Pizzicato Five

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Pizzicato Five
Pizzicato Five logo.svg
General information
origin Tokyo , Japan
Genre (s) Easy listening
founding 1984
resolution 2002
Founding members
Konishi Yasuharu (小 西康 陽)
Guitar , vocals
 Takanami Keitarō (高 浪 慶 太郎)
Keyboard
 Kamomiya Ryo (鴨 宮 諒)
Lead vocals
 Sasaki Mamiko (佐 々 木 麻美 子) (until 1987)
Miyata Shigeo (宮 田 繁 男) (until 1990)
Last occupation
Bass, vocals, keyboard
 Konishi Yasuharu
singing
 Nomiya Maki (野 宮 真 貴) (since 1990)
former members
Lead vocals
 Tajima Takao (田島 貴 男) (1987–1990)

Pizzicato Five (often also P5) was a Japanese pop music group , best known in the West in its later formation as a duo of Nomiya Maki ( Japanese 野 宮 真 貴 ) and Yasuharu Konishi (小 西康 陽). Together with the group Flipper's Guitar, they are often credited with leading the Shibuya-kei movement in Tokyo in the 1990s. They are known for their eclectic and energetic compositions that often sound like "new" releases from the late 1960s hipster scene. Their catchphrase "A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular" reflects the ironic but ambitious view of the group. During their 16-year existence, they released at least one album a year, plus various singles and remix albums. The origins of the formation go back to 1979, the actual founding took place in 1984 and the formal dissolution in 2001, even if there was a farewell concert in 2002. Even more than 15 years after their demise as a band, Pizzicato 5 are still guests on the radio, for example in November 2017 in the night lounge of NDR Blue .

Influences and style

The mid-1990s was one of the influences everything from the American pianist and composer Burt Bacharach on the rhythm-and-blues - soul - and funk musician James Brown , the 1960-years- rock band The Turtles and Sly Stone , a Singers , songwriters and music producers from the genres of funk, soul, rock and psychedelic rock to Brazilian music bossa nova , according to Washington City Paper in a concert announcement. The long-forgotten pop group The Free Design , which became known in the 1960s and 1970s for jazzy sunshine and baroque pop and easy listening with a strong vocal component, was also one of the main influences. Band founder Yasuharu Konishi explicitly came out as a fan of the US family project.

According to the German-language online magazine Laut.de , with the resulting easy listening, acid jazz and compositions based on electronic DJ culture, “they became the main representatives of the so-called Shibuya-kei sound, which is named after a Tokyo shopping district and brings together jazz, pop and electro-pop ”. Westword from Denver formulated it similarly : As one of the best Japanese bands, it is also typical for Pizzicato Five to combine 1960s pop, jazz and the Japanese synth-pop Shibuya-kei and thus create their own typical sound without being tied to a typical genre. Stylistically, comparisons were made with the rock band The B-52s , Swing Out Sister and Deee-Lite .

Over the years, the band varied their recipe only minimally. In the meantime, hip-hop beats and samples of classical music were integrated, sometimes the songs were enriched with “house and jazzy drum'n'bass sounds” and sometimes they “oscillated between the Japanese variety of easy listening and modern club pop back and forth [or would come] in the hippy drum & bass ”. In the end, the style of Visions was described as "easy listening till you drop, irrepressible bliss, plastic melodies". Der Standard from Austria put it comparatively briefly : “Japanese pioneers of post-modern easy-listening pop with strong visual borrowings”.

history

The group was founded in 1984 by Konishi and Takanami Keitarō (高 浪 慶 太郎), Kamomiya Ryo (鴨 宮 諒), Sasaki Mamiko (佐 々 木 麻美 子) and Miyata Shigeo (宮 田 繁 男). Miyata left the group shortly thereafter, but the four remaining members decided to keep the name. The band released their first single, "In The Audrey Hepburn Complex," in 1985 and was soon signed to CBS Sony . In 1987 she released her debut album "Couples", which was a flop commercially. When the record company put pressure on the band to find a new singer, Miyata and Sasaki dropped out. With Tajima Takao (田島 貴 男) as the new singer, the group released their second album "Belissima!" In 1988. The next albums "On Her Majesty's Request" (1989) and "Soft Landing on the Moon" (1990) also flopped.

