A 58-year-old Japanese man with a dyed blond mullet in a thick, woolly sweater hunches over a series of a dozen keyboards. With a casual confidence his fingers trip through a few bright, up-tempo chords. There's something familiar about the sound — a nostalgia tinged with just a hint of guilty pleasure. His music sounded cheesy even back when it was cool. But admit it, you kind of miss it now ... this sound from a more optimistic time.

The man in the sweater is Tetsuya Komuro and I'm watching him in a video clip on Facebook to announce the release of his first new album in three years: "Jobs #1." Not that Komuro appears that interested in announcing anything, so utterly absorbed is he in his keyboards.

Largely characterized by collaborations with artists on the fringes of the mainstream — dance producer tofubeats, oddball singer-songwriter Seiko Oomori and idol producer Kenichi "Hyadain" Maeyamada — "Jobs #1" looks like a low-key episode in Komuro's gradual musical rehabilitation after his 2008 arrest and subsequent fraud conviction. It's a far cry from the situation 20 years ago.