"We Love Chocolat" is a Celebration of all things Chocolat, a model-turned-singer who moved and shook in the same circles as some Key Figures of the Shibuya-kei scene back in the later half of the 90s and came to be regarded as a "Shibuya-kei Idol" of sorts. This mix highlights some of her main collaborators like Neil & Iraiza who wrote & produced Songs for her.Hideki Kaji, who also wrote and produced quite a few songs for Chocolat, in addition to her eventually going on to record her own versions of songs from his solo career.Akito Katayose, her husband and partner in music is represented with his former Group Great3 and his solo song "Veranda" who has the distinction of being their first proper duet.Other featured Artists/Bands have worked with her to varying extents at some point in her career as Producer(Supercar),support Musicians(Dan Miyakawa) or Songwriter(Kahimi Karie).I made this mix because I Love Chocolat, I Love Making Connections, and I Love Shibuya-kei, and so does Pachinko Overdrive.
1.Chocolat-迷子の鳥
2.Great 3-Oh Baby Plus
3.キリンジ-宇宙のトンネル
4.宮川弾-スタードーム
5.カジヒデキ-A small,good Thing
6.Curly Giraffe-Adolescent Love
7.カヒミ・カリィ-Zoom up
8.Akito-Veranda (feat. Chocolat)
9.Citrus-Blue Mercedes (simply eternal reality)
10.Neil & Iraiza-Our Housing
11.Supercar-Sunshine Fairyland
12.Cubismo Grafico Five-Will you still..(feat. Chocolat)
13.Chocolat-ささやかだけれど、役にたつこと
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ENJOY!!!
P.S.If YOU like to contribute a Guestmix and support your favourite Artists & Songs, please contact me.We will work something out.
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Very pleased that you included Dan Miyakawa. He's amazing!
AntwortenLöschenI'll give it a whirl. Thanks Anne & Percy. :)
AntwortenLöschenWell, I was pleasantly surprised by this mix. I'm not too familiar with Chocolat's work, so this was an educational listen. Of course I have their Kirinji collaboration which was a part of their Omnibus album. Good stuff. Actually, there's another version of that song but I don't have it in front of me -- perhaps by Chocolat? Anyhow, Great 3, Dan Miyakawa, カジヒデキ, etc. were real treats, but track 1 was my favorite overall.
AntwortenLöschenBTW, that Neil & Irazia track, 'Our Housing,' is clearly copying from the Madness track 'Our House.' It even has similar horn stabs. I wonder if it was a tribute?
Anyway, thanks very much for this mix. Now I'm interested to hear more of what Chocolat has to offer. And of course thanks once again to Percy, a true gentlemen, for hosting our mixes.
Always a pleasure
AntwortenLöschenAnd thank _you_, persons Anonymous(I completely agree with you too.. Dan Miyakawa _is_ Amazing) and Mike for both commenting on this post and taking the time to listen to my mix :) And Mike: I'm very pleased this mix served as something of an Education, and that I was able to pleasantly surprise you with my selections~ I, of course, enthusiastically encourage you to check out more things Chocolat has done.. since you liked "maigo no tori" the most, you may want to check out her fourth album, "Chocolate Notes" first, if you can.. it contains an additional collaboration with Rei Harakami(he did the arrangement for "maigo no tori", in addition to remixing the second track on this mix, as a matter of fact...! so if it was the tone you liked most, you'll find at least one other similar track to it on that album), and she also does an.. Interesting cover of the Internets Favorite Song, Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" :D "Chocolate Notes" a bit of a mixed bag though, as a whole.. not everything on it is as downtempo as "maigo no tori" is.. a couple of tracks are though, and it's definitely her most "Mature" sounding album, I think, but... Really, all four of her albums are terrific as far as I'm concerned, so you can't really go wrong with any of them if you're curious about Chocolat in general.
