A neon image of a naked Edo Period prostitute flickers on the screen in time to the blips and beeps of a chiptune track, over which snakes the synthesized voice of a Japanese folk singer; this is Omodaka, aka Soichi Terada, an artist who blends retro digital bleeps with traditional minyo (folk) singing, creating a startling sound all his own.

Mixing two such alien elements together can be tricky, as Terada admits over coffee in Tokyo's Shinjuku district.

"There are many songs where I failed. I'm not exactly sure why; maybe because the elements didn't go well together. For example, when you cook something new, it might be delicious, it might taste awful, but you can't really find out until you taste it."