Fantasy Doo-Wop with Jintana & Emeralds
Remember the Jintana & Emeralds video I posted last month? I found out about this Tokyo sextet because of their cooperation with Los Retros, the one-man band (consisting of Californian Mauri Tapia), who drenches his funky, mellow music in 70’s nostalgia.
Jintana & Emeralds does the same, but they have a penchant for the fifties. They make their own version of Doo-Wop, mixing it with other genres, notably rockabilly and Enka, the Japanese version of crooner music. As they state themselves about their new album Emerald City Guide: “it is a fantasy trip to Emerald City, a fictional city in a parallel universe, where Doo Wop underwent its own evolution.”
So a nostalgia for a time that the band is fully aware never really existed. They seem to express it with touches of musical sarcasm here and there, lead singer Toi Emeralds (I don’t know what here real name is) laying it on a little to thick sometimes, or guitarist Kashif Emeralds ending a song with a hysterical outro that lasts a tad too long. They are playing.
I think it’s a great album by a great band. I like everything about it, the playful nostalgia, the melodic songs, the mood of it all. (PB)





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