Indo Rock but from Japan
One of the more intriguing albums that came out last year is Shintaro Sakamoto’s ‘Nama de odorou‘ (ナマで踊ろう – ‘Let’s dance in the raw’), from which the above track was taken, Suupaakaruto no tanjoo (スーパーカルト誕生 – ‘Birth of The Super Cult’).
Sakamoto’s sound is heavily reminiscent of the Dutch Indo Rock, as described in my article about the birth of Dutch pop music: Indo-Europeans from the former Netherlands Indies colony arrived fresh from the boat, bringing their steel guitars and introducing the Dutch to the music of Elvis Presley and Perry Como, which they knew from Australian radio.
This is what Let’s dance raw sounds like: a completely different result from the evolution of the same original musical material that inspired bands all over the world. It’s like the music from the fifties but in a parallel universe in a DC comic book.
Shintaro Sakamoto is a bit of a cult star in Japan, gaining fame with his band Yura Yura Teikoku. I had never heard of him before but I have now and that makes me very happy. You can buy the CD here or download the album here.





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