In 1991 Pizzicato Five moved to Japan Columbia / Seven Gods (now Triad Records ). Tajima Takao left the band to work with his own band Original Love and Nomiya Maki joined the band as the third singer. After three singles, with which Maki was introduced as the new voice, the album "This Year's Girl" followed. Inspired by the beginnings of sampling ( De La Souls 3 Feet High and Rising is said to have been a major influence), the group developed a sound that helped kick- start the Shibuya-kei scene. The album featured two of Pizzicato Five's most famous songs: Twiggy Twiggy and Baby Love Child . 1992 saw a change in the musical direction when "Sweet Pizzicato Five" came out. The band gained increasing prominence through their theme songs for television films, which received an additional boost in 1993 when the song "Sweet Soul Revue" was used in an advertising campaign for the Kanebō company . In June of the same year Pizzicato Five released the album "Bossa Nova 2001". Produced by fellow scene colleague Cornelius , it reached number 7 in the charts. In December, the single Tokyo wa yoru no shichiji (東京 は 夜 の 7 時, '7pm in Tokyo') became another hit after it was used as the opening song on a children's television.

The band made their American debut in 1994 with the mini album "5X5" on Matador Records . This was quickly followed by “Made in USA”, a compilation of pieces from the albums previously only released in Japan. Shortly before the album "Overdose" was released, Takanami Keitarō left the band and Pizzicato Five shrank permanently to a duo consisting of Konishi and Nomiya. In February 1995 they went on a tour through Europe and America with 14 stops. With “The Sound Of Music” a new sampler was released in October 1995 , this time with different tracks from albums from the Maki era.

After the release of the album "Romantique 96" and the hit single "Baby Portable Rock", the band switched to another label in 1997 , more precisely: to Readymade Records . There “Happy End Of The World” was released, the only album from which the same version was released worldwide. In an unusual step that caused a surprise in Billboard , the American trade and industry journal for music and entertainment , the US management of the band moved to Japan in 1997 - for the first time in the history of Japanese pop. In 1998 in Japan the album "The International Playboy & Playgirl Record" came out, which in the following year got a new edition with extra tracks in the USA and the rest of the world as "Playboy Playgirl". In 1999 Pizzicato Five released the EP series "JBL Maxisonic" and the album "Pizzicato Five [TM]". It contained tracks from all of these three EPs in very different versions.

In 2000 Matador Records released "Pizzicato Five [TM]" with a few extra tracks as "The Fifth Release From Matador" - that was also Pizzicato Five's last release in the USA. In 2001 the album "Ca et la du Japon" was released and the band announced their breakup. A series of live events followed with guest performances by old members. The group split in March 2002.

Commercial win

The greatest commercial success for Pizzicato Five in the Japanese home market was the 1993 album "Bossa Nova 2001", of which around 300,000 copies were sold. In comparison, the sales figures in the much larger US market were somewhat more modest: At the same time, the compilation “Made in USA” published in 1994 was at the top with 140,000 copies - and 85,000 copies in the entire European market.

reception

On the occasion of the band's breakup, Der Standard from Austria brought out a comparatively short message - in relation to the band's release list - which at the same time does justice to the release policy and the worldwide reception: “In Japan they were generally superstars, in Europe at least under graphics Designers and pop snobs ”.

With The Sound of Music , the second work regularly published in Germany via a record company, Pizzicato Five made their debut on a major label , as Visions noted in the review and suspected in a subordinate clause of commercial interest to the effect that “exotic coded groups” currently exist "Marketing extremely well" and Pizzicato 5 "really has a lot to offer in this regard". They are "the most over-the-top of all retro swingers" and wallow in "the plushest disco grooves under the sun". It is assumed that the artistic approach, in which the “cute superficial Japanese band” is only acted out and uninhibitedly satirized what the origins reveal, should be “more complex, profound and critical in nature”.

With a short, but intricate review, Visions also judged Sister Freedom Tapes :

“ Hardly any other band has earned more respect for itself than Pizzicato Five with the highest degree of insignificance. [...] Pizzicato Five are and will remain designer pop, bloodless, but not boring. Mastermind Konishi recognized in time that there is little point in rolling out easy listening to the limit. Pizzicato Five, the Royal Family of the Shibuya sound, are still miles away from essence and depth. Only the surface on which they swim has changed. "

- Wolf Kampmann : Visions

With Happy End of the World , the third album available in Germany, clear signs of wear were noted:

“ The exotic bonus [...] is over at the latest since advertising, art and music put excessive strain on the image of the likable but crazy Japanese. [...] But the worst thing is that at Pizzicato Five you think you know exactly what a new CD will sound like before you've even heard a note of it. And stagnation at the highest cocktail level [...] also gets right in his assumptions. "

- Jörg Tschirren : Visions

On the other hand, Leeson magazine came to a contrary judgment , from its point of view the album is "again full of small pop gems".

