The all female trio that is Tokyo Pinsalocks was formed in the year 2000 in Tokyo. The historically futuristic millennium was the perfect time for the band to form. Their sound encapsulates both the past and the future.
On the one hand, they seem to be influenced by the early 60s psychedelic scene, with ethereal vocals floating over a sea of bass and jangly drums. On the other hand, they focus heavily on lo-fi keyboard sounds and modern production tricks, which is much more in line with more modern new-wave techniques. There is very little guitar to be heard in their music, other than the occasional backing track to fill in the spaces. Instead they focus on the electro vibe as the main instrument. Their live shows are much more stripped down to the essentials, with the electronics creating just as much of a blissful wave of sound as the fuzzed out bass and trancelike drums. Through it all they are also rather poppy and upbeat. The hooks are downplayed in favor of the more dreamlike qualities, but the rhythms are funky enough to keep things from falling anywhere near jam-band self-indulgence. In fact they are more like a band of slightly strange aliens finding amusement in our primitive earthly instruments.
Tokyo Pinsalocks will also be making an apperance in America in 2008 at Anime Boston.
Plutonium
Official Site
On JapanFiles
MySapce
Members
Naoko - Vocal, Keyboards
Hisayo - Bass, Backing Vocal
Reiko - Drums, Programming
Major Releases
STAY HERE - 2003.7.16
『バブルガール - 2004.3.3
Rhythm Channel - 2005.10.5
Plutonium (EP) - 2007.4.11
Repeat
Plutonium (live)
Rhythm (live)
2 comments:
Zac,
another great writeup of a band I've never heard of. I'll try to track down some of their stuff.
I have a suggestion for your site. You should add an additional tag to bands, as "female vocals", "male vocals", "instrumental", or any combination of the 3. I'm sure your readers would appreciate it - I know I would
Thanks for the advice navitatl. I try and keep the tags to a minimum just to keep things simple and to encourage browsing, but that might be a useful one to have.
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