thoughts.

I was personally drawn in more by the soundtrack than the game itself, and I don't think I'm alone there. To say it was a breath of fresh-air would be lazy and boring, so let's call it a bottle of absinthe to a chronic alcoholic with nothing left to live for. I couldn't get enough and I didn't want to hear about anything else until I had consumed it all. Every new installment of the series was a new fix. Sure, it may have never been quite as magical and deleterious as the first time, and I always needed a little more, and I went blind, but I still welcomed them all like an old friend returning with a new bottle of sweet, sweet poison.

Read the full review at Japanator!

YMCK

YMCK are arguably one of the more popular chip-tune bands in the world. Their songs are composed almost exclusively with the NES 8bit music chip. In fact, the group developed their very own software called Magical 8bit Plug that replicates the same sounds as the original Famicom system on modern-day desktops.

They manage to not only make their songs incredibly fun and poppy, but densely layered and complex. They take a page from the standard jazz handbook and make their songs swing like crazy, while at the same time holding true to their more rigid 8bit roots.

Singer Midori's whispery, smooth vocals coat the jazzy beats in pure pop sugar and add to the band's overall sense of childish playfulness. While other twee bedroom-pop bands might settle for simple song structures, YMCK goes much much further in developing their songs. The main melodies may be simple and catchy, but all of the underlying tracks are rather complex and never settle for the easy way out. They are continuously on the move up and down scales and arpeggios, tracing elaborate constellations through low-fi starfields.

YMCK has had a lot of success playing live festivals around the globe, like the Blip Festival in New York. While their core sound has evolved little over the years, the quality of their recordings and complexity of their songs continues to grow, not to mention their rabid fanbase.

BUY YMCK RELEASES HERE

"Go YMCK Go"



Official Site
MySpace

Members:
Midori - Vocal
Yokemura - Music, Lyrics, Arrangement
Nakamura - Music Video

Albums:
Family Music - 2004
FAMILY RACING - 2005
FAMILY GENESIS - 2008
YMCK SONGBOOK: songs before 8bit - 2008
FAMILY COOKING - 2009

"Magical 8bit Tour"


"Milky Blue"


"Panic Racer"


"Cette Annee"

February Calendar - YMCK & Aural Vampire - Katsucon '09

February 13-15
YMCK & Aural Vampire
Katsucon 15 - Arlington, VA

Source - Katsucon

YMCK


Aural Vampire

February Calendar

February 1-4
Blood
US Tour

2/1 - Friday - The Knitting Factory - Los Angeles, CA
2/2 - Saturday - Sam's Burger Joint - San Antonio, TX
2/3 - Sunday - The Middle East - Cambridge, MA
2/4 - Monday - Subterranean - Chicago, IL (also in-store at Mitsuwa marketplace)

Source: J-Rock Revolution - Japanator

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February 9-March 3
Polysics
European Tour

2-09 - London/UK Carling Academy Islington
2-10 - Brighton/UK Barfly
2-11 - Oxford/UK Oxford Academy
2-14 - Amsterdam/Netherlands Paradiso
2-16 - Brussels/Belgium VK Club
2-19 - Berlin/Germany White Trash Fast Food
2-21 - Rome/Italy Zoo Bar
2-22 - Milan/Italy London Loves@Plastic
2-23 - Modena/Italy Vibra
2-24 - Zurich/Switzerland Albert
2-26 - Paris/France Nouveau Casino
2-27 - Orleans/France Astrolabe
2-28 - Besancon/France GeneriQ Festival Le Cylindre
2-29 - Mulhouse/France GeneriQ Festival Noumatrouff

CONTINUES INTO MARCH

Source: Japanator

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February 10
YMCK

Japan! Culture & Hyper Culture
Kennedy Center - Washington DC

FREE SHOW

Source: Japanator

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February 29-April 15
MUCC - D'espairsRay - The Underneath
Rockstar Taste of Chaos US Tour

2/29/2008 - Friday - Fillmore Auditorium (Denver, CO)

CONTINUES INTO MARCH AND APRIL

Source: J-Rock Revolution

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