Even with Playboy & Playgirl from 1999, the Visions editors stuck to their critical stance: “The unbearable lightness ... [...] now seems very artificial”, it said at one point, and “you could almost think these tracks were are a boring collection of residual ideas ”elsewhere. The Harvard Crimson's point of view is diametrically opposed: "Fortunately and refreshingly, the masters of kitsch-pop, Pizzicato Five, postmodernly can take a pleasant rollercoaster ride" ( English Thankfully, and refreshingly, kitsch-pop masters Pizzicato Five can still render postmodernism an enjoyably tasteful joy ride ). The Baltimore Sun reviewer goes into the level of song structures in his analysis. The album brings together the two interests of the songwriter Konishi: on the one hand, the range from soul band arrangements to orchestral pieces and on the other hand, DJ music with samples and the beat of drum computers . In the meantime the listener threatens to be overwhelmed by the sound, but since Konishi always has the melody in view, the core of the piece is always preserved.

During the last regular release of Pizzicato Five in Germany, “The Fifth Release From Matador”, the Visions team consistently stuck to its negative point of view: “The boundaries of the Japanese pop cosmos are tight. Despite a few new influences, everything sounds exhausted and broadly slapped. "Much more positive, however, Spiegel Online :" Music as an audiovisual total work of art [...] a designer trip through the brightly colored world of pop culture "

Other reception

Songs by Pizzicato Five have found their way into various films and are also received outside of the classical music magazines. So is Baby Love Child , for example, in The Orphan of the year ( English Leela's Homeworld ), the second episode of the fourth season (4ACV02) of Futurama use. The piece was also put in fourth place on the list of the "20 best children's songs of Pop" by the Rheinische Post .

On a higher number of (more prominent) film appearances, however, comes the song Twiggy Twiggy . B. in 3 Angels for Charlie , an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head and Prêt-à-Porter .

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1987: Couples (CBS / Sony)
  • 1988: Belissima! (CBS / Sony)
  • 1989: On Her Majesty's Request (CBS / Sony)
  • 1990: Soft Landing on the Moon (CBS / Sony)
  • 1991: This Year's Girl (Seven Gods Records)
  • 1991: Hi guys! Let Me Teach You (Seven Gods Records)
  • 1992: Sweet Pizzicato Five (Triad)
  • 1992: Pizzicato Free Soul (Triad)
  • 1993: Expo 2001 (Triad)
  • 1993: Bossa Nova 2001 (Triad)
  • 1992: Pizzicato Free Soul 2001 (Triad)
  • 1994: Overdose (Readymade Records)
  • 1995: Romantique 96 (Triad)
  • 1995: A Quiet Couple (CBS / Sony)
  • 1997: Happy End of the World (Readymade Records)
  • 1998/99: The International Playboy and Playgirl Record (aka “Playboy & Playgirl”) (Readymade Records)
  • 1999: Pizzicato Five (TM) (Matador)
  • 2000: The Fifth Release from Matador (Matador)
  • 2000: Bossanova 2001 (Matador)
  • 2001: Ca Et La Du Japon (Readymade Records)

Singles and EPs (selection)

  • 1985: Pizzicato V in the Audrey Hepburn Complex (12 ″)
  • 1986: Pizzicato Five in Action (12 ″)
  • 1991: 8X5 (single, Seven Gods Records)
  • 1991: This Year's Model (Single, Seven Gods Records)
  • 1994: Baby Love Child (single, matador)
  • 1995: Twiggy Twiggy (Single, Matador)
  • 1996: Sister Freedom Tapes (10 ″, Matador)
  • 1996: Combinaison Spaciale (EP, Triad)
  • 1997: Porno 3003 (EP, Readymade Records)
  • 1998: Playboy Playgirl (single, Readymade Records)

Compilations (selection)

  • 1987: Pizzicatomania!
  • 1994: Made in USA
  • 1995: The Sound of Music by Pizzicato Five
  • 1995: Antique 96 (Sony)
  • 1995: Big Hits & Jetlags 1991-1995
  • 1996: Great White Wonder:: Rare Masters 1990-1996 (Triad)
  • 1999: Big Hits & Jetlags: 1994-1997
  • 2001: Pizzicato Five RIP: Big Hits & Jetlags 1998-2001 (Readymade Records)
  • 2004: Band of the 20th Century: Sony Years, 1986-1990 (Sony)
  • 2006: Pizzicato Five I Love You - Compiled By KONISHI Yasuharu (Columbia / Readymade)
  • 2006: Pizzicato Five We Love You - Compiled By HIRABAYASHI Shin-Ichi (Columbia / Readymade)

Others (selection)