AntwortenLöschenAnd yeah, you're absolutely right about "uchuu no Tunnel".. there is another version of that song, and it was done by Chocolat.. it appeared on her second album, "Hamster".. I'm quite sure Takaki Horigome wrote the music, while Chocolat and her husband Akito wrote the lyrics... Her version is a little bit different from the one Kirinji went on to record, but it's my Most Favorite Song of hers, so I like it a lot myself ♥ Both versions, actually, since Kirinji brought something Special to their take on it as well, of course ♥
"Our Housing", I know! I noticed that straightaway, being a fan of Madness' "Our House", and thought for sure that once I checked the liner notes of the album that song appears on, that Neil & Iraiza(or specifically Hirohisa Horie, who "wrote" Our Housing, I'm pretty sure) would directly acknowledge Madness in some way and give them credit for the composition, or simply the "inspiration" for it, but no! I didn't see a single thing. But you know, that was kind of a common thing to find in Shibuya-kei.. a blurring of what could be considered "borrowing"(or, as someone else put it, "curating") as opposed to "outright theft", and there are any number of examples of songs that have cribbed heavily from other compositions without giving credit to the original(Pizzicato Five and Cornelius, for example, have done this quite a bit)... I don't consider it "theft" or "plagiarism" myself, just... well, I don't know. Not plagiarism, anyway XD Clever reinterpretations, perhaps? Wearing your influences on your sleeve and reworking them to fit your own music. Something like that~ Or! To borrow Percy's explanation, since we have discussed this very topic before, it's simply a very Pop Art way of approaching music composition. Remaking/Remodeling familiar images and sounds. I find it charming, myself~
Thank you, I love Chocolat, too!
AntwortenLöschenAnd thank _you_, both persons Anonymous and Mike for both commenting on this post and taking the time to listen to my mix :)
AntwortenLöschenAlso, Mike: I'm very pleased this mix served as something of an Education, and that I was able to pleasantly surprise you with my selections~ I, of course, enthusiastically encourage you to check out more things Chocolat has done.. since you liked "maigo no tori" the most, you may want to check out her fourth album, "Chocolate Notes" first, if you can.. it contains an additional collaboration with Rei Harakami(he did the arrangement for "maigo no tori", in addition to remixing the second track on this mix, as a matter of fact...! so if it was the tone you liked most, you'll find at least one other similar track to it on that album), and she also does an.. Interesting cover of the Internets Favorite Song, Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" :D "Chocolate Notes" a bit of a mixed bag though, as a whole.. not everything on it is as downtempo as "maigo no tori" is.. a couple of tracks are though, and it's definitely her most "Mature" sounding album, I think, but... Really, all four of her albums are terrific as far as I'm concerned, so you can't really go wrong with any of them if you're curious about Chocolat in general.
And yeah, you're absolutely right about "uchuu no Tunnel".. there is another version of that song, and it was done by Chocolat.. it appeared on her second album, "Hamster".. I'm quite sure Takaki Horigome wrote the music, while Chocolat and her husband Akito wrote the lyrics... Her version is a little bit different from the one Kirinji went on to record, but it's my Most Favorite Song of hers, so I like it a lot myself ♥ Both versions, actually, since Kirinji brought something Special to their take on it as well, of course ♥
"Our Housing", I know! I noticed that straightaway, being a fan of Madness' "Our House", and thought for sure that once I checked the liner notes of the album that song appears on, that Neil & Iraiza(or specifically Hirohisa Horie, who "wrote" Our Housing, I'm fairly certain) would directly acknowledge Madness in some way and give them credit for the composition, or simply the "inspiration" for it, but no! I didn't see a single thing. But you know, that was kind of a common thing to find in Shibuya-kei.. a blurring of what could be considered "borrowing"(or, as someone else put it, "curating") as opposed to "outright theft", and there are any number of examples of songs that have cribbed heavily from other compositions without giving credit to the original(Pizzicato Five and Cornelius, for example, have done this quite a bit)... I don't consider it "theft" or "plagiarism" myself, just... well, I don't know. Not plagiarism, anyway XD Clever reinterpretations, perhaps? Wearing your influences on your sleeve and reworking them to fit your own music. Something like that~ Or! To borrow Percy's explanation, since we have discussed this very topic before, it's simply a very Pop Art way of approaching music composition. Remaking/Remodeling familiar images and sounds. I find it charming, myself~
Anne, every artist borrows ideas. Some like to wear their influences a little more prominently on their sleeves than others, as you said. I don't have a problem with it -- in fact it's a great thing to know what music the artist in question is inspired by. You find this trait a lot more in Japanese music than elsewhere.
AntwortenLöschenAnyway, please look forward to the new mix once Percy drops it later on. Chow.