Hot Cha has become the Tokyo home of slightly askew pop. From the arty, new-wave gyrations of Delaware to Fan Boy There's equally arty jazz inflections, the label attempts to reshape Tokyo's pop landscape in its own eccentric image.
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Every few months or so, Hot Cha director Hiroyuki Kobayashi takes the label's eclectic ethic live with Free Form Freakout. With its diverse slate of bands (some on the label, others not), Freakout is like a snapshot of Tokyo's music underground: a summation of what's hot or happening at any given moment.
The Boredoms seem to be perpetually happening, and, with their endless number of spinoff groups, are a scene unto themselves. This edition of Freakout features a newer Boredoms-related group, Universal Errors.
Asa Chang and Junray will be representing the burgeoning influence of Asian-inspired sounds. Chang is one of Tokyo's foremost (and probably only) tabla players. Their last release, "Bana," welded the lightest of Indian touches to quiet, sometimes whimsical pop compositions that at times resembled Tortoise on downers.
Headliner Buffalo Daughter isn't a Hot Cha band but could easily be at home on the label. BD, with its quirky mix of nostalgic '60s Moog doodles, surf guitar and techno, is, however, the granddaddy (or, given the number of girls in the group, grandmammy) of Japanese avant-pop bands.
The group's live dates have been few and far between of late. Guitarist Sugar Yoshinaga has been exploring heavy metal in a side project, while the others have been attending to their families. The break has done them good. A recent show at London's Japan 2001 festival in May saw them in remarkable form, the usual BD balance between full-throttle rock and quiet, Krautrock interludes served up in a slew of new material. With a new album release slated for November, BD is revving its engines.
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