  • 1993: Instant Replay (Live, Triad)
  • 1995: By Her Majesty's Request (Re-Release)
  • 1998: Remix Album: Happy End of You (Remix)
  • 2000: Remixes 2000 (Remix)
  • 2000: In The Bag (Vinyl Boxset, Readymade Records)
  • 2002: In the Mix (Remix)

Videos (selection)

  • 1991: This Year's Girl In Action (Seven Gods Records)
  • 1994: On The Sunny Side Of The Street (Triad)
  • 1994: Readymade TV Volume One (Triad)
  • 1998: Readymade TV Volume Two (Readymade Records)
  • 2000: Readymade TV Volume Three (Readymade Records)
  • 2004: The Band Of 20th Century (7xDVD-V + Box; Readymade Records)

Web links

literature

  • Martin Roberts: 'A new stereophonic sound spectacular': Shibuya-kei as transnational soundscape , in: Popular Music , Vol. 32, Issue 1 (East Asian popular music and its (dis) contents), Jan. 2013, p. 111– 123.
  • Immanuel Brockhaus: Kultsounds: The most defining sounds of pop music 1960-2014 . 1st edition. Transcript, Bielefeld 2017, ISBN 978-3-8376-3891-2 , p. 166 .
  • Jim Bessmann: Matador's Pizzicato Five Fashions Second Set For US In: Billboard . No. 39 , September 1995, pp. 19 ( Google Books ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Pizzicato Five - laut.de-biography. In: laut.de. Retrieved November 15, 2017 .
  2. ^ Pizzicato Five Biography. In: musicianguide.com. March 31, 2001, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c hcl: End of a pop legend: "Pizzicato Five" are no more. In: derstandard.at . April 4, 2001, Retrieved November 15, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Angela Gobelin: Playlist - NDR Info Nightlounge. In: ndr.de. November 11, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2017 .
  5. ^ A b Wyatt Closs: Pizzicato Five. In: washingtoncitypaper.com. March 3, 1995, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Breakthrough thanks to Remix / The discovery of the soft pop group The Free Design , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 15, 2005 ( preview in GBI-Genios ).
  7. ↑ Richard Metzger: 'The Free Design': Once obscure, now legendary easy listening group in rare TV spot. In: dangerousminds.net. May 11, 2015, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Heiko Behr: The Free Design. (No longer available online.) In: intro.de. August 15, 2005, archived from the original on November 16, 2017 ; accessed on November 15, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.intro.de
  9. ↑ Tom Murphy: A Primer on Japan's Strange, Fantastic Musical Exports. In: westword.com. March 27, 2015, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  10. ↑ a b Phua Mei Pin: Album Review: The International Playboy and Playgirl Record by Pizzicato Five - Arts - The Harvard Crimson. In: thecrimson.com. April 30, 1999, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b Jörg Tschirren: - Platten - Pizzicato Five - Happy End Of The World. In: Visions No. 60 October 1, 1997, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  12. ↑ a b tb: Pizzicato Five: Happy End Of The World. In: Leeson, No. 7 November 1, 1997, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  13. ^ A b Nadine Rinke: Pizzicato Five - The Fifth Release From Matador. In: Visions No. 92 October 1, 2000, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  14. ^ Pizzicato Five. (No longer available online.) In: nippop.com. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018 ; accessed on November 16, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nippop.com
  15. ^ A b Steve McClure: Pizzicato Five Moves US Management To Japan . In: Billboard . No. 48 , November 1997, p. 48 ( Google Books ).
  16. ^ Pizzicato Five - The Sound Of Music. In: Visions No. 41 November 1, 1995, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Wolf Kampmann: Pizzicato Five - Sister Freedom Tapes. In: Visions No. 50 October 1, 1996, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  18. ^ Jörg Meier: Pizzicato Five - Playboy & Playgirl. In: Visions No. 75 April 1, 1999, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  19. ↑ JD Considine: Japan's Pizzicato Five overlays samples with originality. In: baltimoresun.com . September 18, 1997, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Katrin Meinke: Pizzicato Five: Overstimulation for Christmas. In: Spiegel Online . November 3, 2000, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  21. ↑ see Futurama - Baby love child. Pizzicato Five on YouTube
  22. ^ "Futurama" Leela's Homeworld (TV episode 2002). In: imdb.com. December 7, 2002, accessed November 15, 2017 .
  23. ↑ The 20 best children's songs of pop , in: Rheinische Post, August 5, 2009 ( preview of GBI-Genios ).
  24. ↑ Pizzicato Five - IMDb. In: imdb.com. Retrieved November 16, 2017 .